Porsche on top in FP1

A late charge from Matt Campbell put Porsche at the top of the timesheets during the first free practice session for Sunday’s World Endurance Championship round in Austin.

The Australian held an almost exactly one second lead over Penske’s factory Porsche 963 LMDh when the checkered flag was waved at the end of the 90-minute session on Friday afternoon.

Campbell posted a time of 1m53.574s, almost half a second ahead of the runner-up in the Hypercar class around the 3.43-mile Circuit of The Americas.

Robert Kubica finished second with a time of 1m54.034s, lapping the AF Corse-run Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar. This was also the fastest time for most of the first free practice session.

The Polish driver was fastest after a brief interruption due to a communication error by race control, which knocked Ferrari factory driver Antonio Fuoco off the top spot.

Fuoco finished fourth in the time, his 1m54.118s being bettered by Oliver Rasmussen with a 1m54.051s in the best Porsche 963 of the privateer Jota team and then by the works car of Campbell.

Antonio Giovinazzi moved up to fifth place at the end of the session in the second works Ferrari with a time of 1m54.186.

Late improvements from Campbell and Giovinazzi saw Earl Bamber drop to sixth in the solo Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh, where he set a time of 1m54.262.

The championship-leading Porsche Penske Motorsport driver finished seventh in the time, with Kevin Estre setting a time of 1:54.276.

Rene Rast was the best WRT BMW driver with a time of 1m54.286s, good for eighth position, while the sister car, the M Hybrid V8, was ninth in the hands of Marco Wittmann with a time of 1m54.510s.

Tenth place meant the first car was over a second slower than Campbell, the best of the Toyota GR010 HYBRID LMHs in which Nyck de Vries set a time of 1.54.620.

Lamborghini was the next-best manufacturer in twelfth place after Daniil Kvyat made a last-minute improvement in the solo Iron Lynx SC63 LMDh.

The two Alpine A424 LMDhs finished in 13th and 14th place, driven by Mick Schumacher and Charles Milesi, and the two Peugeot 9X8 2024 LMHs were 16th and 17th, with times set by Stoffel Vandoorne and Mikkel Jensen.

Ferrari was fastest in LMGT3 with a time of 2:06.253 and Alessio Rovera was the best of the AF Corse-run 296 GT3s.

This gave him a two-tenths lead over Dennis Olsen in the best Ford Mustang GT3 from Proton Competition.

He clocked 2:06.475 seconds, which was three-tenths faster than Ben Barker in the sister Mustang.

The two TF Sport Chevrolet Z06 GT3.Rs finished fourth and fifth in class, with Charlie Eastwood three hundredths faster than team-mate Daniel Juncadella.

The two Manthey Porsche 911 GT3-Rs that top the LMGT3 points standings finished only 16th and 18th in the time trial.

The second free practice session for the Lone Star Le Mans six-hour race on Sunday starts at 17:10 local time.

WEC COTA – FP1 Results