Lone Star Le Mans: Qualifying: Ferrari locks up front row, Alpine 4th
On Saturday night, the N°51 Ferrari took pole position in the Lone Star Le Mans at Austin. The N°83 AF Corse Ferrari was second, and Charles Milesi placed the N°35 Alpine 4th.
Free practice 3 had been dominated by Cadillac, in a very tight pack, which boded well for a good qualifying session. And indeed: the starting grid for the Lone Star Le Mans, in Austin, is unprecedented in more ways than one.
Car No. 51 Ferrari clinched its first pole position since its debut in the WEC. The Italian car posted a time of 1:50.390, leaving everyone more than two tenths behind. One could have expected the very efficient Antonio Fuoco, in car No. 50, who had won Le Mans this year. But the Italian only managed to secure the 5th position, while the unofficial 499P car, No. 83, joined the official No. 51 on the front row.
The second has reason to smile: the American audience was able to enjoy the very beautiful 3rd place of Cadillac No. 2 (Bamber/Lynn), which will be run by Jota next year.
And above all, the surprise of these qualifications had a blue color: Alpine No. 35 driven by Charles Milesi managed to reach the 4th position. Quite a performance that will require aggression, tonight, to try to capitalize on it.
The two BMWs also reached the Hyperpole, and finished in 7th and 8th places (car N°20 ahead of car N°15).
The top 3 of the championship, on the other hand, are generally lagging behind: besides the Ferrari No. 50, 2nd in the championship, which will start 5th, the Toyota No. 7 (Kobayashi/De Vries/Conway) did not do better than 9th. And the Porsche No. 6, leading the championship, will only be 14th on the grid. In other words, an incredible comeback is needed to keep the lead in the championship.
Finally, Peugeot’s #93 finished 11th in qualifying, just 20 thousandths of a second away from the Hyperpole…frustrating! The #94, meanwhile, failed to reach the 15th position.
LMGT3: Aston Martin takes the lead.
Before the Hypercars, the LMGT3s had set off. The Aston Martin No. 27 from Heart of Racing, which will run the English Hypercar next year, secured pole position after a fierce battle against the Iron Dames who emerged from the pack. The Aston and the Lamborghini No. 85 are separated by 172 milliseconds.
The Ferrari N°55 from Vista AF Corse confirmed its good performance by finishing 3rd, ahead of the Porsche N°92 from Manthey PureRxcing, leading the championship.
The Lexus cars from the French team Akkodis did not make it to the Hyperpole: car No. 78 failed to reach 12th place, car No. 87 to 17th, on the last line.
The ranking of the Hypercar Hyperpole
| Team | # | Drivers | Times | Gap | Laps | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | FERRARI AF CORSE | #51 | Pier Guidi A. Calado J. Giovinazzi A. |
1:50.390 | – | 5 |
| 2 | AF CORSE | #83 | Kubica R. Shwartzman R. Ye Y. |
1:50.667 | +0.277 | 5 |
| 3 | CADILLAC RACING | #2 | Bamber E. Lynn A. |
1:50.680 | +0.290 | 5 |
| 4 | ALPINE ENDURANCE TEAM | #35 | Chatin P. Habsburg F. Milesi C. |
1:50.751 | +0.361 | 5 |
| 5 | FERRARI AF CORSE | #50 | Fuoco A. Molina M. Nielsen N. |
1:50.818 | +0.428 | 5 |
| 6 | PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT | #5 | Campbell M. Christensen M. Makowiecki F. |
1:50.874 | +0.484 | 6 |
| 7 | BMW M TEAM WRT | #20 | Van Der Linde S. Frijns R. Rast R. |
1:50.882 | +0.492 | 5 |
| 8 | BMW M TEAM WRT | #15 | Vanthoor D. Marciello R. Wittmann M. |
1:50.938 | +0.548 | 5 |
| 9 | TOYOTA GAZOO RACING | #7 | Conway M. Kobayashi K. de Vries N. |
1:50.951 | +0.561 | 5 |
| 10 | HERTZ TEAM JOTA | #12 | Stevens W. ILOTT C. Nato N. |
1:51.532 | +1.142 | 5 |
The ranking of the Hyperpole LMGT3
| Team | # | Drivers | Times | Gap | Laps | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | HEART OF RACING TEAM | #27 | James I. Mancinelli D. Riberas A. |
2:05.587 | – | 4 |
| 2 | IRON DAMES | #85 | Bovy S. Frey R. Gatting M. |
2:05.759 | +0.172 | 4 |
| 3 | VISTA AF CORSE | #55 | Heriau F. Mann S. Rovera A. |
2:06.001 | +0.414 | 5 |
| 4 | MANTHEY PURERXCING | #92 | Malykhin A. Sturm J. Bachler K. |
2:06.176 | +0.589 | 4 |
| 5 | TF SPORT | #81 | Van Rompuy T. Andrade R. Eastwood C. |
2:06.287 | +0.700 | 5 |
| 6 | VISTA AF CORSE | #54 | Flohr T. Castellacci F. Rigon D. |
2:06.312 | +0.725 | 5 |
| 7 | UNITED AUTOSPORTS | #59 | Cottingham J. Costa N. Saucy G. |
2:06.521 | +0.934 | 5 |
| 8 | D’STATION RACING | #777 | Mateu C. Bastard E. SØRENSEN M. |
2:06.609 | +1.022 | 5 |
| 9 | PROTON COMPETITION | #88 | Keating B. Pedersen M. Olsen D. |
2:06.650 | +1.063 | 5 |
| 10 | TEAM WRT | #31 | Leung D. GELAEL S. Farfus A. |
2:07.483 | +1.896 | 5 |
