This 2025 FIA WEC Lone Star Le Mans race report was compiled by regular endurance-racing correspondent and motorsport fundi, Dr Nick van der Meulen.
Lone Star Le Mans, the sixth round of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship, took place at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), Texas. The event saw torrential rain occur on race day, resulting in it starting under the safety car. It ran as such for over an hour before the race was stopped due to a communications issue with the safety cars. One was due to replace the other, but the communication did not reach the teams.
Most of the cars followed the safety car into pit lane, while others stayed out. Chaos ensued and the race was red-flagged to readjust the correct race standings. The race was restarted under safety car conditions and the field finally released to race after about one-and-a-half hours. It was short-lived, though: after two laps of racing the safety car was again deployed following Alpine #36 (Gunon/Mackowiecki/Schumacher) and Aston Martin #007 (Tincknell/Gamble) aquaplaning off the circuit. The race was sporadically interrupted throughout the first five hours of the six-hour event.
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Fast Ferraris
Ferrari locked out the front row of the grid in the Hyperpole session and looked to have the race well in hand just after the halfway point. The yellow AF Corse #83 ‘customer’ machine (Kubica/Ye/Shwartzmann) took the lead from pole position, but had to concede to #51 (Pier Guidi/Callado/Giovinazzi) when their rear tyres began overheating in the second hour of racing. The #83 machine continued to struggle and fall down the order, while Ferrari #50 (Nielsen/Fuoco/Molini) started charging to the front.
Ferrari looked set to dominate, until the restart from yet another Safety Car with an hour remaining. The leading #51 machine was outdragged to Turn 1 by Penske Porsche #6 (L. Vanthoor/Estre/Campbell) with Kevin Estre behind the wheel.
Pier Guidi, driving #51, damaged the front left tyre after being tagged by Estre in what would be a pass for victory. This resulted in an unscheduled pitstop and sent the #51 tumbling down the leaderboard. He managed to carve his way back to fifth position at the fall of the chequered flag. Ferrari #50 finished a solid second and #83 seventh. The seventh-place result saw AF Corse win the World Cup for Hypercar Teams title for 2025 (for #83).
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Porsche Pace
Estre took a fine victory for Porsche, the team looking feisty all race. The reigning world champions survived the first two thirds of the race and blasted into the lead when given the smallest of opportunities. The Frenchman did a superb job of keeping his rivals at bay for the remainder of the race. To illustrate the conditions, 120 laps were completed for the 2025 race versus 183 laps completed last season. This victory marks Matt Campbell’s first overall victory in WEC.
“The conditions were very difficult, especially when the track began to dry,” Estre explained. “The Ferrari behind was very strong towards the end and kept us under pressure, and it was a matter of deciding whether to put slicks on or not. It was tricky, but I was pretty confident the guys would make the right choice and it feels really good to be back on the top step where we belong.”
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Teammates #5 (Christensen/Andlauer/Jaminet), in contrast, had a race to forget. Andlauer spun in the early stages behind the safety car, demonstrating the torrid conditions. There were subsequent spins from the team, but they still managed to grab the final point on offer for finishing tenth. The Proton #99 Porsche (Jani/Pino/Varrone) shone in the early stages of the race, running strongly in the top five. Unfortunately, they finished outside the points.
Getting Better
Peugeot had their best result in WEC since their return to the prototype class. While looking less than promising in the early stages of the race, the French marque showed great speed in the drying, slippery conditions. Peugeot #94 (Duval/Jakobsen/Vandoorne) finished on the bottom step of the podium, while teammates #93 (Di Resta/Jensen/Vergne) finished a fine fourth (after running stone last in class at one stage).
Hometown favourites Cadillac managed to bring both cars home in the points. Car #38 (Bourdais/Bamber/Button) had a torrid time in the sodden conditions, with Bourdais spinning a number of times. Nevertheless, they managed to finish a fine sixth, while teammates #12 (Lynn/Nato/Stevens) crossed the finish line in eighth place.
Other Challengers
It was a tough day for Toyota, BMW, Alpine and Aston Martin. Toyota #8 (Hartley/Hirakawa/Buemi) managed to score a couple of points, finishing ninth, while #7 (Kobayashi/Lopez/de Vries) had a number of spins with Lopez behind the wheel, losing time and finishing outside the points.
Aston Martin ran very strongly in the early stages of the race, the 009 machine (Riberas/Sorensen) running in the top five at one stage. Unfortunately, both cars retired with suspected drivetrain issues in the closing stages of the race.
BMW had a disastrous race at COTA. The #20 machine (Rast/Frijns/S. van der Linde) was the first race retirement, while the safety car was still circulating. Rast was forced to stop the car due to a hybrid issue and the team could not continue. The #15 machine (D. Vanthoor/Marciello/Wittmann) struggled terribly in the wet, aquaplaning and spinning a number of times in the treacherous conditions.
GT3LM Class
Vista AF Corse Ferrari #54 (Flohr/Castelacci/Rigon) took victory on track in the LMGT3 class, after charging into the lead with their new slick tyres in the closing stages of the race. The stewards took a dim view of Rigon barging his way past Proton Mustang #77 (Sousa/Tuck/Barker) on the march to the front and penalised him 5 seconds post-race.
This demoted them to third position, handing a debut victory to United Autosports McLaren #95 (Leung/Gelael/Sato), who was vying for victory throughout the six-hour race. Team WRT BMW #46 (Al Harthy/Rossi/K. van der Linde) finished a fine second. The second United Autosports McLaren #59 (Cottingham/Baud/Saucy) finished fourth, ahead of Heart of Racing Aston Martin #27 (James/Robichon/Drudi) and Proton Mustang #77.
Points Scored
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.
Pier Guidi/Calado/Giovinazzi retake the Hypercar championship lead with 115 points, ahead of Hanson/Kubica/Ye with 100 and Estre/L. Vanthoor with 79 points. Sheldon van der Linde has 37 points and lies 12th in the standings.
LMGT3 Standings
In the LMGT3 class, Pera/Lietz/Hardwick lead with 95 points ahead of Rovera/Heriau/Mann (Vista AF Corse Ferrari #21) with 76 points. Keating/Juncadella/Edgar lies third with 66 points. Kelvin van der Linde lies 10th in the standings, with 40 points.
The seventh round of the World Endurance Championship takes place at Fuji (6 Hours of Fuji), Japan on 28 September 2025.
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