Giovinazzi Takes Pole at COTA After a Tie with Aitken

Antonio Giovinazzi secured pole for the Lone Star Le Mans in the No. 51 Ferrari 499P because his Hyperpole time was exactly equal to that of Jack Aitken's No. 38 Cadillac, and the starting position was decided by who set the time first.

The result is only the second time in championship history that two cars have finished Hyperpole with an identical time down to the last thousandth, something that had previously only happened at Shanghai in 2014. For Giovinazzi, it also marked his second pole at the Circuit of the Americas, as he had also topped qualifying in 2024. He shares the No. 51 Ferrari with Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado, the defending world champions from the previous season.

Photo By Carlos Castillo

Charles Milesi placed the No. 35 Alpine A424 in third, ahead of the second factory Ferrari, and Harry Tincknell took the No. 007 Aston Martin Valkyrie to fourth. The gap between the top four was the closest ever recorded in the 106 events the championship has contested, something not seen since the current Hypercar era began.

The Hyperpole result complicates the weekend for the two leaders of the manufacturers' championship. Toyota arrived at Austin with just a five-point lead over BMW, after having managed a 36-point gap in the first half of the season, and neither was able to place a car among the top four in Hyperpole. Both Toyota GR010 Hybrids did advance to the decisive phase, with Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, and Ryō Hirakawa in seventh and Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway, and Nyck de Vries in ninth, but BMW couldn't even get one of its M Hybrid V8 cars among the ten Hyperpole qualifiers. Dries Vanthoor, Kevin Magnussen, and Raffaele Marciello finished 11th in the No. 15, and René Rast, Robin Frijns, and Sheldon van der Linde, who are tied with the No. 7 Toyota trio for the drivers' championship lead, ended up 13th in the No. 20.

Photo By Carlos Castillo

For Ferrari, the pole comes in a season in which the team is still searching for its first victory, despite arriving as the reigning champion and sitting third in the manufacturers' standings with 88 points. The 499P had already shown race pace to fight for top positions in previous rounds, and Ferrari won the 2024 edition of this race, though Porsche took the win in 2025. Cadillac will look for its first victory at the only U.S. round on the calendar, following a weekend at São Paulo in which it secured pole and placed two cars in the top three with the Hertz Team JOTA entry. For this race, the team had to make a change in the No. 12, as Alex Lynn continues to recover from a neck injury and was replaced by Ricky Taylor, a two-time IMSA champion who will share the car with Will Stevens and Norman Nato.

Photo By Carlos Castillo

In LMGT3, Eduardo Barrichello put the No. 23 Aston Martin Vantage on pole with an official time that edged out the second Aston Martin, the No. 27 of Zacharie Robichon, by a narrow margin. It was Aston Martin's third consecutive pole in the category and Barrichello's third in four Hyperpole appearances, though he had previously improved on his own time, which was deleted due to track limits. The No. 91 Porsche of Timur Boguslavskiy finished third, the No. 77 Ford Mustang GT3 of Ben Tuck was fourth, and the No. 58 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo took fifth. The situation was more complicated for the LMGT3 championship leaders, as both TF Sport Corvette Z06 cars failed to advance to Hyperpole and will start 12th and 17th, while the No. 92 Porsche, the reigning class champion, was eliminated in the first phase and will start 13th.

Photo By Carlos Castillo

The Lone Star Le Mans is the fifth of eight rounds on the championship calendar and the only WEC race in the United States. The Circuit of the Americas measures 5.513 kilometers and features 20 corners, and previous editions have seen eight retirements in 2024 and seven in 2025— high numbers for a circuit known for its mechanical demands over a six-hour race in high temperatures. The race starts this Sunday at 1:00 p.m. local time.

Pos	p.class	class	#	drivers	team	car	Gap
1	1	HYPERCAR	#51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	-
2	2	HYPERCAR	#38	Earl Bamber Sébastien Bourdais Jack Aitken	Cadillac Hertz Team Jota	Cadillac V-Series.R	0.000
3	3	HYPERCAR	#35	António Félix Da Costa Charles Milesi Ferdinand Habsburg	Alpine Endurance Team	Alpine A424	+0.029
4	4	HYPERCAR	#007	Harry Tincknell Tom Gamble	Aston Martin Thor Team	Aston Martin Valkyrie	+0.050
5	6	HYPERCAR	#50	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	+0.428
6	7	HYPERCAR	#36	Frédéric Makowiecki Jules Gounon Victor Martins	Alpine Endurance Team	Alpine A424	+0.441
7	9	HYPERCAR	#8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota Racing	Toyota TR010 Hybrid	+0.540
8	11	HYPERCAR	#17	André Lotterer Luis Felipe Derani Mathys Jaubert	Genesis Magma Racing	Genesis GMR-001-Hypercar	+0.561
9	15	HYPERCAR	#7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Nyck De Vries	Toyota Racing	Toyota TR010 Hybrid	+0.848
10	16	HYPERCAR	#19	Mathieu Jaminet Paul-loup Chatin Daniel Juncadella	Genesis Magma Racing	Genesis GMR-001-Hypercar	+1.050
11	5	HYPERCAR	#15	Kevin Magnussen Raffaele Marciello Dries Vanthoor	BMW M Team WRT	BMW M Hybrid V8	+0.396
12	8	HYPERCAR	#94	Loïc Duval Malthe Jakobsen Théo Pourchaire	Peugeot Totalenergies	Peugeot 9X8	+0.502
13	10	HYPERCAR	#20	Robin Frijns René Rast Sheldon Van Der Linde	BMW M Team WRT	BMW M Hybrid V8	+0.553
14	12	HYPERCAR	#83	Yifei Ye Robert Kubica Philip Hanson	AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	+0.598
15	13	HYPERCAR	#12	Will Stevens Norman Nato Ricky Taylor	Cadillac Hertz Team Jota	Cadillac V-Series.R	+0.635
16	14	HYPERCAR	#93	Paul Di Resta Stoffel Vandoorne Nick Cassidy	Peugeot Totalenergies	Peugeot 9X8	+0.775
17	17	HYPERCAR	#009	Alex Riberas Marco Sørensen	Aston Martin Thor Team	Aston Martin Valkyrie	+1.062
18	1	LMGT3	#23	Gray Newell Eduardo Barrichello Jonny Adam	Heart of Racing Team	Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3	-
19	2	LMGT3	#27	Ian James Zacharie Robichon Mattia Drudi	Heart of Racing Team	Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3	+0.124
20	3	LMGT3	#91	James Cottingham Timur Boguslavskiy Ayhancan Güven	Manthey DK Engineering	Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3	+0.323
21	4	LMGT3	#77	Eric Powell Ben Tuck Sebastian Priaulx	Proton Competition	Ford Mustang LMGT3	+0.323
22	5	LMGT3	#58	Alexander West Finn Gehrsitz Benjamin Goethe	Garage 59	McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo	+0.494
23	6	LMGT3	#21	François Hériau Simon Mann Alessio Rovera	Vista AF Corse	Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo	+0.605
24	7	LMGT3	#32	Darren Leung Sean Gelael Augusto Farfus	Team WRT	BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo	+0.728
25	8	LMGT3	#61	Martin Berry Rui Andrade Maxime Martin	Iron Lynx	Mercedes-AMG LMGT3	+0.809
26	9	LMGT3	#87	Petru Umbrärescu Clemens Schmid José María López	Akkodis ASP Team	Lexus RC F LMGT3	+1.105
27	18	LMGT3	#88	Stefano Gattuso Giammarco Levorato Logan Sargeant	Proton Competition	Ford Mustang LMGT3	+4.036
28	10	LMGT3	#54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon	Vista AF Corse	Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo	+2.102
29	11	LMGT3	#34	Peter Dempsey Salih Yoluç Charlie Eastwood	Racing Team Turkey by TF	Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R	+2.283
30	12	LMGT3	#92	Yasser Shahin Riccardo Pera Richard Lietz	The Bend Manthey	Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3	+2.319
31	13	LMGT3	#10	Antares Au Thomas Fleming Marvin Kirchhöfer	Garage 59	McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo	+2.399
32	14	LMGT3	#78	Tom Van Rompuy Hadrien David Esteban Masson	Akkodis ASP Team	Lexus RC F LMGT3	+2.462
33	15	LMGT3	#69	Anthony Mcintosh Parker Thompson Daniel Harper	Team WRT	BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo	+2.968
34	16	LMGT3	#33	Ben Keating Jonny Edgar Nicky Catsburg	TF Sport	Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R	+3.704
35	17	LMGT3	#79	Johannes Zelger Matteo Cressoni Lin Hodenius	Iron Lynx	Mercedes-AMG LMGT3	+3.808