FEBRUARY 26, 2020

(FIA/WEC)
Gustavo Menezes, Norman Nato and Bruno Senna (No. 1 Rebellion R13 Gibson non-Hybrid) dominated Sunday’s Lone Star Le Mans 6-hour race at Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Texas, from start to finish and in doing so successfully closed in on championship leaders, Toyota Gazoo Racing. Rebellion is now just 33 points behind Toyota in the overall championship standings. It was the Swiss LMP1 team's second FIA WEC victory this season. Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley (No. 8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid) finished second, 51.524 seconds behind the race leaders. With BOP handicaps in play, Toyota’s strategy was to regain some of the time lost out on track during the pit stops but a near-perfect performance from Rebellion dashed any hopes of the Japanese squad taking the competitive edge. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez (No. 7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid) rounded out the top three, finishing two laps behind the winners. Next stop for the WEC is the SuperSebring event in March.
(FIA/WEC)
Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen (No. 95 AMR Aston Martin Vantage) dominated the GTE Pro in Sunday's Lone Star Le Mans 6-hour at COTA, leading the class from pole position through to the checkered flag to take the British marque’s fourth win in Texas in six years. The Aston Martin Vantage AMR duo was pushed hard in the closing stages by the No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen who finished second. This second consecutive victory for the Danish pairing sees them take a 26-point lead in the FIA World Endurance GTE Drivers’ Championship. Nicki Thiim also set new qualifying and race lap records during the weekend, which was enjoyed by a crowd of 22,000 (the crowd was basically invisible, by the way). Third place went to the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE of James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi. The No. 71 Ferrari of Davide Rigon and Miguel Molina finished fifth. Corvette Racing profited from its first WEC appearance of the season to put more valuable racing miles on the all-new No. 63 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, although Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller struggled to match their competitors on straight line speed here in Austin. Sebring is sure to be different. The only problem for any of the GTE Pro runners was to the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz, which stopped on track with 75 minutes to go due to a gearbox issue. After a re-set and a later return to the pits for a battery change, it went on to finish the race. This was only the fourth time in the series’ history that all cars were classified as finishers. (Thank you to FIA Media.)