Porsche in Texas Lone Star WEC 6 Hour: Tough at the Top
Sunday’s Texas World Endurance 6 Hour proved to be a tough weekend for Porsche 963 Hypercars, but goof for 911 LMGT3s.
Ferrari may have pulled off a remarkable double on Sunday when Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, and Robert Shwartzman drove their yellow AF Corse-run privateer 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. But it was a tough day for championship leaders going to thje ‘States, Porsche
The AF Ferrari trio bounced back to beat the Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries No. 7 Gazoo Toyota GR010 Hybrid in a dramatic race that both the Gazoo crew and the No. 6 Porsche may feel cheated on incurring a yellow flag penalty. The Toyota was leading at the time with 40 minutes left to run, the Porsche had fought back to sixth.
An Incredible Ferrari Double at Monza and 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 Chat-in and Charles Milesi’s Alpine that ended behind the Ferraris, Toyota and Cadillac, and ahead of all the Porsches after it fought back from that penalty.
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 fol-lowed, from the Vanthoor Marciello Wittmann BMW, the second Lapierre Schumacher Vaxiviere Alpine and the Button Hanson Rasmussen Jota Porsche in tenth. Heart of Rac-ing Aston Martin crew Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli, and Alex Riberas won LMGT3 ahead of the championship leading Malykhin Sturm Bachler, and Shahin Schuring Lietz Porsches.
A Texas Day to Forget for Some
Looking closer at the Porsche performance, the number 6 car lined up in 14th on the grid with Vanthoor at the wheel after a tough qualifying session. He set an early quickest lap in a strong first stint that saw him lead briefly through the first refueling cycle. Vanthoor then emerged ninth and later handed over to Lotterer. He then challenged for sixth as the Six matched the leaders’ pace. After contact with the 8 Toyota, a later yellow flag penalty dropped them to 11th before rising back to finish sixth.
Makowiecki started sixth in the number 5 Porsche 963 but dropped three places in the Turn 1 melee. He was then forced to pit to remove a Pitot tube cover left on the car. He resumed in 17th, was soon up to 13th before Christensen took over and raced up to tenth. He had to stop early due to a water bottle issue and handed over to Campbell. Who fought back from 12th to seventh overall.
Of the privateer Porsches, Jota’s 38 car racing in Mobil1 50th anniversary livery picked up a vital world championship point, while number 12 retired after technical issues. The 99 Proton Competition 993 started 16th and came home 12th. “Sixth and seventh was the best we could expect from our cars today at least,” Michael Christensen owned up. “Quite frustrating, but it was one of those days where it did not all go our way.” Laurens Vanthoor added: “That was a tough weekend! “We came back quite strong, but our penalty cost us, and our main title rivals gained some points on us, so not the best of days.”
A Powerful Porsche 911 Performance in LMGT3
All of that sees the 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. Ga-zoo Toyota Racing however now leads the Manufacturer’s race by 11 points from Penske Porsche with Ferrari another 8 points adrift. It’s tight at the top!
Moving on to LMGT3, it was another good day for Manthey Racing with both cars on the podium. The 92 Klaus Bachler, Alex Malykhin and Joel Sturm 911 LMGT3 started fourth and lost places, but was soon up to third, and finally second. The sister Richard Lietz, Morris Schuring and Yasser Shahin car started in 16th. And fought back top that podium third to consolidate Porsche’s LMGT3 championship advantage.
“Two more races to go and we keep on fighting,” Porsche Director Factory Racing Urs Ku-ratle concludes. “There’s still every chance to win the championship and end up really well, so we keep on fighting!” The WEC now heads east to Japan for the penultimate 6 Hours of Fuji on Sunday 15 September.
Images: Porsche