Qualifying for the fifth round of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) got underway at 15:00 local time at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA). The LMGT3 field took to the track first for qualifying, with the top 10 advancing to Hyperpole.
It was Ford that came out on top with the No.88 heading the No.77 in a 1-2 for the American brand on home soil. The result comes after the company renamed its motorsport division to Ford Racing, and announced an upcoming Evo kit for the GT3 car.
Qualifying
For what was a weekend that was expected to be a hot one early on, rain was in the air for the start of the session. It wasn’t too wet on the circuit, so all of the drivers went out on the slick tyres. With no tyre warmers, getting any sort of tyre temperature would be imperative for a good lap time.
It’s also important to note, this session must be run by the teams’ bronze drivers, who are typically the least experienced in each LMGT3 car.
There was still spits of rain as the 18 cars piled out onto the track, tip-toeing around trying to find any form of tyre grip.
The first laps didn’t come through until around seven minutes left, about 20 seconds off the dry pace. The conditions were too wet to get temperature into a set of slicks, but it was clear that it was no where near wet weather tyre conditions.
Ahmad Al-Harthy held the top time, a 2:26, before Ian James and the two Fords went quicker on the next runs. Petru Umbrărescu was the first to go under a 2 minute 20, with a 2:19.7 in his No.87 Lexus.
But with three minutes left, all eyes were on the elimination zone, which contained both Mercedes’, both Ferraris and the championship leading No.92 Porsche.
The No.92 Manthey Porsche at the 6 Hours of São Paulo | Credit: Porsche Newsroom
Arnold Robin in the No.78 Lexus went for a spin, but quickly got underway again. With 90 seconds to go he sat second to last.
Ben Keating was briefly in fourth earlier in the session in his No.33 Corvette, but sat 13th to begin his final flying lap, six and a half seconds off the pace. Both Ferraris and the Manthey Porsche had just squeezed into the top 10, as the chequered flag flew.
Darren Leung jumped from the drop zone to fifth, as did Keating and Andrew Gilbert in the No.60 Mercedes. In the end both Ferraris and both Porsches fell into the drop zone.
Those eliminated were the No.88 Ford, No.81 Corvette, No.61 Mercedes, No.92 Porsche, No.54 Ferrari, No.10 Aston Martin, the No.21 Ferrari and the No.85 Iron Dames Porsche.
At the front it was a BMW 1-2 in the first session, with Yasser Shahin in the No.31 leading Al-Harthy in the No.46. Timur Boguslavskiy and Valentino Rossi would take those cars over for the Hyperpole session.
Hyperpole
After the first session had finished, a red flag was shown on track with the possibility of electrical storms in the area. Hyperpole would be delayed by a handful of minutes. There was also an investigation into Umbrărescu, who possibly saw the chequered flag twice. The No.87 Lexus was third, but was in danger of being thrown down the order.
The Lexus was found guilty, so the No.88 Ford entered Hyperpole in its stead. Instead of the bronze drivers from the last session, this one was run by the silver drivers in each car.
The rain was slightly heavier than the first session, but everyone still went out on slicks. Despite this, the times were quicker. Giammarco Levorato in the No.88 Ford set a 2:10.1 on his first run, the quickest time of the lot so far.
Sean Gelael was just two tenths back, but there was monumental improvements coming on the next laps from everyone. Ben Tuck in the No.77 went into the 2:08’s but his teammate in the No.88 went half a second quicker, they both sat 1.2 seconds ahead of everyone else with two and a half minutes left.
The No.78 Lexus was third, and the No.95 McLaren of Gelael in fourth. Rossi in the No.46 was also yet to set a proper lap due to track limits. Sebastian Baud in the other No.59 McLaren went for a spin at turn 12, but got it going again.
Levorato had gone purple in sector one, but got held up by the yellow flags for the McLaren and couldn’t improve. Gelael got a bit closer to the Fords on his second to last lap, but still seven tenths away from the front row.
Rossi set a lap to go fifth, and was flying on his final lap of the session. Gelael went second briefly but was pipped by the No.77 of Tuck who went top. Rossi went fourth, before the No.88 of Leverato went 0.018 seconds quicker than the sister Mustang.
Fifth was the No.33 Corvette, with the No.59 in sixth. Then came the No.78 Lexus, the No.60 Mercedes, the No.31 BMW and the No.27 Aston Martin.
The two Ford Mustangs would start first and second in LMGT3 for their home race, the Lone Star Le Mans.