AF Corse Ferrari Wins at COTA After Toyota Penalty

Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Robert Shwartzman became the sixth different winners in as many FIA World Endurance Championship races this year by winning the Lone Star Le Mans following a late penalty for Toyota Gazoo Racing.

The No. 83 Ferrari 499P finished 1.780 seconds ahead of the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid driven by Mike Conway, Nyck de Vries and Kamui Kobayashi after six hours of racing.

The yellow-liveried Ferrari grabbed the lead early on when Kubica moved ahead of the No. 51 Ferrari of Antonio Giovinazzi in what appeared to be an orchestrated change of position in the first hour.

Giovinazzi then ran into trouble after contact with the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 in Turn 12 and subsequently retired, while the No. 83 car remained out front with a solid lead through halfway.

However, the momentum in the race began to shift when AF Corse opted to double stint a set of hard compound tires with Ye at the wheel, allowing de Vries to close the gap and put the Chinese driver under pressure.

The Ferrari was subsequently left vulnerable for the undercut, allowing Kamui Kobayashi to take the lead when he relieved de Vries.

Kobayashi then opened up a gap of more than ten seconds to Shwartzman and appeared to be able to cruise to the finish until he was given a drive-through penalty for a yellow flag infringement.

This dropped the Toyota back behind the No. 83 Ferrari, with Shwartzman subsequently holding on to take the team’s first victory of the season despite coming under pressure from a charging Kobayashi in the final minutes.

As a result, the world championship has yet to see a repeat overall winner this season.

Kobayashi, de Vries and Conway finished second, while the No. 50 Ferrari of Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen and Antonio Fuoco completed the overall podium.

Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber finished fourth, while the No. 35 Alpine A424 driven by Charles Milesi, Ferdinand Habsburg and Paul-Loup Chatin rounded out the overall top five.

The French squad recovered from an early drive-through penalty after an opening-lap incident for Habsburg to record the team’s first top five finish since rejoining Hypercar.

The championship-leading No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 of Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Andre Lotterer finished sixth, having also served a drive-through penalty for a yellow flag infringement and surviving a clash with the No. 8 Toyota on the back straight.

Estre was battling with Sebastien Buemi when the Swiss driver squeezed the Porsche outside the track limits and almost into the wall, giving the Toyota a puncture.

Buemi was later given a 30-second stop-and-go penalty for the incident, dropping the car out of the points.

Frederic Makowiecki, Matt Campbell and Michael Christensen were seventh in the No. 5 Penske Porsche, with the No. 15 BMW, No. 36 Alpine and No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche completing the overall top ten.

The No. 20 BMW of Sheldon van der Linde, Rene Rast and Robin Frijns, meanwhile, dropped out of the top ten late in the running when it was given a 100-second stop-and-hold penalty for a technical infringement, dropping the car to 13th.

Heart of Racing Takes Dominant First WEC Victory

Heart of Racing Team captured its first series class win in dominant fashion, converting pole position to come out on top in the LMGT3 class.

Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli and Alex Riberas, sharing the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, finished nearly 30 seconds ahead of the No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R.

After James rebuffed an early challenge from the No. 85 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, the American squad went largely unchallenged out front.

It marked the first world championship victory for Aston Martin’s updated GT3 challenger.

Klaus Bachler, Alex Malykhin and Joel Sturm were joined on the class podium by their Manthey stablemates Yasser Shahin, Morris Schuring and Richard Lietz in third.

The No. 91 Manthey EMA Porsche was promoted to third when the No. 55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 was ordered to serve a 100-second stop-and-hold penalty for a technical infringement.

This dropped them to tenth in class, while the No. 59 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo moved up to fourth and the No. 31 BMW M4 GT3 finished fifth.

WRT’s No. 46 entry lost out on a possible top-five after Maxime Martin brought into the pits with power steering problems late on, resulting in a retirement.

Other cars to hit trouble in the race include the No. 81 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R and No. 85 Lamborghini, which both suffered damage as a result of a clash between Rahel Frey and Rui Andrade in the third hour.

RESULTS: Lone Star Le Mans