Ferrari Wins at COTA After Late Toyota Troubles

Ferrari drivers Nicklas Nielsen, Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco scored a surprise victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Circuit of The Americas after late woes for the No. 7 Toyota.

An impressive display from Nyck de Vries had looked to give the co-points-leading No. 7 Toyota TR010 Hybrid the spoils but a hydraulic problem with just 12 minutes to go denied the Japanese manufacturer a first win at COTA and prevented de Vries, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi from building a significant advantage at the head of the standings.

Instead the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 499P was the crew to profit as it eventually finished 4.471 seconds ahead of the No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R to score the Italian manufacturer’s first win of the season.

The sister pole-sitting No. 51 Ferrari of Antonio Giovinazzi had led when the race went green after two extra formation laps following a rain shower minutes before the start of the race.

Giovinazzi soon began to pull away from the No. 38 Cadillac of Jack Aitken, who had set an identical time to the Ferrari driver in qualifying.

The gap between the leaders fluctuated as they negotiated the LMGT3 traffic and two Full Course Yellow periods in the opening hour.

But very quickly different strategies were adopted with the No. 50 Ferrari and No. 8 Toyota vaulting to the front of the order after short-fuelling.

The two Ferraris continued to rotate between the lead during the next stops until James Calado struggled to fire up the No. 51 machine when he climbed aboard at the start of the third hour, which cost the crew a shot at victory as they lost 30 seconds in the pits.

The various strategies were then negated when all of the field pitted during a Virtual Safety Car at mid-distance, which had been called to retrieve debris from the track.

Earl Bamber led in the No. 38 Cadillac upon the restart but was on older tires than his rivals and had the No. 35 Alpine A424 of Antonio Felix da Costa, the No. 007 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie of Tom Gamble and the No. 7 Toyota of de Vries right on his tail.

De Vries was the one on a charge as he quickly dispatched Gamble before making two brilliant identical moves down the inside of Turn 1 to first pass da Costa and then grab the lead from Bamber.

Strategies began to diverge again during the following two hours with the No. 36 Alpine working its way up to second after short-fuelling.

But its chances of a good result were then dented when it pitted just a lap before a second VSC was called after the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 stopped on track after losing its bonnet for a second time.

Virtually the entire field pitted once again and it set up a 45-minute showdown with the leaders, aside from the No. 19 Genesis GMR-001 that had climbed to fourth, able to run through to the end.

Both de Vries and Charles Milesi in the No. 35 Alpine made a break on the resumption but it was not long before the Toyota again demonstrated its advantage as de Vries pumped in a series of fastest laps to pull comfortably clear until the late heartbreak.

The only consolation for the Toyota crew was that the No. 20 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 that also arrived at COTA as joint leaders did not score either in 12th.

Milesi lost second to Nielsen aboard the No. 50 Ferrari with just under half an hour to go when caught out by traffic through Turn 7, with Nielsen, Molina and Fuoco going on to take victory.

Milesi ultimately had to settle for third in the Alpine he shared with da Costa and Ferdinand Habsburg as a five-second penalty for an unsafe release dropped it behind the No. 38 Cadillac, but it still represented a first podium of the French manufacturer’s final WEC season.

Aitken, Bamber and Sebastien Bourdais, meanwhile, again had to make do with narrowly missing out on a win.

The No. 007 Aston Martin of Gamble and Harry Tincknell finished fourth, while a charging Victor Martins recovered to fifth in the second Alpine, while the No. 8 Toyota was sixth.

Genesis scored its best-ever result in seventh after the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 of Malthe Jakobsen lost several places in the final minutes and the No. 12 Cadillac was handed a five-second penalty for gaining a lasting advantage that dropped it to ninth.

Heart of Racing Aston Martin Earns LMGT3 Gold

The No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Ian James, Zach Robichon and Mattia Drudi scored the team’s first LMGT3 victory for two years.

The Aston Martins had locked out the front row in qualifying but it was the pair of Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 EVOs that were on a charge as they moved into the lead in the first few laps.

But their race soon unravelled with first the No. 77 machine of Eric Powell having to serve a drive-through penalty for a FCY infringement and then the No. 88 car of Stefano Gattuso had to stop for repairs after contact with the No. 34 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Salih Yoluc.

Next to lead was the No. 91 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of James Cottingham but a five-second penalty for gaining an advantage ensured it was the No. 27 Aston back in front.

The charging No. 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Maxine Martin then stormed into the lead but it was compromised by three penalties – for contact, FCY and VSC infringements – that confined it to sixth in the final result.

This put the Aston back ahead and Drudi proved unstoppable during the last two hours to cross the line five seconds ahead of the No. 91 Porsche Cottingham shared with Ayhancan Guven and Timur Boguslavskiy.

The No. 23 Aston of Gray Newell, Eduardo Barrichello and Jonny Adam ensured it was a double Aston podium, while the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Francois Heriau, Simon Mann and Alessio Rovera was the only one of the top-five crews in the pre-event standings to score points in fourth.

The points-leading No. 33 Corvette was spun around at the first corner and struggled with substantial success ballast to finish 12th, while the No. 92 Porsche suffered a steering problem and Anthony McIntosh had to contend with a smoke-filled cockpit in No. 69 WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO after early contact.

RESULTS: 6 Hours of Circuit of The Americas