***Ferrari secured its first FIA World Endurance Championship triumph since the previous year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, snapping the Italian marque’s longest drought in the championship. The victory came with the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 499P, driven by Nicklas Nielsen, Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina, and it extended the Prancing Horse’s run of securing a major class win in every WEC season on record (14 in total).
***Molina earned his fifth WEC win, tying Fernando Alonso for the most victories by a Spanish driver across all classes.
***Even though the No. 50 Ferrari claimed the win, early on it was pole-sitting No. 51 that looked poised to prevail. Antonio Giovinazzi led the first two hours, but James Calado lost almost half a minute when taking over, as the car wouldn’t start originally.
***Calado explained: “There was a pit-entry driver error that shut the car off for reasons we still don’t know, so I had to perform a power recycle. The first attempt didn’t sync; the second time it did, but we had already lost substantial time and dropped into the midfield, from which it was tough to fight back.”
***The Briton admitted they were battling “with the balance of the car in slow-speed corners” and therefore gambled on Michelin’s Hard compound to gain some stability. Calado, who finished 11th, added: “In the end it didn’t pay off, but given the circumstances we needed to try something different as we knew it would be hard to recover. It was incredibly disappointing.”
***Toyota, which looked on course to win with its No. 7 entry led by Nyck de Vries until a hydraulic failure with 12 minutes remaining, remains without a victory at Circuit of The Americas, in nine attempts. The Japanese manufacturer has yet to win at Qatar (two attempts), the Nürburgring (three attempts) and Mexico City (two), the latter two no longer active on the calendar.
***The No. 7 Toyota’s retirement, along with a 12th-place finish — outside the points — for the No. 20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Rene Rast, Robin Frijns and Sheldon van der Linde, leaves both crews on 75 points and tied for the lead in the drivers’ standings.
***The only Hypercar title contender to make meaningful gains was the No. 8 Toyota trio of Brendan Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi, who added eight points and now sit 11 points behind the leaders.
***While Toyota has extended its Hypercar manufacturers’ lead over BMW by four points to nine, BMW M Motorsport director Andreas Roos acknowledged they benefited from Toyota’s late retirement; a win by the Japanese outfit would have given them a much larger cushion.
***Roos told reporters: “To be honest, you don’t cheer for a rival’s misfortune, but Toyota showed strong pace and ran well; they were just unlucky with a technical issue. For us, it’s the same story as before, and we also have to admit we didn’t perform well today.”
***The No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8, driven by Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello and Kevin Magnussen, finished eighth, recovering from a mid-race spin by the newlywed Swiss driver. The No. 20 BMW, in 12th place, incurred a five-second penalty after an early pit stop following Rast’s collision with the No. 93 Peugeot in Turn 12.
***Roos noted that the numerous early-race strategies made the opening stages confusing, until a mid-race Virtual Safety Car for debris reset the field; he stressed that overall pace deficiencies nevertheless played a major role in the results.
***He added: “To be honest, the race was very difficult to forecast from the start; when you have a quicker car, it’s easier to move forward or stay ahead, which we didn’t manage to do today.”
***Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble, among the only two driver duos in the hot-weather race, came within two seconds of a podium for the Aston Martin Valkyrie, finishing fourth in the No. 007 Heart of Racing Team entry, matching their season-best at Spa-Francorchamps.
***Genesis Magma Racing, meanwhile, achieved its best result yet, seventh place for the No. 17 Genesis GMR-001 driven by Pipo Derani, Mathys Jaubert and Andre Lotterer, who had an early spin.
***A squad left sorely disappointed was the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 trio. Malthe Jakobsen had climbed as high as sixth following the final restart under the safety car amid tough battles, but ended up tenth at the flag. Team principal Emmanuel Esnault told Sportscar365: “Honestly, we could have expected P6/P7 if we’d been in a position to fight to the end. Unfortunately we lacked pace compared with the group that was chasing us.”
***Things were worse for the sister No. 93 machine, which finished last among the Hypercar contenders after the squad bet on rain arriving mid-race — “we’re still waiting for it,” Esnault joked — and did not change tires.
***With portions of the 20-turn circuit damp at the start but no rain falling, two extra formation laps were run behind the safety car before the green light, as everyone started on slicks. “I was glad they did a couple more laps behind the safety car. It was treacherous,” commented LMGT3 winner Ian James. Molina added: “The first five laps were quite tricky in the damp, especially sector three where you really had to watch it.”
***Alpine collected the most points, with both of its A424s finishing inside the top five. “Honestly I’m a bit frustrated because today we had the pace to do more,” said Nicolas Lapierre, the team’s sporting director. “But that’s how it goes; we have to accept it. It was a difficult race in terms of strategy, and the drivers did well. Overall it’s nice to be back on the podium.”
***Although the extreme heat initially suggested Hypercar teams might switch to the Michelin Hard tire, all teams stayed on the Medium compounds for the entire race, except for a brief stint by Ferrari. Michelin endurance program manager Pierre Alves explained: “We supported several teams here in July when track temperatures were higher and teams used the Hard compound more. This time we demonstrated the versatility and consistency of the Medium tire, which completed two stints comfortably and allowed every squad to plan confidently.”
***Heart of Racing earned its first-ever double podium in WEC competition with the No. 27 entry of James, Zach Robichon and Mattia Drudi, who completed the final stint without air conditioning, securing class victory — a milestone two years after the team’s first series win, which also featured FIA Bronze-rated James.
***The win kept COTA as a perfect venue for LMGT3 wins by British brands, following United Autosports’ triumph with a McLaren 720S GT3 Evo last year.
***It marked the first time since Qatar 2024 that two Aston Martins stood on the LMGT3 podium together and the first WEC race since Fuji 2022 where the double podium included a class victory. The No. 27 Aston’s win gave the manufacturer its 11th success at COTA from 15 attempts.
***UK-born James, who now lives in Phoenix, became only the ninth driver with an American racing license to earn multiple WEC victories, while it was the first career wins for both Drudi and Robichon.
***Robichon joined Parker Thompson and Paul Dalla Lana as only the third Canadian driver to win in the WEC.
***As with Hypercar, the LMGT3 points table hardly moved, with only one car in the top 11 scoring points, the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo.
***The No. 33 Corvette’s fourth-place finish, crewed by Rovera, Mann and Heriau, propelled them from seventh to fourth in the standings, just behind TF Sport’s No. 33 Corvette Z06 GT3.R crew of Edgar, Catsburg and Keating, who remain 1-2-3 in the title race, though Keating now shares points with the Ferrari squad.
***The No. 33 Corvette, the Le Mans class winner, carried a 36 kg Success handicap and spun early, while the No. 92 Manthey Porsche shed six laps in the garage and No. 34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette dropped three laps due to steering damage. The No. 69 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO lost ground early after a puncture caused by a collision with Anthony McIntosh.
***McIntosh exited a smoke-filled car in the pits during the opening hour before getting back behind the wheel once his co-drivers were ready, only to be hit by a stop-and-go penalty. BMW factory driver Dan Harper mounted a late push to finish 11th, just outside the points.
***WRT’s sister No. 32 BMW lost significant ground early with a sensor issue on the axle and also incurred a two-minute penalty and a stop-and-hold for Darren Leung’s multiple track-limit breaches.
***Edgar described the challenges facing his rivals in the COTA event as “pretty lucky” as he fought success-weight penalties to finish 12th in class. “We were fortunate today that many of our rivals also had rough days, which sometimes you need,” he told Sportscar365.
***Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo driver Maxime Martin believed the No. 61 could have won the LMGT3 class if not for the four penalties the crew picked up — two five-second penalties and two drive-throughs for colliding with Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evos, plus VSC and FCY infringements.
***Martin told Sportscar365 it was a “miracle” that he, Martin Berry and Rui Andrade still finished sixth. “We have a fast car, but we don’t optimize it, so we must work to ensure we can complete a race without penalties,” he said.
***James Cottingham earned the Goodyear Wingfoot Award, chosen by fans in a social-media vote, for his bold opening stint that put the No. 91 Manthey Porsche in front in its class.
***Keating, Catsburg and Edgar watched the Texas A&M NCAA football opener after qualifying, where the Aggies defeated Missouri State 50-0 in College Station, Texas.
***Keating told Sportscar365: “We left the track around 4 p.m., flew to College Station, made it to the stadium just in time for the flyover and the pre-game festivities, and then stayed through the early part of the fourth quarter before returning to Austin by 10 p.m. It’s fantastic for me to attend a home game during a race weekend—it’s something I never get to do. It was also fun sharing a quintessentially American experience with a group of Europeans.”
***As has become a yearly tradition, Keating hosted more than 450 guests at the track, largely drawn from his network of 33 Texas car dealerships. A large crowd in yellow shirts could be seen enjoying the action from the grandstand adjacent to the hospitality suites in the pit building.
***The WEC reported a weekend attendance of 69,204 spectators, higher than the 66,217 figure from last year and the 65,089 three-day total from 2024, the year the world championship returned to the Austin venue after several seasons away.
***Next up for WEC competitors is the 6 Hours of Fuji on Sept. 25-27, followed by a European swing to Barcelona and Monza, which replace the Middle Eastern rounds in Qatar and Bahrain to close out the season.
Stephen Lickorish contributed to this report
