#6 Porsche Penske took FIA WEC win in 6 Hours of COTA after rain interruption in Hypercar, as #95 United Autosports took the win in LMGT3.
Hypercar –
Unseasonable rain in Texas resulted in the early stages of the six-hour race taking place behind the safety car, and following a red flag interruption, the competitive action finally got underway just before one-third distance. Initially, it was the front row-sitting #83 and #51 Ferraris that held sway in the 18-strong Hypercar field, but the #6 Porsche in the hands of Laurens Vanthoor was never far behind in third, which became second when Philip Hanson lost more than half-a-minute due to a pit-stop delay.
Following a solid middle stint by Matt Campbell, the crucial moment came approaching the four-hour mark, when Kévin Estre exploited a tentative safety car re-start by Alessandro Pier Guidi to prise the door open into Turn One and assume a lead he would not relinquish. Thereafter, the Frenchman was flawless, and each time his advantage was wiped out by a neutralisation, he immediately set about rebuilding it, going on to take the chequered flag a shade under ten seconds clear of his nearest pursuer.
Miguel Molina brought the #50 AF Corse Ferrari 499P home in second after getting the better of Stoffel Vandoorne in the closing laps, as Team Peugeot TotalEnergies celebrated its best-ever collective result in FIA WEC in third and fourth with its #94 and #93 9X8 prototypes. In the car he shares with Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi picked up a contact-induced puncture shortly after conceding the initiative to Estre that dropped the #51 499P to 13th, but the Italian subsequently scythed back through to fifth to narrowly extend the trio’s championship lead.
Their chief title rival – the independently-entered #83 Ferrari – struggled to match the speed of the two scarlet factory cars and picked up a brace of penalties that restricted it to seventh, although that was still sufficient to secure AF Corse the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams crown. On its home soil, the #38 Cadillac split the two Italian cars in sixth, with the sister São Paulo-winning #12 V-Series.R climbing as high as third from 16th on the grid, prior to slipping back to eighth at the flag.
LMGT3 –
VISTA AF Corse looked to have pulled off a last-gasp LMGT3 category win with its Ferrari 296, but a late sting in the tail handed victory to United Autosports’ #95 McLaren. For much of the race, qualifying star Proton Competition was in charge with the #77 Ford Mustang, but the drying conditions in the closing stages prompted several teams to roll the dice on strategy by trading in their wet tyres for slicks. With less than five minutes to go, Davide Rigon sliced past Ben Barker to assume the lead, but contact incurred the Italian a five-second penalty – and secured McLaren its maiden FIA WEC success.
Result: https://x.com/MsportXtra/status/1964913133958664453
[The story is as per press release]
