This 2024 WEC Lone Star Le Mans race report was compiled by regular endurance-racing correspondent and total motorsport fundi, Dr Nick van der Meulen.

Lone Star Le Mans, the sixth round of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship, took place at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), Texas. The WEC circus returned to the track for the first time in four years. The demanding, twisty circuit saw heavy traffic issues throughout the 6-hour endurance event.

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I can’t describe what I am feeling. We began the weekend in the best possible way with a strong qualifying performance, and the race itself was flawless, with no mistakes from the team or us drivers. They are proud to be part of this extraordinary day for Ferrari, which has won in the FIA WEC and Formula 1 here in America and Italy. We have finally gained payback after the unfortunate race at Le Mans. This win repays us for so much effort and gives us confidence heading into the season’s final two races.
– Yifei Ye, co-driver of the winning Ferrari 

Le Mans Winners Return To Form

Ferrari locked out the front row of the grid in the Hyperpole session. However, soon after the start Ferrari were running 1-2-3! The yellow AF Corse #83 “customer” machine (Kubica/Ye/Shwartzmann), with Robert Kubica behind the wheel, surged to the front before the end of the first hour. It was the yellow Ferrari that ran at the front for the entire race, only challenged by the #7 Toyota.

The Japanese marque had team manager Kamui Kobayashi behind the wheel as they took the lead in the penultimate hour. They looked ominous until a mistake by Kobayashi, hurtling too fast under yellow flag conditions, was penalised. After performing his drive-through penalty, Kobayashi charged towards the tail of AF Corse #83. Robert Shwarzmann did a sterling job to keep the harrying Kobayashi behind him and win the race by a mere 1,7 seconds. It was the team’s first Hyperclass and overall victory. Ferrari #50 (Nielsen/Fuoco/Molini) ran solidly to finish third, while polesitter #51 (Pier Guidi/Callado/Giovinazzi) failed to finish after being plagued by mechanical issues.

Challenge Fading

The Toyota squad had a weekend of mixed fortunes. Both machines suffered in Hyperpole: #7 (Kobayashi/Conway/de Vries) qualified ninth, while #8 (Hartley/Hirakawa/Buemi) started 12th. Conway and De Vries worked well to get the #7 machine into second place by half distance. A more aggressive pit strategy saw them undercut the #83Ferrari for the lead with about two hours remaining. This was negated with the drive-through penalty.

The #8  machine had a more subdued race, running in the top 7 throughout. Buemi was penalised (30-second stop-and-go) for heavy handed resistance on an attack by Kevin Estre (Penske Porsche #6) in the penultimate hour. He was penalised again later for not respecting blue flags and finished the race a lowly 15th.

Other Challengers

BMW ran strongly at COTA. The #20 car of Rast/Frijns/Van der Linde ran in the top three until half distance, before slipping back and finishing an eventual 13th. The #15 car (D. Vanthoor/Marciello/Wittmann) placed in the top 10, finishing eighth. Cadillac #2 (Bamber/Lynn) had a strong home race, running solidly throughout and taking a season-best fourth place.

Porsche had a race to forget, by their lofty standards. Penske Porsche #6 (L. Vanthoor/Estre/Lotterer), the world championship leader, had to be content with sixth position, despite being forced off the road when dicing Toyota #8. Teammates #5 (Christensen/Campbell/Makowiecki) followed them home in seventh place, while JOTA #38 (Hanson/Button/Rasmussen) finished tenth.

Peugeot #93 (Müller/Vergne/Jensen) had a strong start to the race, running in the top five. But they lost race pace and slipped to twelfth place at the fall of the chequered flag. While Alpine made a slow start to the race, both machines were classified in the top 10 at the finish, with #36 (Chatin/Habsburg/Milesi) finishing a fine fith and #35 (Lapierre/Schumacher/Vaxiviere) ninth overall.

GT3s

Heart of Racing Aston Martin #27 (James/Mancinelli/Riberas) dominated the LMGT3 class at COTA, leading from start to finish. Championship leader Manthey Purerxcing Porsche #92 (Malykhin/Sturm/Bachler) finished second ahead of stable mate, Manthey EMA Porsche #91 (Shahin/Schuring/Lietz). Iron Dames Lamborghini #85 (Bovy/Frey/Gatting) ran strongly in second position before making contact with TF Sport Corvette #81, breaking the rear suspension and forcing them to retire.

United Autosport McLaren #59 (Cottingham/Costa/Saucy) finished a solid fourth in class, ahead of WRT BMW #31 (Farfus/Gelael/Leung). WRT BMW #46 (Martin/Rossi/Al Harthy) had a power steering failure with 15 minutes to go and was forced to retire from a potential top five finish.

Championship Standings

The top ten finishers in each class score points. There are three points-scoring allocation forms, with different allocations for 6-hour, 8-10-hour and 24-hour events, respectively.

Vanthoor/Estre/Lotterer maintain their Hypercar championship lead with 125 points, ahead of Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen and Kobayashi/DeVries, all with 113 points. Sheldon van der Linde has 10 points and lies 18th in the standings.

In the GT3LM class, the Manthey drivers Malykhin/Sturm/Bachler lead the championship with 118 points. Shahin/Schuring/Lietz lies second with 90 points, marginally ahead of Farfus/Leung/Gelael with 84 points. Kelvin van der Linde (Akkodis Lexus) lies 17th in the standings, with 18 points.

The seventh round of the World Endurance Championship takes place at Fuji (6 Hours of Fuji), Japan on 15 September.