Lone Star Le Mans By the numbers
It’s the first time in the FIA WEC’s history that eight different manufacturer teams, or put another way, ALL of the eight current factory Hypercar teams, have finished in the overall top 10.
Eight different Hypercars did feature in the overall top 10 at Fuji last year, but the only Ferrari to do so was the privately entered #83 AF Corse machine.
In LMGT3, an equally extraordinary result saw just one of the top nine cars in the overall championship standings coming into the weekend score points on Sunday.
The outlier was the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari that finished fourth in class. That means the only car from the bottom nine coming into the CoTA weekend not to score a point was the #32 Team WRT BMW!
The result saw the first time that both Heart of Racing LMGT3 Aston Martins finished on the podium together.
Neither of the Championship-leading crews in either Hypercar (#20 BMW) or LMGT3 (#33 TF Sport Corvette) scored a point, but both retain their points leadership.
The late-race hydraulic failure for the #7 Toyota ruined an opportunity for the squad to take a 25 point lead in the Drivers Championship, instead the crew remain on level points with Robin Frijns and Rene Rast from the #20 BMW who remain as leaders on current count back (both crews have a win apiece but the BMW has a second place finish this season, the Toyota’s next best being third at Imola).
Incidentally, CoTA marked the first race retirement for the #7 crew since Bahrain in 2024; the sister #8 car has not posted a race retirement since Spa in 2022!
Seventh place for the #17 Genesis GMR 001 marks the best result so far for the South Korean 2026 debutant Hypercar squad
In LMGT3, Jonny Edgar stays atop the drivers’ points with the odd circumstances of the season, with Ben Keating missing the first two races through injury and Nicky Catsburg on IMSA duty on the Interlagos weekend, seeing all three drivers of the #33 Corvette from CoTA continue in positions 1,2 and 3 in the points.
Fourth in class, though, the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari crew sees them draw level with Keating on 54 points; remarkably, they sit second in the Teams’ World Championship after five races despite not having scored a podium all season!
AKKODIS fined
Whilst there were several Stewards’ decisions post-race, none affected a points-scoring car.
Notably, the AKKODIS ASP squad was dealt a fine for an unsafe release after a second attempted repair on the bonnet (hood) of the #78 Lexus failed. Esteban Masson’s vision was then impaired, leading the Frenchman to impact with the raised concrete edge of an access road, incurring race-ending damage to the front of the Lexus and bringing out a FCY.
The loss of the original engine cover on track had already brought out an earlier caution.
Calado explains the #51’s pit stop woes
Ferrari factory driver James Calado explained to DSC post-race that driver error was behind the #51’s loss of time in the pit lane during the first half of the race that ultimately destroyed its race.
“It was an error in Giovi’s stint,” Calado said. “When he came into the pits, it meant I had to do a full power cycle; there was confusion, and we lost a lot of time. From then onwards, it didn’t go to plan; it was messy, we had VSCs that set us back, and it was game over.”
Martins: Safety car timing cost the #36
The two Alpine A424s had strong pace all weekend at CoTA, and finished third (#35) and fifth (#36). It was a good result on paper, but the Signatech-run operation felt they could have achieved more.
Victor Martins, who stood out in the #36 car, explained that a better result was on the table had the timing of the second safety car not hurt them.
“The car was very quick; the guys gave us a really strong car,” he told DSC. “I was quick in Qualifying; I felt in Hyperpole that pole was in my hands but got impeded by a Ferrari and had to set my lap too late when tyre performance dropped off. Then in the race, Jules and Fred did a great job, and I pushed like crazy in the end. One stint before the end, we were running P2, then the VSC came out at the wrong time, and we ended up P12; we couldn’t recover from that.
“I don’t know if it’s bad luck. You never know in races like this. It feels like it though; it feels like it did in Sao Paulo and Le Mans, so when it’s always happening it means that we need to work on stuff to ensure we do not put ourselves in positions like this.”
Genesis “Need to polish up procedures”
Another team that secured an encouraging result but left COTA disappointed was Genesis Magma Racing. A seventh-place finish for the #17 car was the manufacturer’s best finish to date, but Justin Taylor felt that the team’s operational performance, rather than the car’s, prevented an even stronger finish.
“We have to look at the positives from this weekend,” he said. “We got both cars to finish on the lead lap. That was a big goal for us. We got one of the cars in the top 10. Neither car saw the garage with a technical issue, not only in the race, but in any of the practice sessions. I think we can be really proud of that.
“We’ve made some big steps, but we’ve got a long way to go, and this race is gonna give us some motivation for that. On the flip side, we made several mistakes in several different areas, so it was a bit of a wake-up call. We need to polish up our procedures and be a bit smarter next time we come to the track to battle these guys.”
Leung’s pace goes unrewarded
WRT’s Darren Leung enjoyed a strong start to the race yesterday in the #32 BMW M4 LMGT3. The British Bronze-graded racer climbed from sixth into the top three in the opening stint, but a sensor failure undid that work by forcing the car into the garage, costing the team any chance of a points-paying result.
After the issue was addressed, the car rejoined the racing action ten laps down on the class lead, but did make the finish, in 16th.
“I felt like I drove really well today and this week, to be honest,” Leung continued. “It’s a bit of a shame. I felt like I could have been competitive with the pace I had.
“It’s just one of those things where you know you are going to be gutted. I let myself be gutted for a short period of time, then gathered myself up and started working on making sure the car was good for Fuji.”
Images courtesy of Keith Rizzo & Sarah Weeks
