Giovinazzi Leads At COTA With Two Hours to Go

Antonio Giovinazzi led Lone Star Le Mans for Ferrari with two hours of racing remaining, with the wet conditions catching out drivers across the field.

The No. 51 Ferrari 499P sat in front of Matt Campbell’s No. 6 Porsche 963 heading into the final two hours, with the race under Virtual Safety Car after Jose Maria Lopez spun the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid into the gravel at Turn 14.

The two Toyotas struggled significantly in the challenging wet conditions that have dominated the race at Circuit of The Americas, with both cars spinning out on several occasions.

Elsewhere in the Hypercar field, Alpine driver Fred Makowiecki spun into the barriers in Turn 2 triggering a safety car in the second hour, while Nico Varrone ended up in the Turn 18 gravel to cause a Virtual Safety Car.

Out front, the No. 51 Ferrari captured the race lead when James Calado moved past the polesitting No. 83 machine of Phil Hanson on the main straight with three and a half hours to go.

The yellow-liveried 499P then dropped down the order when Hanson entered his pit box at an awkward angle, causing it to lose time and fall back to fifth place.

The No. 50 Ferrari ran third with Antonio Fuoco at the wheel ahead of Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 5 Porsche, with that car also going for a rotation at Turn 10 before carrying on.

The No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 held sixth with Malthe Jakobsen at the wheel, ahead of the No. 12 Cadillac V-Series.R and the pair of Aston Martin Valkyries in the hands of Alex Riberas and Harry Tincknell.

In the LMGT3 class, the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 led since the middle of the third hour with Ben Tuck currently at the wheel.

Tuck’s Bronze-rated co-driver Bernardo Sousa fought his way past the No. 81 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Tom van Rompuy as both teams opted to extend the stints of their opening drivers.

While that then allowed Proton to switch over to Tuck right as the first VSC was called, TF Sport saw a potentially strong result fall apart when their pitstop required the replacement of a sensor for an FIA-mandated accident recorder.

This cost them nearly four minutes in the pits, dropping them down the LMGT3 order.

The pair of United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evos sat second and third with Sean Gelael and Sebastien Baud at the wheel, respectively.

Riccardo Pera held fourth in the No. 92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R, while Rahel Frey rounded out the top five in the Iron Dames entry.