Giovinazzi Leads Ferrari COTA Front Row Lockout

Antonio Giovinazzi led a Ferrari front row lockout in qualifying for the Lone Star Le Mans event at Circuit of The Americas.

The Italian reeled off a 1:50.390 aboard the No. 51 Ferrari 499P to beat the No. 83 car of Robert Kubica by 0.277 seconds.

Kubica leaped up to second place with a late-session best of 1:50.667, which was enough to deny Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Lynn a front row start by a mere 0.013 seconds.

Lynn was joined on the second row by the No. 35 Alpine A424 driven by Charles Milesi, with Antonio Fuoco fifth aboard the No. 50 Ferrari.

Matt Campbell was the best Porsche driver in sixth place, while BMW saw both of its cars break through in the Hyperpole for the first time this season.

Robin Frijns’ No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8 bested the No. 15 sister machine of Dries Vanthoor by 0.056 seconds.

Kamui Kobayashi and Norman Nato completed the overall top ten for Toyota Gazoo Racing and Hertz Team JOTA, respectively.

Notable casualties in the first segment of qualifying include the No. 8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi as well as the No. 6 Porsche driven by Kevin Estre.

Mikkel Jensen’s No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 missed the cut by 0.020 seconds as both of the French brand’s cars were eliminated, while the No. 36 Alpine of Mick Schumacher was also knocked out.

The Hypercar grid was completed by the No. 99 Proton Competition and No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsches of Julien Andlauer and Harry Tincknell, respectively.

James Captures First Series Pole in LMGT3

Heart of Racing Team’s Ian James beat Sarah Bovy to take his first WEC pole position in the LMGT3 class.

The No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo set a time of 2:05.587 in Hyperpole to outpace the No. 85 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 by 0.172 seconds.

Francois Heriau took third aboard the No. 55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, joined on the second row by the No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R in the hands of Alex Malyhkin.

TF Sport’s Tom van Rompuy took fifth, ahead of the second Ferrari driven by Thomas Flohr and James Cottingham’s No. 59 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo.

Clement Mateu, Ben Keating and Darren Leung completed the overall top ten.

Keating, in his first qualifying session aboard the No. 88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3, made it into Hyperpole at last gasp with a late flyer to go sixth in the first segment of qualifying.

As as result, the No. 95 McLaren was knocked out, as well as both Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F GT3s, the second TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, the No. 77 Ford, No. 46 BMW M4 GT3, No. 91 Porsche 911 GT3 R and No. 60 Lamborghini.

The six-hour Lone Star Le Mans race kicks off Sunday at 1 p.m. CDT (2 p.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Qualifying