Robert Kubica led the race after one hour completed at the FIA World Endurance Championship’s Lone Star Le Mans at the Circuit of the Americas.
It was a thrilling opening hour as the WEC returned to the venue situated outside the city of Austin in the state of Texas.
Ferrari AF Corse held the top-three positions with the #83 privateer AF Corse entrant showcasing the best pace out of the trio, as Ian James retained his lead in the LMGT3 category after starting from pole position.
The weather throughout the weekend has been hot and humid which meant that tyre management was important at the 20-turn course, as teams – and drivers – encountered
As the race turned green, it was an action-packed start in the Hypercar category as Miguel Molina of the #50 AF Corse Ferrari 499P made his move to third place, making it a 1-2-3 formation of the Ferraris.
Given the tight nature of Turn 1, before opening back out, positions were fought for enthusiastically including Rene Rast in the #20 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 who took fourth place after starting in seventh.
Speaking of the BMWs, they demonstrating promising form from the beginning and managed to take fourth and fifth positions, emerging as the second-best running manufacturer in the category.
Another notable charge came in the form of Lamborghini Iron Lynx’s Edoardo Mortara who jumped into P11 before grasping P10 after starting at the back (P18).
The #35 Alpine A424 driven by 2023 LMP2 champion Ferdinand Habsburg was under pressure though unfortunately earned a drive-through penalty after outbraking himself into T12 where ran wide and fell down the order, hitting #2 Cadillac V-Series.R driver Earl Bamber with him.
Will Stevens looked keen in the #12 JOTA Porsche 963 after he took P8 with an opportunistic manoeuvre on Habsburg before the Austrian prince served his penalty.
At the front, pole-sitter Antonio Giovinazzi (#51 AF Corse Ferrari) backed off the throttle on the back-straight as Robert Kubica in the #83 caught him on pace, thus inheriting the lead.
After the first round of pit stops, the #83 Ferrari of Kubica – with four new tyres – was situated ahead of the #51 of Giovinazzi and the #50 of Molina.
Kubica was in the lead in the #83, followed by the #51 of Giovinazzi and the #50 of Molina.
Behind the trio were the two BMWs as Marco Wittmann (#15 BMW M Hybrid V8) was in fourth place ahead of the #20 of Rene Rast with the former driver having saved 6% of energy when the latter driver pitted.
Meanwhile in the LMGT3 category, pre-race drama begun for the #54 AF Corse as they were forced to start 40-minutes into the race after having to replace the clutch, as Davide Rigon begun the driving duties in that Ferrari 296 LMGT3.
The start was lesser hectic than the Hypercars, as Heart of Racing’s team principal Ian James retained his top spot as #55 AF Corse Ferrari driver Francois Heriau claimed second place from the Iron Dames’ Sarah Bovy.
Nevertheless, she was eager to claim her place back in the #85 Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 EVO2 as Heriau ran slightly wide at the exit of Turn 1 which gave Bovy the chance she needed.
The #55 Ferrari was then under pressure from Tom Van Rompuy in the #81 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R who stayed on his tail, eventually taking third place from him with ease into T1.
Texan Ben Keating had charged from eighth to fifth, and then to fourth place before he made his first pit stop, staying slightly over the box as he came in.
At the end of the first hour, James held the lead in the #27 Aston Martin albeit damaged by a five-second loss during his pit stop, causing second-placed Bovy to close the preceding comfortable gap in the #85 Lamborghini.
Third place was held by Van Rompuy in the #81 Corvette, followed by the #92 Porsche Manthey PureRxing 911 LMGT3.R of Alex Malykhin in fourth.
Maxime Martin who took over the #46 BMW M4 LMGT3 at the pit stop rounded out the top-five class runners.
