Lone Star Le Mans Red-Flagged Amid Heavy Rain

The opening hour of the Lone Star Le Mans round of the FIA World Endurance Championship was run entirely behind the safety car amid heavy rain before being red-flagged owing to a race control mix-up that impacted the running order.

Morning drizzle not dissimilar to Saturday’s conditions gave way to heavier rain in the hour leading up to the 1 p.m. CST start at the Circuit of The Americas, which prompted organizers to declare a safety car start.

Early hopes of the field being released were soon dashed as the rain intensified, leading to poor visibility and standing water gathering on various parts of the track surface.

Despite the lack of green-flag running, there was some early drama, as Julien Andlauer spun the No. 5 Penske Porsche 963, slipping from ninth to 14th in the process.

Later in the first hour, Rene Rast’s No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8 came to a stop on-track with a suspected hybrid issue, putting that car out of the race.

Up front, the pole-winning No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari driven by Phil Hanson led the factory No. 51 Ferrari of James Calado, the No. 6 Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor and the remaining Ferrari, the No. 50 of Nicklas Nielsen.

That was until most of the Hypercar field pitted in unison just after the 50-minute mark, ostensibly doing so because the safety car came into the pits due to running low on fuel.

Among those not to come in was the No. 36 Alpine of Frederic Makowiecki, who took the overall lead ahead of Hanson and the No. 95 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 of Darren Leung, another car not to pit at this juncture.

Soon after, the red flags were shown just before the one-hour mark amid confusion about the true running order.

Leung led the way in LMGT3 from Ian James in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo and the No. 81 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Tom van Rompuy.

That was after the majority of the cars in the class, including both Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3s that started first and second among them.

One car to suffer dramas in LMGT3 was the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3, which had started at the tail of the field and made multiple visits to the garage due to a problem with the car’s headlights.