Porsche Penske claims 1st victory of the year in Lone Star Le Mans at COTA
- Kylar Boggs
- Sep 9
- 5 min read
Porsche Penske claims their first win of the year at the Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of The Americas in chaotic fashion. It was a wet one for the drivers in the World Endurance Championship and the conditions on track were very unforgiving.
Before the race got underway, the conditions were quite treacherous due to the rain and the spray of the cars on track. The race began behind the safety car. This was in hope to clear any standing water off the racing line with the cars on track to make the conditions good enough to race. Shortly into the race, the #5 Porsche Penske of Julien Andlauer goes for a half spin into turn 13 and loses a position under the safety car, and just after that the #6 Porsche Penske of Laurens Vanthoor reported some smoke from inside the car to the team, although was able to carry on just fine.
In addition to that, the #20 BMW Hypercar of Rene Rast pulls off to the side of the track in turn 3 with a terminal problem to the car. 1 hour into the race, the stewards decide to red flag the race due to the conditions. The race would finally get underway at the 4 hour 10 minute mark, and the chaos would begin.
Heading into turn 3, the #15 BMW of Kevin Magnussen would go wide and off the racing line but able to keep it straight. However, just behind Magnussen, the 007 Aston Martin of Tom Gamble would aquaplane off track and tag the wall with the rear of the car, and the #36 Alpine of Fred Makowiecki would also spin and hit the wall at higher speeds ensuing a lot of damage to the car. Due to the debris from the incident on track, the safety car was deployed.
Racing resumed at the 3hr and 44 minute mark, but it wasn't much later until the virtual safety car was deployed for the #99 Proton of Nico Varrrone spinning in the triple right hander in sector 3 and getting stuck in the gravel. During the VSC, there would be an issue for the #83 Ferrari AF Corse Hypercar in the pitlane. Entering the pit lane, the #83 Ferrari had to take a sharp entry into the pit box, avoiding the #21 GT3 Ferrari. The Crew of the #83 would have to end up rotating the car for it to not only be in the pit box but for them to set the car back down before they could do their driver change, and this costed them multiple seconds in their pit stop. The VSC would end up going to a full safety car once again with 3 hours and 9 minutes remaining.
This safety car period was rather a short one and the field went back to green flag conditions at the 2hr 56 minute mark. Shortly after, the #8 Toyota Hypercar of Ryo Hirakawa would go spinning through the esses in turns 4-6 due to contact with the #33 TF Sport GT3 Corvette. As the race went on, it was the #38 Cadillac Hypercar of Sebastien Bourdais going for a very fast spin just at the end of sector 1 but keeps it out of the wall, as well as the #36 Alpine going for a spin once more.
In addition, the #7 Toyota of Jose Maria "Pechito" Lopez goes for a spin in turn 3, and later on in the lap spins again in turn 12 and brings out the VSC once again. The #7 Toyota would end up retiring from the race and the #33 TF Sport would go for a spin and this caused the full safety car to be deployed yet again.
The field went back to green flag racing and heading into turn 1, the #51 Ferrari AF Corse of Alessandro Pier Guidi, and the Penske Porsche #6 of Kevin Estre would make contact and this resulted in a left front puncture for the #51 Ferrari causing him to fall down the order. After that occured, the #87 Lexus GT3 goes into the wall in the last corner and another safety car is deployed. More problems for the #33 Corvette LMGT3 as well and retires from the race with the right rear of the car broken.
Later on after the safety car ends at the 1hr 19 minute mark, in LMGT3, the #61 Iron Lynx GT3 Mercedes would make contact with another car and spins in turn 8 and this causes a full course yellow.
Meanwhile, the battle for the win in LMGT3 began to heat up with the #95 United Autosport McLaren of Marino Sato, and the #77 Ford of Ben Tuck racing for the lead, making contact with each other multiple times.
Fast Forward to 36 minutes left in the race, as the #007 Aston Martin of Harry Tincknell came out of the pitlane, the engine died and he would end up retiring from the race. This brought out the final VSC of the race due to the Aston being stopped at the end of the pitlane up hill.
The race went back to green with 26 minutes remaining and within the last 10 minutes of the race, it was the #94 Peugeot of Stoffel Vandoorne and the #50 Ferrari of Miguel Molina battling for 2nd in the Hypercar class as the Porsche Penske #6 of Estre was pulling away.
In the GT3 class, the #54 Ferrari of Davide Rigon and #77 of Ben Barker making severe contact in the hairpin just past the end of sector 1. As the checkered flag fell, it was Kevin Estre for Porsche Penske picking up the win in the Hypercar class with Miguel Molina in the #50 Ferrari AF Corse in 2nd, and Stoffel Vandoorne for Peugot in the 3rd position rounding out the podium. In LMGT3 it was the #54 Ferrari crossing the line 1st, however due to the contact with the #77 Ford, the Ferrari received a 5 second penalty and was demoted to 3rd, making the winner the #95 United Autosport McLaren of Marino Sato, and in 2nd the #46 BMW of Kevin Van Der Linde.
In the post race conference, Matt Campbell, one of the three drivers of the #6 Penske Porsche was asked about the conditions and Campbell stated, "turn 18 and turn 2 were quite tricky and going down the back straight having to life halfway down the back straight due to the aquaplaning." This was Campbell's first win in the World Endurance Championship since Spa Francorchamps in 2019.
When Marino Sato, Winner of the LMGT3 class, was asked about the choice of tire to go on towards the end of the race, Sato stated "it was 50/50 for the wet tires, and 5 laps before we had to pit, was discussing with the team where it was wet and where it was dry, ultimately going with the right call to go on the slick tires."