Giovinazzi beats Kubica to take pole position as Ferrari secures front row

Antonio Giovinazzi took Ferrari’s second pole position of the season in the World Endurance Championship ahead of Sunday’s race in Austin.

The Italian improved the times set in the Hyperpole session for the fastest 10 cars in first qualifying by almost three-tenths of a second over the best of the Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercars.

Giovinazzi flew around the 3.43-mile Circuit of The Americas in a time of 1m50.390s on his first push lap of the final 10-minute qualifying period.

This put him in first place, four tenths behind the Alpine A424 LMDh of Charles Milesi, before Robert Kubica overtook him in the final corner of the customer Ferrari.

Kubica improved the time to 1m50.667, putting Ferrari firmly in front going into round six of the 2024 WEC.

Giovinazzi, who was also fastest in the first segment of qualifying, said: “We showed from FP1 that we have a fast car and I did two good laps in qualifying – I’m very happy with that.

“Our race pace also seems pretty good, so let’s finish the job tomorrow.”

Alex Lynn also improved on the final lap, posting a time of 1:50.680 in the Ganassi-driven Cadillac V-Series.R to secure third starting position for the Lone Star Le Mans six-hour race.

His lap time dropped Alpine to fourth after Milesi failed to improve on the 1m50.751 he set on his opening lap.

The improvements in the final stages of the race saw the second works Ferrari to qualify, driven by Fuoco, who had been on pole at Imola in April, drop to fifth, with a 1m50.818s that left him more than four tenths behind his team-mate.

Matt Campbell jumped from ninth to sixth at the end of the session, with the Australian posting a time of 1m50.874s in the best Penske Porsche 963 LMDh.

Both WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDhs made it to the Hyperpole, where they finished seventh and eighth respectively.

Robin Frijns set a time of 1.50.882 seconds, just slightly better than Dries Vanthoor in the sister car with a time of 1.50.938 seconds.

Kamui Kobayashi was ninth in the only of the two Toyota GR010 HYBRID LMHs to reach the Hyperpole mark, with a 1m50.951s that made him the last driver to come within a second of Giovinazzi.

The top 10 was completed by the Jota Porsche, qualified by Norman Nato, who was just over a second slower with 1m51.532s.

Neither Peugeot 9X8 2024 LMH made it to Hyperpole, despite a late improvement from Mikkel Jensen in the #93 entry.

The Dane was less than a second slower than number ten in the opening session with a time of 1m51.659s, putting him just two hundredths behind Nato.

The championship-leading Penske Porsche finished 14th, 1.2 seconds behind speed demon Kevin Estre.

Aston fastest in LMGT3

#27 Hart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3: Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli, Alex Riberas

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Ian James and the Heart of Racing Aston Martin team took their first pole in the GT standings since joining the WEC last year.

The HoR team boss took first place in LMGT3 with a time of 2:05.587s in his Aston Martin Vantage GT3, preventing Iron Dames Lamborghini driver Sarah Bovy from taking a third pole of the season.

She finished almost two tenths behind the Iron Lynx-run Huracan GT3 EVO2 with a time of 2:05.759s in the LMGT3 Hyperpole session.

Francois Heriau jumped to third place at the end of the 10-minute session in the best AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, with a time of 2:06.011s.

Alex Malykhin took fourth place in the Manthey PureRxing Porsche 911 GT3-R, which led the points despite the German car being weighted down by 15kg by the Balance of Performance for Austin and 30kg of success ballast.

Two-time WEC GTE Am title winner Ben Keating finished sixth in the only Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 to progress to Hyperpole on its return to the series.

A late improvement in the 12-minute opening qualifying session saw him move into Hyperpole in a car he had not driven until Friday’s first free practice session.

The green flag falls on the Lone Start Le Mans at 1:00pm local time on Sunday.

WEC COTA – Qualifying Results: