(Motorsport-Total.com) – At the Lone Star Le Mans in Austin, there are many signs of Ferrari dominance. Antonio Giovinazzi put the Ferrari #51 (Pier Guidi/Calado/Giovinazzi; 1st) on pole position. It is the first pole of the season for the #51 and the second for a Ferrari 499P after Imola. “That was simply a monster lap from Antonio,” said teammate James Calado, patting him on the back. (Result)
Antonio Giovinazzi gave the Ferrari #51 its first pole of the season Zoom
Robert Kubica brought the privately entered AF Corse Ferrari #83 (Kubica/Schwarzman/Ye; 2nd) to the first row of the grid. The yellow Ferrari has been doing well over one lap all weekend. Ferrari, although they denied being the favorites beforehand, have made the strongest impression so far.
But one vehicle could spoil the red party’s fun: The Cadillac #2 (Bamber/Lynn) came in third in qualifying and has been notable for its strong times all weekend.
Fotos: WEC 2024: Lone Star Le Mans, Trainings & Qualifying
But the biggest surprise came from Charles Milesi, who drove the Alpine #35 (Chatin/Habsburg/Milesi) to fourth place on the grid and even held the fastest time for a few minutes. It had not been obvious beforehand that Alpine would even make it to the Hyperpole.
The situation is reminiscent of Le Mans, when the blue cars suddenly found themselves in the lead in qualifying. The exciting question remains whether they can do the same in the race this time.
The third row is shared by the Ferrari #50 (Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen; 5th) and the Porsche #5 (Campbell/Christensen/Makowiecki; 6th). Porsche performed slightly worse than expected in qualifying, but should be able to play a role in the race. However, the #6 (Estre/Lotterer/L. Vanthoor; 14th) must first drive its way through the field (see below).
BMW brought both M Hybrid V8s to the Hyperpole at the same time for the first time. Seventh and eighth places are almost a little less than expected given the promising times in the free practice sessions. Toyota, which was affected by the BoP shock after Sao Paulo, only brought the #7 (Conway/Kobayashi/de Vries; 9th) into the top 10.
Bitter end for Mick Schumacher after door problem
The regular qualifying was already dramatic, every few seconds the situation changed as to who would make it into the Hyperpole. In the end, Mikkel Jensen in the Peugeot #93 (Vergne/Jensen/Müller; 11th) almost managed to bring a Peugeot 9X8 into the Hyperpole, but narrowly missed out on making it.
Charles Milesi managed to make it into the top ten, sensationally maneuvering the Toyota #8 (Buemi/Hartley/Hirakawa; 12th) out of the Hyperpole. An even bigger shock than the Toyota’s exit was the 14th starting position of championship leader Kevin Estre in the Porsche #6 (Estre/Lotterer/L. Vanthoor).
Mick Schumacher in the Alpine #36 (Lapierre/Schumacher/Vaxiviere; 13th) was positioned between the two sensationally eliminated top vehicles. He was slowed down by a broken door and there was also a wasp in the car. In the end, he was unable to achieve very promising sector times in one lap and had to watch in the Hyperpole.
The Lamborghini #63 (Bortolotti/Mortara/Kwjat; 18th) did not make it past the last place on the starting grid.
First Aston pole of the season
Heart of Racing team boss Ian James took his first pole position of the season in the Heart of Racing Aston Martin #27 (James/Mancinelli/Riberas; 1st). James fought a thrilling battle with the “Iron Dames”, represented by Sarah Bovy in the Iron Lynx Lamborghini #85 (Bovy/Frey/Gatting; 2nd).
The decision was not made on the track, but in the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2. The power steering failed there, forcing Bovy into the pits early. James won by 0.172 seconds. In third place, Francois Heriau achieved his best WEC qualifying result in the AF Corse Ferrari #55 (Heriau/Mann/Rovera).
There was a bitter setback for WRT: The WRT BMW #46 (Al Harthy/Rossi/Martin) driven by motorcycle legend Valentino Rossi got stuck in regular qualifying. The sister vehicle #31 (Leung/Gelael/Farfus) at least made it into the Hyperpole, but did not get past last place and will start from tenth place. The BMW M4 LMGT3 have been struggling all weekend.
Surprisingly, Yasser Shahin’s Manthey Porsche #91 (Shahin/Schuring/Lietz; 16th) also did not make it to the Hyperpole. But the situation is not completely hopeless for the Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 – Alexander Malichin drove the #92 (Malichin/Sturm/Bachler) to fourth place on the grid.
The race starts on Sunday at 8 p.m. CEST. The Lone Star Le Mans lasts for six hours until 2 a.m. (All information about the Lone Star Le Mans 2024)