Hanson Reinstated in Lead as Lone Star Le Mans Resumes

The Lone Star Le Mans round of the FIA World Endurance Championship resumed after a 40-minute stoppage, with pole-sitter Phil Hanson reinstated in the lead.

There had been uncertainty about the true running order when Sunday’s race at the Circuit of The Americas was red-flagged just before the one-hour mark amid heavy rain, as most of the Hypercar field pitted together, shaking up the field.

Alpine’s No. 36 car driven by Frederic Makowiecki was the first in the queue not to come into the pits when the safety car peeled in due to running low on fuel, with Hanson demoted to second aboard the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P amid the mix-up.

The LMGT3 class leader, Darren Leung in the No. 95 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo, ran third overall having jumped all bar two Hypercars.

However, when the race resumed at 2:40 p.m. local time, the previous running order was reinstated, with Hanson retaking the lead from James Calado in the No. 51 Ferrari and Laurens Vanthoor in the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963.

The green flags were shown for the first time just nine minutes later, although only six minutes passed before both Tom Gamble and Makowiecki both spun off into the barriers independently of each other in sector one, bringing out the safety car.

In LMGT3, Leung led Ian James in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo and Tom van Rompuy’s No. 81 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Freitas Issues Statement on Safety Car Confusion

An FIA statement from race director Eduardo Freitas addressing the confusion in the running order arising from the safety car pitting  read as follows:

“We have had very difficult conditions here today, so we started behind the safety car and at about the 17th lap as a routine check we asked the safety car how it is on fuel.

“By our standards the safety car was low on fuel, so we did something which is part of our procedures and replace the primary safety car by the second safety car so that at any moment we are able to start the race.

“We sent the second safety car on track, they changed positions, and the main safety car came into the pits. Once the safety car was refuelled, we informed the second safety car that we were going to change as we did the first time, but unfortunately somewhere in the communications, the second safety car understood that it was meant to come into the pits.

“This created a complex situation, because the message that the safety car would come into the pits was not announced via radio to the teams, and with the poor visibility, the cars at the back did not see it. Therefore, at the exit of the pits, we ended up with cars out of position.

“To allow us to address this we out the red flag out so we could go back to have the positioning of the cars where they were before this happened, and then we could get back underway with the correct running order.”