Yellow WEC Ferrari Does the Double in Texas
Ferrari pulled off a remarkable double on Sunday when a 499P won the Texas Le Mans 6 Hour just hours after Leclerc’s Monza F1 masterpiece.
Ferrari pulled off a remarkable double on Sunday when Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, and Robert Shwartzman drove the yellow AF Corse-run privateer Ferrari 499P to victory in a dramatic Lone Star Le Mans 6 Hour at the Circuit of The Americas in Texas. Just hours after Charles Leclerc delivered a tactical masterpiece to beat McLaren to a shock home win in Monza, the AF trio bounced back to beat the Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries No. 7 Gazoo Toyota GR010 Hybrid.
It was a dramatic race that the Gazoo crew may feel cheated on incurring a yellow flag penalty while leading with 40 minutes left to run, as much as the 51 Factory Ferrari will want to forget being taken out while lapping a Peugeot. Whatever those, and other issues, the yellow Ferrari crew has now made it six different winners in the six FIA World Endurance Championship races this year as Ferrari also finally broke it’s WEC ‘sprint’ duck away from the Le Mans 24 Hour.
An Incredible Ferrari Double in Texas
In a thrilling race that competed an incredible Ferrari double, the yellow machine led much of the race until being hunted down and passed by the black Toyota at around two-thirds distance. Ferrari driver Shwartzman then inherited the lead back from de Vries after the Toyota was hit with a penalty for ignoring yellow flags. And then just like Leclerc and Piastri at Monza, young Shwartzman fought off the fast-closing Kobayashi, who ran out of time after closing the gap down from nine, to just 1.7 seconds by the flag
Le Mans-winning factory Ferrari trio, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen, and Antonio Fuoco were there or thereabouts throughout as they came home third, ahead of Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn in Cadillac’s best result of the season for the V-Series. Alpine overcame BMW in the battle of the newcomers after the Bavarian brand had impressed for much of the early running well up in the top ten. But it was Ferdinand Habsburg, Paul-Loup Chatin and Charles Milesi’s Alpine that ended behind the Ferraris, Toyota and Cadillac, and ahead of all the Porsches after it fought back from an early contact penalty.
A Texas Day to Forget for Some
It was a day to forget for Porsche, which has been at the sharp edge since the start of the season as the championship leading Estre Lotterer Vanthoor factory Penske 963 could only manage sixth overall. The sister Campbell Christensen Makowiecki 5 Porsche followed, from the Vanthoor Marciello Wittmann BMW, the second Lapierre Schumacher Vaxiviere Alpine and the Button Hanson Rasmussen Jota Porsche in tenth.
Tales of woe abounded. Alpine benefitted a late penalty for Estre’s 6 Porsche on a yellow-flag infringement. The Giovinazzi Calado and Guidi Ferrari retired after contact with both an LMGT3 runner and later, one of the Peugeots, which had another weekend to forget. The quick Rast Frijns van der Linde was hit with a late energy penalty to drop them from sixth to 13th And the second Toyota was delayed by a series of issues to scrape home thirteenth.
Local Heart of Racing Aston Martin team Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli, and Alex Riberas dominated LMGT3 ahead of the championship leading Malykhin Sturm Bachler, and Shahin Schuring Lietz Porsches.
Toyota leads makers, Porsche Driver’s Championships
After all that, Gazoo Toyota Racing now leads the 2024 World Endurance Championship on by 11 points from Penske Porsche with Ferrari another 8 points adrift. Alpins sits fourth under pressure from BMW and Cadillac. Number 6 Porsche crew Vanthoor, Lotterer, and Estre continue to lead the Hypercar championship on 125 points, but by a reduced 12 points over the tied Ferrari trio Molina, Nielsen and Fuoco, and Toyotas drivers de Vries and Kobayashi.
The WEC now heads east to Japan for the penultimate 6 Hours of Fuji on Sunday 15 September.
Images: WEC