The customer Ferrari squad of Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman and Ye Yifei resisted pressure from Toyota to score their first win in the World Endurance Championship at the Circuit of the Americas.
The number 83 Ferrari hit the front of the field towards the end of the first hour of of the six-hour Lone Star Le Mans race. Robert Kubica, who started second, passed Antonio Giovinazzi, having shared the front row of the grid with the works number 51 Ferrari 599P.Giovinazzi was doomed to retire from the race after spinning to a halt when he encountered Stoffel Vandoorne in the number 94 Peugeot at turn 12. Although he was able to limp his Ferrari back to the pits, it never returned to the track after it was pushed into the garage with an apparent power unit problem. The Peugeot retired at the four-hour mark when Paul di Resta pulled over at turn 11.
Interlagos winners Toyota went into the sixth round at a disadvantage following the latest adjustments to WEC’s Balance of Performance, then their drivers blunted their challenge with a series of errors. Sebastien Buemi incurred a 30 second stop-and-go penalty, plus two penalty points on his licence, for an outrageous block on Kevin Estre, causing contact with the number six Porsche and forcing it off-track at the exit of turn 11, and sustaining a left-rear puncture on his own car as he did so.
The number seven Porsche lost the lead of the race after Kamui Kobayashi had to serve a drive-through penalty for failing to slow sufficiently for yellow flags. He gave chase to Shwartzman’s car in the final laps but fell 1.7 seconds short of catching him after running wide at turn 18 and again at turn one.
The works number 50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen took the final place on the podium, 24 seconds in arrears. Four other cars finished on the lead lap, led by the number two Cadillac shared by Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn.
Alpine scored their best result of the season so far as Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinard Habsburg and Charles Milesi took the number 35 machine to fifth place. They were followed by two Penske-run Porsches: Estre and team mates Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor saw their championship lead trimmed to 12 points after coming sixth, their lowest finish so far this year.
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Race result
| Pos | No. | Class | Team | Car | Drivers | Laps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 83 | Hypercar | AF Corse | Ferrari 499P | Robert Kubica/Robert Shwartzman/Yifei Ye | Ferrari 499P |
| 2 | 7 | Hypercar | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota GR010 | Jose Maria Lopez/Kamui Kobayashi/Nyck de Vries | Toyota GR010 – Hybrid |
| 3 | 50 | Hypercar | Ferrari AF Corse | Ferrari 499P | Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen | Ferrari 499P |
| 4 | 2 | Hypercar | Cadillac Racing | Cadillac V-Series.R | Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn/Alex Palou | Cadillac V-Series.R |
| 5 | 35 | Hypercar | Alpine Endurance Team | Alpine A424 | Paul-Loup Chatin/Ferdinand Habsburg/Charles Milesi | Alpine A424 |
| 6 | 6 | Hypercar | Porsche Penske Motorsport | Porsche 963 | Kevin Estre/Andre Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor | Porsche 963 |
| 7 | 5 | Hypercar | Porsche Penske Motorsport | Porsche 963 | Matt Campbell/Michael Christensen/Frederic Makowiecki | Porsche 963 |
| 8 | 15 | Hypercar | Bmw M Team WRT | BMW M Hybrid V8 | Dries Vanthoor/Raffaele Marciello/Marco Wittmann | BMW M HYBRID V8 |
| 9 | 36 | Hypercar | Alpine Endurance Team | Alpine A424 | Nicolas Lapierre/Mick Schumacher/Matthieu Vaxiviere | Alpine A424 |
| 10 | 38 | Hypercar | Team Jota | Porsche 963 | Jenson Button/Philip Hanson/Oliver Rasmussen | Porsche 963 |
| 11 | 99 | Hypercar | Proton Competition | Porsche 963 | Harry Tincknell/Neel Jani/Julien Andlauer | Porsche 963 |
| 12 | 93 | Hypercar | Peugeot | Peugeot 9X8 | Mikkel Jensen/Nico Mueller/Jean-Eric Vergne | Peugeot 9X8 |
| 13 | 20 | Hypercar | Bmw M Team WRT | BMW M Hybrid V8 | Sheldon Van Der Linde/Robin Frijns/Rene Rast | BMW M HYBRID V8 |
| 14 | 63 | Hypercar | Lamborghini Iron Lynx | Lamborghini SC63 | Mirko Bortolotti/Edoardo Mortara/Daniil Kvyat | Lamborghini SC63 |
| 15 | 8 | Hypercar | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota GR010 | Sebastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa | Toyota GR010 – Hybrid |
| 16 | 27 | LMGT3 | Heart Of Racing Team | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | Ian James/Daniel Mancinelli/Alex Riberas | Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 |
| 17 | 92 | LMGT3 | Manthey Purerxcing | Porsche 911 GT3 R | Aliaksandr Malykhin/Joel Sturm/Klaus Bachler | Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 |
| 18 | 91 | LMGT3 | Manthey Ema | Porsche 911 GT3 R | Yasser Shahin/Morris Schuring/Richard Lietz | Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 |
| 19 | 59 | LMGT3 | United Autosports | McLaren 720S Evo | James Cottingham/Nicolas Costa/Gregoire Saucy | McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo |
| 20 | 31 | LMGT3 | Team WRT | BMW M4 | Darren Leung/Sean Gelael/Augusto Farfus | BMW M4 LMGT3 |
| 21 | 77 | LMGT3 | Proton Competition | Ford Mustang | Ryan Hardwick/Zacharie Robichon/Ben Barker | Ford Mustang LMGT3 |
| 22 | 95 | LMGT3 | United Autosports | McLaren 720S Evo | Joshua Caygill/Nicolas Pino/Marino Sato | McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo |
| 23 | 82 | LMGT3 | TF Sport | Corvette Z06.R | Hiroshi Koizumi/Sebastien Baud/Daniel Juncadella | Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R |
| 24 | 78 | LMGT3 | Akkodis Asp Team | Lexus RC F | Arnold Robin/Timur Boguslavskiy/Kelvin Van Der Linde | Lexus RC F LMGT3 |
| 25 | 55 | LMGT3 | Vista AF Corse | Ferrari 296 | Francois Heriau/Simon Mann/Alessio Rovera | Ferrari 296 LMGT3 |
| 26 | 87 | LMGT3 | Akkodis Asp Team | Lexus RC F | Takeshi Kimura/Esteban Masson/ | Lexus RC F LMGT3 |
| 27 | 60 | LMGT3 | Iron Lynx | Lamborghini Huracan Evo2 | Claudio Schiavoni/Matteo Cressoni/Franck Perera | Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 Evo2 |
| 28 | 85 | LMGT3 | Iron Dames | Lamborghini Huracan Evo2 | Sarah Bovy/Doriane Pin/Michelle Gatting | Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 Evo2 |
| Not classified | ||||||
| 46 | LMGT3 | Team WRT | BMW M4 | Ahmad Al Harthy/Valentino Rossi/Maxime Martin | BMW M4 LMGT3 | |
| 88 | LMGT3 | Proton Competition | Ford Mustang | Giorgio Roda/Mikkel Pedersen/Dennis Olsen | Ford Mustang LMGT3 | |
| 12 | Hypercar | Team Jota | Porsche 963 | Will Stevens/Callum Ilott/Norman Nato | Porsche 963 | |
| 81 | LMGT3 | TF Sport | Corvette Z06.R | Tom Van Rompuy/Rui Andrade/Charlie Eastwood | Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R | |
| 94 | Hypercar | Peugeot | Peugeot 9X8 | Paul di Resta/Loic Duval/Stoffel Vandoorne | Peugeot 9X8 | |
| 777 | LMGT3 | D’Station Racing | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | Clement Mateu/Erwan Bastard/Marco Sorensen | Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 | |
| 51 | Hypercar | Ferrari AF Corse | Ferrari 499P | Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/Antonio Giovinazzi | Ferrari 499P | |
| 54 | LMGT3 | Vista AF Corse | Ferrari 296 | Thomas Flohr/Francesco Castellacci/Davide Rigon | Ferrari 296 LMGT3 | |
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World Endurance Championship
- Penske Porsche poised to clinch title after winning incident-packed Fuji Six Hours
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- Court of Appeal rejects Ferrari’s challenge to WEC Six Hours of Spa result
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- Verstappen’s hope of racing alongside father at Le Mans dashed
AlexS
2nd September 2024, 11:12
Nice to see Kubica still racing well. Seems it was a good Ferrari weekend.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
2nd September 2024, 11:15
Not enough hyper-drivers around for all these cars – several are driving them as if they’re in F3. You can’t win a six-hour race on the first lap!
It used to be the experienced, patient fortysomething drivers in sportscars while the young ‘uns charged around (flat out, on raceable tyres) in F1. Now it’s the other way round…
Missed the end but it sounds like this was Toyota’s race to lose.
Effwon (@effwon)
3rd September 2024, 1:37
In the end it was the experienced, patient 37-year-old Kamui Kobayashi was deemed not to not have respected a double-yellow zone by failing to lift off/slow sufficiently for it, and was penalised (some might say harshly… though it did appear to be the culmination of several warnings and infringements) with a drive-through which dropped him 12s behind the #83 car into P2. In his haste to try and salvage the win he then charged around too hard and went wide a few times so that the final lap was one too far. Honourable mention for the experienced, patient 35-year-old Sebastien Buemi who moved over and hit the #6 Porsche several times on the back straight barging it off-track and squeezing it dangerously close to the wall.
The winning #83 car, meanwhile, had two 24-year-olds alongside the 39-year-old Kubica.
kpcart
3rd September 2024, 6:06
That is 2 wins in 2 weeks for Kubica, he is on fire, last week a win in ELMS, this week in WEC after qualifying second. He becomes the 3rd driver to win an F1 race and a WEC race (after Webber and Alonso), and first ever to also win a WRC round. His F1 career may have been derailed, but since his accident he has wins in lmp2, hypercar, ELMS, ERC, wrc2, a podium in dtm, and 14 WRC stage wins (in a privateer car, compared to Raikonnen who had 1 stage win in a factory car).
Sunday was a very special day for Ferrari, it is the first time in history that the same team has won an F1 race and a world endurance championship on the same day. Was great to also see a red and a yellow on the front row in the WEC race
AlexS
3rd September 2024, 14:42
Ferrari this year won Monaco, Monza and Le Mans. Just needs Indianapolis … but that unfortunately is blocked due to their rules.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
4th September 2024, 11:41
Qatar or Vegas will have to do…
AlexS
4th September 2024, 13:26
Ugh!
Indianapolis is the oldest operational track 1909, 115 years old.
Monza is the second oldest being build in 1922 it is already 102 years old. it also the track with most F1 GP’s
Le Mans opened in 1923, 101 years old
Monaco is the second track with most F1 GP , first race in 1929