Giovinazzi Becomes First Repeat Polesitter of Season at COTA

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

Antonio Giovinazzi became the first repeat Hyperpole winner in the FIA World Endurance Championship this season after taking the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 499P to top qualifying honors in a dead heat with Jack Aitken.

Giovinazzi reeled off a 1:52.455 lap time, an identical lap to that of Aitken in the No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R, whose time came after the Italian’s flyer.

The top four were separated by just 0.050 seconds in one of the most competitive Hypercar Hyperpole sessions in history.

The Italian, who will share the defending world championship-winning Ferrari with James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi, also scored Hyperpole for the season-opening 6 Hours of Imola in April.

Charles Milesi qualified the No. 35 Alpine A424 in third, ahead of fourth-placed Harry Tincknell in the No. 007 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie, which only advanced into the shootout in the final moments of qualifying.

Nicklas Nielsen, who was quickest in qualifying, completed the top-five, ahead of the sixth-placed No. 36 Alpine of Victor Martins.

The No. 17 Genesis GMR-001 of Mathys Jaubert was seventh, ahead of the pair of Toyota TS010 Hybrids of Ryo Hirakawa and Kamui Kobayashi, respectively, with Mathieu Jaminet completing the top-ten in the No. 19 Genesis.

Both of the Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8s and Peugeot 9X8s failed to make it into Hyperpole, with Dries Vanthoor qualifying the Sao Paulo-winning No. 15 BMW in 11th.

Peugeot’s Malthe Jakobsen was 12th, with Sheldon van der Linde 13th in the joint points-leading BMW and Robert Kubica 14th in the satellite Ferrari.

The No. 12 JOTA Cadillac of Norman Nato was 15th, ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne’s No. 93 Peugeot and the No. 009 Aston Martin of Marco Sorensen bringing up the rear of the 17-car Hypercar grid.

Barrichello Leads Heart of Racing Front Row Lockout in LMGT3

Eduardo Barrichello claimed Hyperpole honors in LMGT3, in a front row lockout for the pair of Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evos.

The Brazilian initially reeled off a best lap of 2:05.103 to edge out his fellow FIA Silver-rated teammate Zach Robichon by 0.181 seconds.

However, that lap was disallowed due to track limits, but Barrichello’s second-best lap, a 2:05.160, was still good enough for Hyperpole.

It marked the fifth different driver to win LMGT3 Hyperpole in as many races this season, despite it being the American squad’s third in a row.

Kobe Pauwels, who filled in for the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship-bound Barrichello, scored Hyperpole in the No. 23 Aston Martin in Sao Paulo.

Barrichello will share driving duties with Jonny Adam and Gray Newell tomorrow.

Timur Boguslavskiy put the No. 91 Manthey Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo third, ahead of Ben Tuck’s No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 EVO and the Finn Gehrsitz-driven No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, who completed the top-five in class.

Aston Martin and Ford were the only two LMGT3 brands to get both of its cars into Hyperpole, with the No. 88 Proton Mustang of last year’s Hyperpole winner Giammarco Levorato bringing up the rear in tenth.

The No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari was the first to miss the top-ten shootout, with Thomas Flohr set to roll off 11th on the grid.

Both of the TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs were eliminated from Hyperpole contention, as well as the No. 69 WRT BMW of title contender Anthony McIntosh.

Ben Keating, in the points-leading No. 33 Corvette that’s carrying 36 kg of Success Handicap, will start second-to-last in the race.

The 6 Hours of COTA gets underway on Sunday at 1 p.m. CST with live coverage on FIAWEC+, as well as MotorTrend and HBO Max in the U.S. and TNT Sports in the UK.

RESULTS: Qualifying

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John