Giovinazzi ekes out Lone Star Le Mans pole for Ferrari

The reigning FIA WEC Hypercar world champions in the No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P are set to start from pole in tomorrow’s Lone Star Le Mans race at COTA.

The Italian marque successfully maintained its 100% pole position record during the Hypercar era of Lone Star Le Mans, after Antonio Giovinazzi topped an incredibly close Hyperpole session with a late flyer to vault him up the order.

Incredibly, Giovinazzi and Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s Jack Aitken both recorded a 1m52.445s during the 10-minute session, but by virtue of setting the time first, the Italian is scored ahead of the No. 38 V-Series.R.

The point for pole position cuts the No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse crew’s deficit in the drivers’ world championship to only 17 points.

Ferrari waited one lap longer than the majority of its rivals before pushing in the decisive 12-minute Hyperpole session, with Giovinazzi delivering his 1m52.445s on his first attempt. Aitken then matched this time in the dying seconds, before a temporary loss of power on the approach to the Esses on his final lap cost the Cadillac drive a chance at improving.

"It was a great qualifying," Giovinazzi said. "Qualifying actually was better; for Hyperpole I think the wind picked up and it was not easy to drive the car so I didn't do a perfect lap, but it was enough to put the car on pole. One point for the championship, good position for tomorrow's race, so it's a good start today and let's finish the job tomorrow!"

It is Ferrari's 10th outright FIA WEC pole position, and Giovinazzi's fifth. The point for pole position also cuts the #51 Ferrari AF Corse crew’s deficit in the drivers’ world championship to only 17 points.

It is the second time that qualifying has been a dead heat in the FIA WEC, and the first under the single lap time format. The previous occasion, the 2014 6 Hours of Shanghai, saw the #14 Porsche 919 Hybrid triumph over the No. 8 Toyota TS040 HYBRID across a four-lap average.

Only 0.05s covered the top four, with the No. 35 Alpine Endurance Team A424 of Charles Milesi and the No. 007 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie of Harry Tincknell qualifying on the second row of the grid.

The No. 50 Ferrari of Nicklas Nielsen, who was fastest in qualifying, was fifth in Hyperpole, ahead of the No. 36 Alpine.

Toyota and Genesis rounded out the top 10, with Ryo Hirakawa’s No. 8 TR010 Hybrid in seventh, ahead of the No. 17 GMR-001, No. 7 TR010 and No. 19 GMR-001.

The No. 20 BMW M Team WRT Hybrid V8 of drivers’ world championship leaders Robin Frijns and René Rast will start the race from 13th on the grid, after Sheldon van der Linde failed to progress to Hyperpole.

Also missing out, for the first time this season, were the No. 15 BMW and No. 12 Cadillac, which qualified in 11th and 15th respectively. BMW’s Dries Vanthoor fell out of the top 10 at the very end of the session, after multiple cars improved after the checkered flag.

Harry Tincknell, piloting the No. 007 Aston Martin, jumped into the top six from the elimination zone, provisionally knocking out the No. 35 Alpine of Charles Milesi. Milesi, however, had time to respond, recording a 1m52.552s which promoted the Frenchman up to fifth and demoting Vanthoor out of the top 10.

Robert Kubica, who was the defending pole-sitter at COTA and has qualified on the front row each of the past two years aboard the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari, could only manage 14th this time around.

Prior to the Hyperpole running, The Heart of Racing team locked out the front row in LMGT3 for its home race, claiming its fifth WEC pole in the process. Eduardo Barrichello and Zach Robichon both set laps in the 2m05s to put their Aston Martins at the top of the timing screens in Hyperpole.

Barrichello set the best lap, a 2m05.103s, to take pole in the No. 23 Vantage after Gray Newell snuck into the shootout. It was an improvement on his first flyer that was also good enough for pole, a 2m05.160s.

Robichon missed out by just 0.181s, the Canadian impressive in scorching temperatures that exceeded 54 degrees Celsius on track.

The DK Manthey Porsche came closest to taking a front-row spot, with a time from Timur Boguslavskiy to go third. The No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang will join the No. 91 on the second row after Ben Tuck’s efforts.

The No. 58 Garage 59 completed the top five, after a head-turning performance in the first stage by Bronze-graded Alex West before Finn Gehrsitz set a 2m05.654s in the second stage to complete the job.

“It was an amazing job from Alex. I was giving it my all in my session; I hoped for more, but P5 is a great result for the team,” Gehrsitz said.

It was a tough qualifying session for the title-contending cars in the class.

The No. 33 TF Sport Corvette, which leads the teams’ standings, will start on the back row in 17th, after Ben Keating ended up over two seconds off the Hyperpole fastest time.

The Bend Manthey’s Porsche, which sits second in the table, will start 13th; the No. 69 WRT BMW will start 16th, and the Racing Team Turkey Corvette, which won last time out, also failed to make the cut. Corvette was the only manufacturer that failed to get a car into the shootout for pole.

“This weekend we knew it would be difficult. Any points would be good. We haven’t been in the top 10 all year, so hoping for a clean race. We expected this, so we need no mistakes or penalties to have a chance at points,” Keating’s teammate Jonny Edgar, who leads the drivers’ championship on his own, told the broadcast.

Tomorrow’s WEC race, Lone Star Le Mans, will start at 1:00pm local time.