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Race report
WEC COTA

WEC COTA: AF Corse Ferrari sneaks past Toyota for win

Ferrari notches its first victory in a regular WEC race in a thrilling end-of-race battle with Toyota

#83 AF CORSE Ferrari 499P Hypercar of Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman and Yifei Ye

Ferrari took its first victory in a regular World Endurance Championship race with the customer AF Corse-run 499P driven by Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Robert Shwartzman at Austin.

The Italian manufacturer, a two-time winner at the Le Mans 24 Hours with the 499P Le Mans Hypercar, followed up on Charles Leclerc’s Monza Grand Prix victory after a thrilling finish to Sunday’s Lone Star Le Mans six-hour race on the Circuit of The Americas. 

Shwartzman inherited the lead from the #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 chequered flag.

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 race.

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

The #83 AF CORSE Ferrari 499P Hypercar

The #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 customer Ferrari and the sister works 499P of Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessasndro Pier Guidi which ended up retiring from the race.

Driveline issues that followed a collision with an LMGT3 runner left it with a damaged wheel rim and then a spin while Giovinazzi was lapping one of the Peugeot 9X8 2024 LMHs conspired against the #51 crew.

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 penalised 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 #2 Cadillac V-Series.R Hypercar of Earl Bamber, and Alex Lynn

The #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 #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 infringement. It lost a top-six position as a result, ending up in 13th at the finish.

Aston triumphs 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

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 into the race lead and raced away from Sarah Bovy in the Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan EVO2.

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.Rs (the #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 despite receiving a Balance of Performance hit and carrying significant success ballast. 

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

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

   
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Cla Team # Drivers Car Laps Time Interval Pits Retirement Points
1
AF Corse HYPERCAR
83 Poland R. Kubica Israel R. Shwartzman China Y. Yifei Ferrari 499P 183

6:00'23.755

  5    
2
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
7 United Kingdom M. Conway Japan K. Kobayashi Netherlands N. de Vries Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 183

+1.780

6:00'25.535

1.780 6    
3
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
50 Italy A. Fuoco Spain M. Molina Denmark N. Nielsen Ferrari 499P 183

+26.282

6:00'50.037

24.502 5    
4
CADILLAC RACING HYPERCAR
2 New Zealand E. Bamber United Kingdom A. Lynn Cadillac V-Series.R 183

+46.924

6:01'10.679

20.642 5    
5
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
35 France P. Chatin Austria F. Habsburg France C. Milesi Alpine A424 183

+1'10.513

6:01'34.268

23.589 6    
6
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
6 France K. Estre Germany A. Lotterer Belgium L. Vanthoor Porsche 963 183

+1'36.873

6:02'00.628

26.360 6    
7
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
5 Australia M. Campbell Denmark M. Christensen France F. Makowiecki Porsche 963 183

+1'41.494

6:02'05.249

4.621 6    
8
BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR
15 Belgium D. Vanthoor Italy R. Marciello Germany M. Wittmann BMW M Hybrid V8 182

+1 Lap

6:00'24.494

1 Lap 5    
9
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
36 France N. Lapierre Germany M. Schumacher France M. Vaxiviere Alpine A424 182

+1 Lap

6:00'30.686

6.192 5    
10
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
38 United Kingdom J. Button United Kingdom P. Hanson Denmark O. Rasmussen Porsche 963 182

+1 Lap

6:01'25.104

54.418 6    
11
Proton Competition HYPERCAR
99 United Kingdom H. Tincknell Switzerland N. Jani France J. Andlauer Porsche 963 182

+1 Lap

6:01'29.398

4.294 6    
12
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
93 Denmark M. Jensen Switzerland N. Müller France J. Vergne Peugeot 9X8 2024 182

+1 Lap

6:01'42.339

12.941 5    
13
BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR
20 South Africa S. Van Der Linde Netherlands R. Frijns Germany R. Rast BMW M Hybrid V8 182

+1 Lap

6:01'49.454

7.115 7    
14
Lamborghini Iron Lynx HYPERCAR
63 Italy M. Bortolotti Switzerland E. Mortara Russian Federation D. Kvyat Lamborghini SC63 182

+1 Lap

6:02'29.117

39.663 6    
15
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
8 Switzerland S. Buemi New Zealand B. Hartley Japan R. Hirakawa Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 181

+2 Laps

6:00'33.605

1 Lap 8    
16
Heart of Racing Team LMGT3
27 United Kingdom I. James Italy D. Mancinelli Spain A. Riberas Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 164

+19 Laps

6:01'05.796

17 Laps 6    
17
Manthey PureRxcing LMGT3
92
A. Malykhin
J. Sturm
Austria K. Bachler
Porsche 911 GT3 R 164

+19 Laps

6:01'26.334

20.538 6    
18
Manthey EMA LMGT3
91
Y. Shahin
M. Schuring
Austria R. Lietz
Porsche 911 GT3 R 164

+19 Laps

6:01'57.655

31.321 7    
19
United Autosports LMGT3
59 J. Cottingham N. Costa Switzerland G. Saucy McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 164

+19 Laps

6:02'05.137

7.482 6    
20
TEAM WRT LMGT3
31
D. Leung
Indonesia S. Gelael Brazil A. Farfus
BMW M4 GT3 164

+19 Laps

6:02'27.867

22.730 8    
21
Proton Competition LMGT3
77 United States R. Hardwick Canada Z. Robichon United Kingdom B. Barker Ford Mustang GT3 163

+20 Laps

6:00'24.931

1 Lap 7    
22
United Autosports LMGT3
95 United Kingdom J. Caygill Chile N. Pino Japan M. Sato McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 163

+20 Laps

6:01'12.465

47.534 8    
23
TF Sport LMGT3
82 Japan H. Koizumi
S. Baud
Spain D. Juncadella
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 163

+20 Laps

6:01'42.770

30.305 8    
24
AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3
78
A. Robin
Austria C. Schmid South Africa K. van der Linde
Lexus RC F GT3 163

+20 Laps

6:01'50.973

8.203 7    
25
Vista AF Corse LMGT3
55 France F. Heriau France S. Mann Italy A. Rovera Ferrari 296 GT3 163

+20 Laps

6:02'19.502

28.529 7    
26
AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3
87 Japan T. Kimura
E. Masson
Argentina J. Lopez
Lexus RC F GT3 162

+21 Laps

6:00'39.831

1 Lap 7    
27
IRON LYNX LMGT3
60 Italy C. Schiavoni Italy M. Cressoni
F. Perera
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 162

+21 Laps

6:01'27.409

47.578 8    
28
IRON DAMES LMGT3
85 Belgium S. Bovy Switzerland R. Frey Denmark M. Gatting Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 160

+23 Laps

6:01'55.004

2 Laps 7    
 
TEAM WRT LMGT3
46 United Kingdom A. Al Harthy Italy V. Rossi Belgium M. Martin BMW M4 GT3 155

+28 Laps

5:43'26.210

5 Laps 7 Retirement  
 
Proton Competition LMGT3
88 United States B. Keating
M. Pedersen
Norway D. Olsen
Ford Mustang GT3 146

+37 Laps

5:22'02.350

9 Laps 5 Retirement  
 
TF Sport LMGT3
81 Belgium T. Van Rompuy Portugal R. Andrade Ireland C. Eastwood Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 137

+46 Laps

5:12'25.346

9 Laps 7 Retirement  
 
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
94 United Kingdom P. di Resta France L. Duval Belgium S. Vandoorne Peugeot 9X8 2024 121

+62 Laps

4:00'03.662

16 Laps 5 Retirement  
 
D'Station Racing LMGT3
777 France C. Mateu
E. Bastard
Denmark M. Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 81

+102 Laps

3:20'35.420

40 Laps 4 Retirement  
 
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
12 United Kingdom W. Stevens United Kingdom C. Ilott France N. Nato Porsche 963 71

+112 Laps

5:45'30.417

10 Laps 8 Retirement  
 
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
51 Italy A. Pier Guidi United Kingdom J. Calado Italy A. Giovinazzi Ferrari 499P 55

+128 Laps

1:49'30.062

16 Laps 2 Retirement  
 
Vista AF Corse LMGT3
54 Switzerland T. Flohr Italy F. Castellacci Italy D. Rigon Ferrari 296 GT3 54

+129 Laps

2:39'07.409

1 Lap 4 Retirement  

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