Метка: COTA

Porsche concedes second WEC customer team unlikely in 2025

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Porsche is not expecting a second team to join Proton Competition in running its 963 LMDh in the World Endurance Championship next year.

Thomas Laudenbach, boss of Porsche Motorsport, has revealed that at present there are no other teams in the frame to purchase a 963 for 2025 when the marque’s customer contingent will be reduced on Jota’s switch to Cadillac to become its factory team. 

“It looks like Proton will be the only customer team,” said Laudenbach. “From what I know now this is the most likely scenario.

“But if tomorrow someone rings us, we will sit together and have a look at it — are they a proper team, do they have the proper finance etc? — and then we will make a decision.”

Laundenbach’s comments come at a time when it appears that space in the Hypercar segment of the WEC grid has been freed up for next season. 

Even with the expansion of the field to 40 cars, which will mean a maximum of 22 entries in Hypercar, it looked like the WEC grid was on course to hit capacity. 

Aston Martin will join the series with its new Valkyrie AMR-LMH, while Cadillac and Lamborghini will have to go from one to two cars each in line with new regulations mandating two-car teams from manufacturers.

The uncertainty over the future of the Isotta Fraschini programme after the Italian marque’s decision to call time on its 2024 campaign with the French Duqueine team appears to have opened the door to additional entries. 

But should it return with the LMH Tipo 6 Competizione — and it would also have to go to two cars if it does — the 40-car grid would be full. 

Proton has outlined an ambition to expand its presence in the top class of the WEC from a single 963, which joined the series at Monza in July 2023. 

Thomas Laudenbach, Head of Porsche Motorsport, Andreas Roos Head of BMW M Motorsport

Thomas Laudenbach, Head of Porsche Motorsport, Andreas Roos Head of BMW M Motorsport

Photo by: Andreas Beil

Team boss Christian Ried said at the Austin WEC round last weekend that the chances of an expansion of its programme are 50-50 at the moment, while at the same time ruling out stepping up from one to two 963s in the IMSA SportsCar Championship. 

The Vanwall Racing team, which did not gain an entry for this season after a maiden campaign in 2023 with its Vandervell 680 LMH, has aspirations to return with a reworked version of the car powered by the Pipo twin-turbo V8 formerly used by Glickenhaus. 

The squeeze on WEC entries in Hypercar has been brought into focus by the likelihood of Hyundai joining the series, possibly as early as 2026, while Toyota has also outlined a desire to run a third GR010 HYBRID LMH on a customer basis following the lead of Ferrari and AF Corse this year.

Porsche has ruled out taking that route with the Porsche Penske Motorsport squad, Laudenbach stating that it was not on the table. 

On whether Porsche will again field a third car at the Le Mans 24 Hours WEC round next year, Laudenbach stated that no decision had been taken at this stage.

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WEC unlikely to implement 2025 two-driver line-up ban

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The push to prevent teams in the World Endurance Championship’s Hypercar class running two-driver line-ups from next season appears to have failed.

A proposal to that effect put forward by the WRT BMW squad has not met with favour from the other participants and is likely to be abandoned.

The calls were led by WRT boss Vincent Vosse in reaction to Cadillac’s decision to run only two drivers in the six-hour races this year, but he has conceded that the status quo allowing teams and manufacturers to decide whether to run two or three is likely to be maintained.

It is understood that there will be no change in the sporting rules without the unanimous support of the teams.

“I would be surprised if there is a change,” Vosse told Motorsport.com. “It seems that most of the manufacturers are against imposing a new rule.”

The complications of mandating three-driver line-ups and the raft of rule changes it would require explains why the majority appear to be against a shift.

At the moment there are no drive-time regulations in Hypercar and there is also no provision for a team to nominate a reserve on a race weekend, even at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

#2 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn

#2 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn

Photo by: Andreas Beil

Porsche Penske Motorsport managing director Jonathan Diuguid said: “It would create a lot of complexity in the regulations.

“We carry a spare driver at some races but not every one. Right now if one of our drivers got sick we could make it through the weekend [with two].

“If we start enforcing three drivers it will start causing problems, particularly with event conflicts where we can’t have a spare driver.

“Also these are complicated cars to drive, so you don’t want to be putting in drivers who are under-prepared.

“I don’t like to throw around the S-word — safety — but this is probably something that falls into that category.”

Peugeot Sport technical director Olivier Jansonnie presented a similar argument for keeping the regulations as they are, pointing out that the French manufacturer ran only two drivers in each of its cars at Spa in May when Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne were on Formula E duty in Berlin.

“The solution we found in Spa was a good compromise and we would like to keep the regulations the same,” he explained.

“If you have three drivers and something happens to one you can always do the race with just two. We are pushing to keep the rules as they are.”

#94 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8: Paul Di Resta, Loic Duval

#94 Peugeot Totalenergies Peugeot 9X8: Paul Di Resta, Loic Duval

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Batti Pregliasco, team manager of the factory AF Corse team, also said that the rules “should be kept as they are”.

Also on the table is a second proposal aligned to the one concerning two and three drivers.

This would involve preventing teams and manufacturers from changing drivers over the course of the season, which could have a serious impact on those with drivers also competing in the FE world championship.

“It is important to leave the door open,” said Pregliasco. “We are happy with our six drivers, but I understand that a manufacturer might want to bring in a name driver for Le Mans. Or perhaps a driver might lose performance over the season.”

Vosse argued that it should be mandated in the rules whether a team runs two or three drivers in the shorter WEC races because using two offers a clear benefit in those events.

“Two drivers clearly offers an advantage in terms of track time and team strategy, but we choose to run three because that is how many drivers you need for the Le Mans 24 Hours, the biggest race of the year,” he told Motorsport.com in July.

“I would like it to be clear in the rules how many drivers you have to run, whether that is two or three.”



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Ferrari set for Spa WEC appeal hearing

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The FIA International Court of Appeal will rule on the appeal made by the factory Ferrari AF Corse team after it unsuccessfully challenged the decision of the race stewards to restart the Spa 6 Hours on 11 May beyond the scheduled finish time of the race and therefore the provisional results of the third round of the 2024 WEC.

The protest was rejected by the stewards, but Ferrari’s factory Hypercar team exercised its right of appeal the following week. 

The two factory Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercars were running 1-2 when the race was red-flagged four hours and 13 minutes into the race. 

The need for extensive barrier repairs prevented the race from being restarted within the original six-hour timeframe but the stewards decided to resume the event beyond the scheduled 19:00 finish. 

A further one hour and 44 minutes of racing — the remaining time on the clock at the stoppage minus the time it took for the cars to line up on the start-finish straight — began at 17:10.

Ferrari ended up finishing third and fourth with its #50 and #51 entries after the winning #12 Jota Porsche 963 LMDh and the second-placed #6 factory Porsche Penske Motorsport entry gained time because they had pitted just before the stoppage. 

Ferrari has re-iterated the position outlined by its sportscar racing boss, Antonello Coletta, when it confirmed it was pushing ahead with the appeal. 

He said that he wanted clarification of the rules for the future.

FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams Podium: Race winner #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963: Will Stevens, Callum Ilott, second place #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963: Neel Jani, Julien Andlauer, third place #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, Yifei Ye

FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams Podium: Race winner #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963: Will Stevens, Callum Ilott, second place #99 Proton Competition Porsche 963: Neel Jani, Julien Andlauer, third place #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, Yifei Ye

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Batti Pregliasco, team manager of the AF factory Hypercar team, told Motorsport.com at this weekend’s Austin round of the WEC: “Why are we making an appeal? Because we want to understand if this can happen again because it can affect sporting matters.”

Extending the timeframe in which the Spa race took place was unusual if not unprecedented in the history of the WEC since its rebirth in 2012, but was allowed under the series sporting regulations. 

They state: “If the circumstances so require the stewards may take the decision to stop and/or modify the race time set. 

“This may not exceed the time of the competition [meaning six hours in the case of Spa].”

An explainer sent out by the FIA in the wake of the race stated that the decision to complete the full duration of the race at Spa “ensured sporting fairness for the competitors, who set their strategies for a six-hour race”. 

Ferrari’s protest was ruled inadmissible because the steward’s decision cannot be protested, according to the international sporting code. 

The Jota team has confirmed that it will be represented at the hearing.



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Austin WEC win redemption for Le Mans heartbreak, say Ferrari crew

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The drivers of the winning Ferrari in Sunday’s Austin World Endurance Championship round described the victory as a redemption for their near-miss at the Le Mans 24 Hours. 

Robert Kubica and Robert Shwartzman, who shared the winning AF Corse-run Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar with Yifei Ye, both used the word in reference to the first victory for the Italian car outside of the French enduro. 

“I think we can call it redemption for Le Mans,” said Shwartzman after the Ferrari’s narrow victory over Toyota in round six of the 2024 WEC. 

“That was a big loss for us; it hurt a lot. 

“After our retirement at Le Mans where we were big contenders for so long, I’ve been waiting for a moment like this.

“We were hungry for that win and finally we got it here.”

Kubica called the victory “something special” after the win at Le Mans “slipped out of our hands”. 

The customer or satelitte Ferrari was a frontrunner at Le Mans in June for much of the race, leading a total of 83 laps. 

It was still in contention into the 20th hour despite the 30s penalty Kubica received for his controversial clash with BMW driver Dries Vanthoor during the night when the car retired with a hybrid system failure. 

#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, Yifei Ye

#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, Yifei Ye

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Ferrari admitted that it needed luck to take the victory in the Lone Star Le Mans event at the Circuit of The Americas, but, said Ye, «we made no mistakes today».  

The yellow privateer Ferrari looked destined to finish second behind the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID LMH shared by Mike Conway, Nyck de Vries and Kamui Kobayashi until the last-named was penalised for a yellow flag infringement. 

Kobayashi resumed nine seconds behind Shwartzman after taking a drive-through penalty with 40 minutes to go and was able to close to within two seconds by the end of the six-hour race. 

Shwartzman conceded that the closing laps were “really difficult” for him as he strove to stay ahead.  

“I was starting to lose the grip and the car was quite difficult to drive and sliding around,” he explained.

DID YOU KNOW?

Ferrari took overall victory in two FIA world championship races for the first time last weekend. The AF Corse crew followed up on Charles Leclerc’s Formula 1 victory on home ground in the Italian Grand Prix at Monza earlier in the day. 

Ferrari won 63 races in the original iteration of what can be termed the world sportscar championship and two prior to last weekend, but one had never coincided with an F1 championship triumph before Sunday. 

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Ferrari AF Corse sneaks past Toyota for win

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In a thrilling finish to Sunday’s Lone Star Le Mans six-hour race on the Circuit of The Americas, a customer AF Corse-run 499P driven by Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, and Robert Shwartzman at Austin took the win after a battle with Toyota. All mere hours after Charles Leclerc’s Italian Grand Prix victory at Monza earlier in the day.

Shwartzman inherited the lead from the No. 7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID LMH with 40 minutes of the race to run when Kamui Kobayashi took a drive-through penalty for a yellow-flag infringement. The Japanese driver, teamed with Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries, came out of the pits nine seconds behind the Ferrari but quickly made up ground. Kobayashi was still closing at the end, but ran out of time, ending up just 1.7 seconds behind at the checkered flag.

That closeness emphasized a pulse-pounding late stage of the race. Toyota appeared to have a win in the bag as the race entered its final stages, having managed to get the undercut on the yellow Ferrari, which had led the majority of the first two thirds of the Lone Star Le Mans. 

Kobayashi took the wheel for the final two hours and pulled way from Shwartzman, building up a lead of 10 seconds only to lose it as penance for ignoring yellow flags at Turn 11.

The No. 83 AF CORSE Ferrari 499P Hypercar

The No. 83 AF CORSE Ferrari 499P Hypercar

Photo by: JEP

Third place at COTA went to the Le Mans-winning factory Ferrari crew of Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen, and Antonio Fuoco. They lacked the pace of the sister works 499P of Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessasndro Pier Guidi — but the second 499P posted a rare retirement for the factory team. Driveline issues (that followed a collision with an LMGT3 runner that had damaged a wheel rim) and then a spin while Giovinazzi was lapping one of the Peugeot 9X8 2024 LMHs conspired against the team.

Cadillac took fourth — its best result of the season — with the Ganassi-run V-Series.R shared by Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn.

Alpine followed in fifth in the A424 LMDh shared by Ferdinand Habsburg, Paul-Loup Chatin and Charles Milesi. They fought back from an early penalty after Habsburg locked up on the first lap and was penalized for the contact with Bamber at Turn 12 at the end of the long back straight.

The Signatech-run Alpine benefitted from a late penalty for Kevin Estre in the championship-leading Porsche 963 LMDh for a yellow-flag infringement, which left the Penske-run car co-driven by Laurens Vanthoor and Andre Lotterer sixth at the flag.

The No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R Hypercar of Earl Bamber, and Alex Lynn

The No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R Hypercar of Earl Bamber, and Alex Lynn

Photo by: JEP

Vanthoor, Lotterer, and Estre fought through the field from 14th on the grid — with Estre surviving a clash with Sebastien Buemi in the second Toyota in the race’s fifth hour. Buemi, on an outlap, made contact with the Porsche as he moved over on the back straight to protect his position. He continued to move to the left, resulting in a second contact. The Toyota sustained a rear puncture and bodywork damage, before being given a 30-second stop-go penalty for causing a collision that left the car 15th and last of the classified finishers in Hypercar.

The best of the WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDhs — the No. 20 car driven by Rene Rast, Robin Frijns and Sheldon van der Linde — was also hit with a late penalty of 100s for an energy in infringement. It lost a top-six position as a result, ending up in 13th at the finish.

The LMGT3 class was dominated by the American-flagged Heart of Racing Aston Martin squad. Its Vantage GT3 crewed by Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli, and Alex Riberas crossed the line with almost half a minute in hand over its nearest competitor to take the victory. Bronze-rated James, who’s also Heart of Racing’s team principal, laid the foundation for the squad’s first WEC victory since joining the series last year. The Briton converted pole position in the race lead and raced away from Sarah Bovy in the Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan EVO2.

The No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P failed to finish

The No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P failed to finish

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Heart of Racing’s run to victory was made easier when a clash between the Iron Lynx-run Lamborghini (which Bovy shared with Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting) and the best of the TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R (the No. 81 entry driven by Tom van Rompuy, Rui Andrade, and Charlie Eastwood) took both cars from contention.

That allowed the two Manthey-run Porsche 911 GT3-Rs — running 1-2 in the class points coming into the Austin race — to come through to claim second and third positions. All in spite of receiving a Balance of Performance hit and carrying significant success balance.

Alex Malykhin, Joel Sturm, and Klaus Bachler took second with 30 kg of success ballast, while the sister car of Yasser Shahin, Morris Schuring, and Richard Lietz took third with 25 kg after the Shahin received a drive-through for a track limits violation.

Vanthoor, Lotterer, and Estre still lead the championship on 125 points; Molina, Nielsen, Fuoco and de Vries and Kobayashi tied on 113 points.



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Austin our best chance of a podium in WEC 2024

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Cadillac driver Alex Lynn believes that the US marque has its best chance of the season of making it onto the World Endurance Championship podium at Austin this weekend.

The Briton expressed confidence that the Caddy V-Series.R LMDh run by Chip Ganassi Racing he shares with Earl Bamber can post its most competitive showing this year after qualifying third behind two Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercars. 

Asked by Motorsport.com if he thinks Cadillac is closer to the pace than at any time this season in the WEC, he replied: “I think we are. 

“Our long-run pace is up there with Ferrari and Toyota. 

“I say yes with caution because in previous races we’ve seen good pace over a stint in practice and then it hasn’t worked out that way in the race. 

“But we feel very good about the race: the car has a good flow about it, and we can brake late and overtake. 

“Our straightline speed seems good, better than at Interlagos [in July], which is important, big time.”

#2 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Alex Lynn

#2 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Alex Lynn

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Lynn stated that it was time Cadillac “nailed a good result” in the WEC this year after qualifying in the top four in the previous three races.  

The solo Ganassi entry’s best result came with fourth place first time out at Qatar in March which was lost when the car was disqualified as the strakes on the rear diffuser were found to be higher than was homologated and misaligned as the result of manufacturing irregularities. 

That means the Cadillac’s top result of the season so far came at the Le Mans 24 Hours when Lynn, Bamber and Alex Palou, who joined them for the double-points WEC round, ended up seventh. 

“We want to have a raceday we can be proud of; we haven’t done that this season.”

Lynn’s third place on the grid behind factory Ferrari driver Antonio Giovinazzi and Robert Kubica in the 499P run as a satellite entry by the factory AF Corse team came after he went for a second run in the Hyperpole session. 

He initially set 1m50.836s before getting down to 1m50.680s to jump up from fifth. 

Lynn admitted that he was “happy with my lap until I saw that the Ferrari had done 1m50.3s”.

“I did a cool down lap and threw everything I had at it, full risk, and luckily found about a tenth and a half,” he said.

The Lone Star Le Mans six-hour race at Austin kicks off at 13:00 local time in Texas.

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Alpine concedes definitive Le Mans engine fix unlikely this year

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Alpine appears unlikely to introduce the engine upgrade to overcome the problem that resulted in the early retirement of both its cars at the Le Mans 24 Hours this season.

The French manufacturer revealed at the Interlagos round of the World Endurance Championship in July that a valve issue put its two A424 LMDhs out at Le Mans in June before the six-hour mark. 

Now, it has stated that the new hardware to cure the problem may not be introduced before the end of the season. 

Alpine motorsport boss Bruno Famin told Motorsport.com that it was “most likely” that the revised valves would not come on stream this year. 

“It is the lead time. You need to define what you need, you need [to manufacture] the new part and then you need to validate the new part, which is quite a long process,” he explained.

Alpine is managing the engine protocols to overcome the problem in the absence of the upgrade and believes that the performance of its single-turbo 3.4-litre V6 is unaffected by the issue.

Famin’s comments at Austin were followed by the best qualifying performance by one of the A424s since the car’s WEC debut at the start of this season. 

#35 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen, Charles Milesi

#35 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen, Charles Milesi

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Charles Milesi put the #35 Alpine fourth on the grid, three places better than the marque’s previous best of seventh at Spa in May. 

That came despite the factory Signatech squad missing a collective test at the Circuit of The Americas in July, in which the other seven manufacturers competing in WEC’s Hypercar class took part. 

Explaining the absence, Famin added: «It was organised at the last minute and we had our own plans for testing and decided to stick with that plan. On top of that it was quite costly.”

Milesi believes that the resurfacing of parts of the 3.43-mile COTA track since the test at the end of July and different ambient conditions for race weekend meant that the disadvantage of its absence was reduced. 

“If you test you always have a better start to the weekend, but the conditions were quite different and the asphalt has changed a bit,” he said. 

Milesi stated that he could have put the car he shares with Ferdinand Habsburg and Paul-Loup Chatin second on the grid had he not “messed up the last sector” on his quick lap in the Hyperpole qualifying session for the fastest 10 cars in opening qualifying.

#35 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen, Charles Milesi

#35 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen, Charles Milesi

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

He attributed the improvement in Alpine’s qualifying form to the way the team managed the medium-compound Michelin tyre. 

“We had an issue in Free Practice 1 and missed a bit of running, but we kept improving from there,” he explained. 

“We did a very good improvement from FP3 to qualifying, and being able to put the tyre in the right window was the key for this qualifying performance.”

Milesi went on to say that he was unsure whether Alpine will be able to maintain its qualifying position in Sunday’s six-hour race at Austin. 

“I don’t know if we will have the pace to stay in the top five, but we will be trying,” he said. “Now we are in the right train and it is much easier from there than from the back of the queue.”

The #36 Alpine failed to make it into Hyperpole, Mick Schumacher ending up 13th in the A424 he shares with Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere.



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Giovinazzi beats Kubica to pole as Ferrari locks out front row

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Antonio Giovinazzi claimed Ferrari’s second World Endurance Championship pole position of the season ahead of Sunday’s Austin round. 

The Italian topped the times in the Hyperpole session for the fastest 10 cars in first qualifying by nearly three tenths of a second in the best of the Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercars.

Giovinazzi flew around the 3.43-mile Circuit of The Americas in a 1m50.390s on his first push lap in the 10-minute final qualifying period. 

That gave him the top spot spot by four tenths from the Alpine A424 LMDh of Charles Milesi before a late improvement from Robert Kubica aboard the customer Ferrari. 

Kubica vaulted up the times with a 1m50.667s to make it an all-Ferrari front row for the sixth round of the 2024 WEC. 

Giovinazzi, who was also fastest in the first segment of qualifying, said: “We showed from FP1 that we have a fast car and I did two good laps in qualifying — I am very happy with that. 

“Our race pace also seems pretty good, so let’s finish the job tomorrow.”

Alex Lynn also improved at the death, getting down to a 1m50.680s in the solo Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series.R to claim third spot on the grid for the Lone Star Le Mans six-hour race. 

His lap pushed the Alpine down to fourth after Milesi was unable to improve on the 1m50.751s he set on his first push lap. 

The late improvements relegated the second factory Ferrari qualified by Fuoco, who was on pole at Imola in April, down to fifth, his 1m50.818s leaving him over four tenths back on his team-mate. 

Matt Campbell jumped from ninth to sixth at the end of the session, the Australian getting down to a 1m50.874s in the best of the Penske-run factory Porsche 963 LMDhs. 

Both WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDhs made it through to Hyperpole, the two cars ending up seventh and eighth. 

A 1m50.882s from Robin Frijns just shaded the 1m50.938s posted by Dries Vanthoor in the sister car. 

Kamui Kobayashi was ninth in the only one of the two Toyota GR010 HYBRID LMHs to make the Hyperpole cut, his 1m50.951s making him the last driver to get within a second of Giovinazzi.

The top 10 was rounded out by the customer Jota Porsche qualified by Norman Nato, who was just over a second off the pace on 1m51.532s.

Neither Peugeot 9X8 2024 LMH made it through to Hyperpole despite a late improvement from Mikkel Jensen in the #93 entry. 

The Dane was less than a second off the pace in the opening session with a 1m51.659s, which left him just two hundredths behind 10th-placed Nato. 

The championship-leading Penske Porsche ended up down in 14th place, 1.2s off the pace in the hands of Kevin Estre. 

Aston fastest in LMGT3

#27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3: Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli, Alex Riberas

#27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3: Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli, Alex Riberas

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Ian James and the Heart of Racing Aston Martin squad took its first pole in the GT ranks since joining the WEC last year. 

The HoR team principal clamed top spot in LMGT3 with a 2m05.587s aboard his Aston Martin Vantage GT3, preventing Iron Dames Lamborghini driver Sarah Bovy from taking a third pole of the season. 

She was nearly two tenths behind in the Iron Lynx-run Huracan GT3 EVO2 on a 2m05.759s in the LMGT3 Hyperpole session.

Francois Heriau jumped to third right at the end of the 10-minute session aboard the best of the AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3s courtesy of a 2m06.011s. 

Alex Malykhin took fourth the points-leading Manthey PureRxing Porsche 911 GT3-R despite the German car taking a 15kg hit under the Balance of Performance for Austin and 30kg of success ballast. 

Two-time WEC GTE Am title winner Ben Keating ended up sixth in the only one of the Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3s to progress to Hyperpole on his return to the series. 

A late improvement in the 12-minute opening qualifying session got him through into Hyperpole aboard a car he had not driven until first free practice on Friday.

The green flag will fall on the Lone Start Le Mans at 13:00 local time on Sunday. 

WEC COTA — Qualifying results:

POSITION NUMBER TEAM CLASS TIME Gap
1 51 Ferrari AF Corse HYPERCAR 1:50.390  
2 83 AF Corse HYPERCAR 1:50.667 0.277
3 2 Cadillac Racing HYPERCAR 1:50.680 0.29
4 35 Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR 1:50.751 0.361
5 50 Ferrari AF Corse HYPERCAR 1:50.818 0.428
6 5 Porsche Penske Motorsport HYPERCAR 1:50.874 0.484
7 20 BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR 1:50.882 0.492
8 15 BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR 1:50.938 0.548
9 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing HYPERCAR 1:50.951 0.561
10 12 Hertz Team JOTA HYPERCAR 1:51.532 1.142
11 93 Peugeot TotalEnergies HYPERCAR 1:51.659 1.269
12 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing HYPERCAR 1:51.720 1.33
13 36 Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR 1:51.969 1.579
14 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport HYPERCAR 1:51.984 1.594
15 94 Peugeot TotalEnergies HYPERCAR 1:52.081 1.691
16 99 Proton Competition HYPERCAR 1:52.225 1.835
17 38 Hertz Team JOTA HYPERCAR 1:52.320 1.93
18 63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx HYPERCAR 1:52.426 2.036
19 27 Heart of Racing Team LMGT3 2:05.587 15.197
20 85 Iron Dames LMGT3 2:05.759 15.369
21 55 Vista AF Corse LMGT3 2:06.001 15.611
22 92 Manthey PureRxcing LMGT3 2:06.176 15.786
23 81 TF Sport LMGT3 2:06.287 15.897
24 54 Vista AF Corse LMGT3 2:06.312 15.922
25 59 United Autosports LMGT3 2:06.521 16.131
26 777 D’Station Racing LMGT3 2:06.609 16.219
27 88 Proton Competition LMGT3 2:06.650 16.26
28 31 Team WRT LMGT3 2:07.483 17.093
29 95 United Autosports LMGT3 2:07.112 16.722
30 78 Akkodis ASP Team LMGT3 2:07.184 16.794
31 82 TF Sport LMGT3 2:07.328 16.938
32 77 Proton Competition LMGT3 2:07.431 17.041
33 46 Team WRT LMGT3 2:07.459 17.069
34 91 Manthey EMA LMGT3 2:07.691 17.301
35 87 Akkodis ASP Team LMGT3 2:08.153 17.763
36 60 Iron Lynx LMGT3 2:09.622 19.232



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Cadillac heads Ferrari in ultra-close final practice

Опубликовано от ASPPA IMAGES ANO



Cadillac topped the timesheets in final practice for this weekend’s World Endurance Championship event at Austin.

Alex Lynn set a best time of 1m51.571s in the sole Ganassi-entered Cadillac V-Series.R to put the American marque at the front on its home turf, with Ferrari and Toyota finishing close behind in second and third respectively.

It didn’t take long for lap times to drop in the hour-long session at the Circuit of the Americas, as the mercury dropped from over 30C on Friday to 28.6C on Saturday morning.

Less than 10 minutes after the start of proceedings, Toyota driver Kamui Kobayashi had already bested the time set by Antonio Giovinazzi in the #51 Ferrari in FP2, going seventh tenths quicker on a 1m51.533s.

Giovinazzi responded in the #51 Ferrari on his next flying lap, but his 1m51.767s effort fell two more than tenths short of Kobayashi’s time.

Just a minute later, Lynn took to the top in his Cadillac, edging out Kobayashi’s time in the #7 Toyota by just 0.040s. His lap was not beaten in the remaining 45 minutes of the session, as teams switched their focus to longer runs at higher fuel levels.

Kobayashi dropped to third in the final order behind Antonio Fuoco in the best of the two factory Ferraris, the Italian getting down to within 0.040s of Lynn’s time after leaving his fastest lap until the end of first run.

Robert Kubica put the satellite AF Corse-entered #83 Ferrari 499P into fourth place with a mid-session lap of 1m51.534s, edging out the other works Toyota entry whose fastest lap was set by Sebastien Buemi.

The first five cars were separated by just 0.072s in what was an ultra-competitive session, as Cadillac, Ferrari and Toyota all looked almost undistinguishable over a single lap.

The fastest Porsche was the #12 customer Jota 963 in sixth, courtesy of an early effort of 1m51.712s by Norman Nato.

Giovinazzi ended up seventh in the #51 Ferrari, while Mick Schumacher put the #36 Alpine a solid eighth with a time that was just 0.324s down on Lynn’s best.

Julien Andlauer was ninth in the Proton Porsche ahead of 2009 Formula 1 champion Jenson Button in the #38 Jota, both drivers beating the two works 963 LMDh cars of Kevin Estre and Matt Campbell that finished 11th and 12th respectively — both being half a second off the pace.

Peugeot struggled to 14th and 16th respectively, while BMW had an even tougher session en route to 16th and 18th as they sandwiched the sole Lamborghini entry.

In LMGT3, Daniel Juncadella kept the TF Sport squad at the front with a late time of 2m05.178s in the #82 Corvette Z06.R, beating his own benchmark from Friday by four tenths of a second.

Charlie Eastwood made it a 1-2 for Corvette with a time that was 0.173s slower, while Davide Rigon ended up third in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 on a 2m05.542s.

The late efforts from the trio dropped Gregoire Saucy in the #59 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 to fourth, while Alex Riberas finished fifth in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin that had led a major chunk of the session following an early lap from bronze driver and team owner Ian James.

The final practice session of the weekend was completed without any major interruptions, save for a brief full-course yellow period with 20 minutes left on the clock to retrieve debris from the opening sector.

WEC COTA FP3 Results:



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