COTA Saturday Notebook

***Ferrari scored its fourth FIA World Endurance Championship pole in qualifying for the Lone Star Le Mans, and its second of the season. Antonio Giovinazzi’s chart-topping effort however made it a first pole for the No. 51 side of the garage and for any Ferrari driver besides Antonio Fuoco.

***Giovinazzi described it as his second pole in the post-qualifying press conference, referencing losing the top spot to a track limits infraction in qualifying for last year’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

***Ian James, meanwhile, gave Aston Martin its first LMGT3 pole in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team entry, and the British brand’s first WEC pole since last year’s Spa round. Aston Martin becomes the fifth different marque to score a pole in the class after Corvette, Porsche, Lamborghini and McLaren.

***Sarah Bovy topped the first part of LMGT3 qualifying but fell 0.172 seconds short of James in Hyperpole after suffering a problem with her Iron Dames Lamborghini’s power steering. “At the end of the first push lap, I started feeling interference with the power steering, and then I completely lost it,” recalled the Belgian. “But it’s better for it to happen now in qualifying and not tomorrow ruin our race!”

***Kamui Kobayashi was downbeat after only qualifying ninth in the best of the Toyota GR010 Hybrids. “I think I got the best out of it, but it is how it is,” the Japanese driver told Sportscar365. “I am not surprised because it’s how we are now. And I don’t think there will be a lot of tire degradation here, so we won’t have that advantage.”

***Alpine driver Mick Schumacher criticized Ferrari drivers Fuoco and Robert Kubica for what he described as blocking during the first segment of qualifying, after missing out on Hyperpole in 13th.

***Schumacher said: “[On] my fastest lap I think I had the No. 50 in front for the whole third sector. And then my first push, I had the No. 83 in front, quite clearly. Apparently here in WEC they don’t look after blocking that much, as [they do] in Formula 1.”

***Schumacher’s qualifying was further complicated by an unexpected intruder making its way into the cockpit of the No. 36 Alpine A424. “Suddenly this wasp was just flying around, then flew up to the front of the cockpit,” recalled the German. “It was sitting on the windscreen. I was actually quite happy it was standing there, but then it was coming towards my face. That’s when I opened the door and I slapped that out of my face and it flew out. And then I got yelled at for opening the door.”

***The championship-leading No. 6 Porsche 963 failed to make Hyperpole for the first time this season, as Kevin Estre set the 14th-best time in the first part of qualifying.

***Estre told Sportscar365: “I was not happy with the car; it was difficult to drive and I could not put it all together. I don’t think the Porsche is the car to have this weekend so far, but the [No. 5] car managed to do a lot better than I did. But in Sao Paulo we were last after 40 minutes and we came back to P2, so we still have high hopes for the race.”

***On why he feels Porsche has been unable to match Ferrari at COTA, Estre said: “We are getting heavier each race and getting less power. At some point, the others are getting there. BMW and Alpine are new, and at some point they will get their cars figured out and they will get in front of us. We just have to maximize our package for this race.”

***Porsche Penske Motorsport managing director Jonathan Diuguid said that the track resurfacing following last month’s test has allowed the Porsche 963 to run at a lower ride height. “It’s helped,” he said. “We’re definitely lower now than we were during the test in July.”

***Team Penske has yet to claim a win at COTA from previous participation in NASCAR and IndyCar competition at the circuit.

***Diuguid said he expects to see less of a mix-and-match of tire compounds in the Hypercar class this weekend compared to the last round in Sao Paulo, with the majority of the teams likely to opt for the Medium Michelin compound.

***He said: “I think we’ve seen most teams converting to one [tire] as well. There’s a lot more spread over the field in FP1 when people came in and really didn’t know what to expect with the higher track temperatures that we saw. But I think, in general, we’re quite happy with where we are.”

***Ferrari’s performance and regulations manager Mauro Barbieri believes that Ferrari’s improved performance at COTA compared to Sao Paulo is more down to track characteristics than Balance of Performance changes. “I would leave ‘that thing’ [BoP] out of the discussion,” he said. “I think the circuit is suiting our car better than Sao Paulo.”

***Barbieri added that the July test, attended by all Hypercar manufacturers except Alpine, was also especially beneficial for Ferrari. “When you have the possibility to test, you can start Free Practice in a better window. We didn’t have this in Sao Paulo. [There] I would say one team [Toyota] had previous experience from the past and they had more data.”

***Per a FIA bulletin, each team is allowed to have one spotter in the COTA tower this weekend.

***Multiple sources have indicated that an announcement from Hyundai regarding a dual FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship program for 2026 has been scheduled for early next month.

***Sportscar365 understands that internal confirmations of the factory program were recently made at Hyundai Motorsport GmbH in Germany as well as the brand’s global base in South Korea and could also include a GT3 project based around a future road-going Genesis-badged sports car.

***A FIA spokesperson confirmed to Sportscar365 that the FIA is currently using the Windshear wind tunnel in Concord, N.C. for WEC homologations as the Sauber wind tunnel in Switzerland is undergoing renovations. All of IMSA’s homologations are completed at Windshear.

***It’s understood a Toyota GR010 Hybrid recently made a trip to Windshear, for what’s believed to be possible future Evo joker updates for the WEC and not the certification process needed for a LMH-built car to compete in the WeatherTech Championship.

***Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director David Floury didn’t deny that the GR010 Hybrid had visited Windshear when asked, but insisted no decisions have been made for future Evo jokers yet. “The first thing is that any joker would need to be approved by the FIA and ACO,” said Floury. “But we don’t have a clear plan yet.”

John Dagys & Davey Euwema contributed to this report