{"id":8563,"date":"2025-09-07T13:25:36","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T17:25:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/?p=8563"},"modified":"2025-09-08T13:27:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T17:27:18","slug":"kubica-takes-lone-star-le-mans-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/07\/kubica-takes-lone-star-le-mans-pole\/","title":{"rendered":"Kubica Takes Lone Star Le Mans Pole"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ford Mustangs Claim LMGT3 Front Row at Circuit of The Americas for Sunday\u2019s Lone Star Le Mans \u2013 round six of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship campaign<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Austin, TX- (7 September 2025) Following scorching temperatures throughout Friday\u2019s free practice running, competitors were faced with a very different scenario during the two-part qualifying session, as light rain rendered the track slippery.<\/p>\n

That resulted in contrasting tactics in Q1, as the two Cadillacs \u2013 fresh off the back of their breakthrough one-two finish in Brazil last time out \u2013 and #7 Toyota rolled the dice by pitting to switch from slick tires to wets midway through. Initially, they looked to have made the right call as Alex Lynn began lighting up the timing screens, but when the rain subsequently eased again, they tumbled down the order and ultimately ended up propping up the timesheets.<\/p>\n

That swung the advantage back in favor of Ferrari, and in the ten-minute Hyperpole showdown, it was Kubica \u2013 winner of June\u2019s 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside team-mates Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson \u2013 who managed the situation best.<\/p>\n

Antonio Giovinazzi looked to be the only driver likely to challenge, but a mistake by the Italian towards the end of the session effectively consigned the championship-leading Ferrari 499P to second on the grid. That secured Kubica his first Hypercar pole position in FIA WEC by a whisker under a tenth-of-a-second \u2013 and the first for a privately-entered car in the current era.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was one of the most challenging sessions of my life,\u201d acknowledged the former grand prix-winner. \u201cThe grip was changing corner-by-corner, which made it difficult to find the limit and the rain was moving around, but I felt quite confident straightaway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI managed to build up temperature in the tires and tried to read the track as best as I could without taking too much risk, because if you went off-line or came with too much speed, there was no room for recovery.\u00a0 I would say it was nicer to watch from outside than being in the car, but we managed to grab P1, which is a great achievement. It\u2019s an extra championship point, which is the most valuable outcome from today, but the race will be a different story.\u201d<\/p>\n

In LMGT3, it was another single-brand lockout as\u00a0 Proton Competition\u2019s brace of Ford Mustangs popularly locked out the front row of the grid in the LMGT3 category on the Blue Oval\u2019s home turf in Texas, at the end of a dramatic qualifying session held in challenging conditions at Circuit of The Americas today.<\/p>\n

The ten-minute Hyperpole shootout ultimately boiled down to an internecine duel between the two American cars, piloted by Ben Tuck (#77) and Giammarco Levorato (#88), with the Briton and Italian trading quickest times as the clock ticked down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conditions were not full rain, but it was still slippery for sure and there was no reference,\u201d said Levorato. \u201cThis is also the first time for me at COTA, and I didn\u2019t know the kerbs and everything in the wet. The car was unbelievable, though, and a one-two for Ford is a great result. Both poles (in FIA WEC and IMSA) felt amazing, but this one is more so as it\u2019s in the world championship at Ford\u2019s home track.\u201d<\/p>\n

Check out the\u00a0full LMGT3 grid<\/a>\u00a0 and the the\u00a0full Hypercar grid<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0for the race.<\/p>\n

Video recap:\u00a0https:\/\/youtu.be\/B7noKW2DnzU<\/a><\/p>\n

Watch FIA WEC live<\/a>\u00a0or on-demand via the official FIA WEC TV app \u2013 your full-access pass to the FIA World Endurance Championship including the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans. Don\u2019t miss a moment. For further information, check out the app.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ford Mustangs Claim LMGT3 Front Row at Circuit of The Americas for Sunday\u2019s Lone Star Le Mans \u2013 round six of the 2025 FIA World Endurance [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":8564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,77],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-fia-wec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8565,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8563\/revisions\/8565"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundaymanagement.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}