Two Ferraris currently lead the Lone Star Le Mans as the first two hours of the six-hour event of this sixth round of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship are completed.
In Austin there are some clouds that at times obscure the sun and the temperatures are just above 30°C when the light turns green and starts a race that is immediately very hard-fought to find space and gain positions from the centre of the group, while in front Antonio Giovinazzi and Robert Kubica maintain their positions, chased by a very lively Miguel Molina in the 499P #50.
Ferdinand Habsburg is instead a bit too aggressive and slams the wheel on Earl Bamber’s Cadillac, causing it to lose ground; the Alpine #35 driver is given a Drive Through and the BMWs are grateful, as they climb into the Top5, staying in Molina’s slipstream for the entire first hour.
Meanwhile, the #5 Porsche of Frédéric Makowiecki is called into the pits to remove the protective tag from the pitot tube in the cockpit, while Stoffel Vandoorne suffers a puncture on the left rear of his #94 Peugeot and has to come in to replace it.
From the Ferrari pits comes the communication to Giovinazzi to give the green light to Kubica who is on a different strategy (he fits the hard right rear tyre against the 4 medium ones of the other 499Ps) and on lap 16 the Apulian steps aside, while Molina loses a bit of ground, still pursued by the BMWs.
Edoardo Mortara also got off to a good start, jumping from 18th to 10th place in just a few corners with his Lamborghini, although he was then punished with 5″ added to the first pit stop for overtaking outside the track limits.
The same penalty was given twice (5″ and 10″) to the #38 Porsche of Jota driven first by Phil Hanson and then by Oliver Rasmussen, thus dropping down the order when it had managed to climb back into the Top10.
During the second hour, Giovinazzi had a thrill when he collided with the #78 Lexus driven at the time by Arnold Robin; 5″ were added to the Ferrari driver’s next pit stop for the incident that occurred in the long series of curves in sector 1.
But the worst was yet to come because on lap 54 ‘Giovi’ reached a McLaren under braking at turn 12, but going long he ended up on the inside kerb and spun, risking hitting a Peugeot and remaining stuck for a whole lap before managing to restart very slowly and return to the pits, where he stopped along the pit lane after being pushed by the mechanics.
Alessandro Pier Guidi climbed into the car as it was being taken into the garage by the Ferrari-AF Corse mechanics to try to get it back into action by solving an apparent electronic problem, but in vain and sadly raising the white flag.
Race action
Photo by: Andreas Beil
As we reached the end of the first 120 minutes and with the second round of pit stops approaching, among the HYPERCARs the Kubica-Molina duo were on the virtual podium, all separated by a handful of seconds, while the #20 BMW was holding on in third place and the #15 had slipped way back due to a small problem with a tyre, with Marco Wittmann also spinning.
The beneficiaries were Cadillac, Toyota #7 and the Porsches of Jota #12 and Penske #6, in addition to Toyota #8 which gained eighth place followed at a distance by Peugeot #93, Lamborghini and the Alpines. The Porsche #99 of Proton Competition instead took a Drive Through for exceeding track limits too many times.
In the LMGT3 class, the #27 Aston Martin of Heart Of Racing held the lead right from the start with the excellent Ian James, despite being chased by the very threatening Sarah Bovy in the #85 Lamborghini of the Iron Dames.
After the first pit stop, Maxime Martin replaced Ahmad Al Harthy and fought back to overtake the Belgian, putting the #46 Team WRT BMW, which Valentino Rossi will ride later, in second place.
Top 5 for the #81 Corvette of TF Sport and the #55 Ferrari of AF Corse, which is the best placed 296 given that the #54 suffered a clutch problem before the start and had to return to the pits to replace it, losing almost twenty laps.
The #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche is sixth, with the #59 United Autosports McLaren seventh, holding off the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang, the #777 D’station Racing Aston Martin and the #31 WRT BMW completing the top 10.
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