CoTA 4 Hour Report: AF Continues to Lead in Texas

HYPERCAR: LEADER – NO.83 AF CORSE FERRARI

• Mid-phase of the Lone Star Le Mans race sees a battle between the No.83 AF Corse Ferrari and the No.7 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid running in close proximity as Yifei Ye and Nyck de Vries trade lap times
• De Vries catches Ye in the fourth hour and the two run nose to tail but de Vries is unable to make a move as the fourth scheduled pit stop period arrives and he undercuts the leader
• Ye completes a double stint before handing over to Robert Shwarzman, while Kamui Kobayashi takes the No.7 cockpit with the team principal and driver attempts to overtake the yellow Ferrari by pitting early
• The No.50 Le Mans winning Ferrari AF Corse 499P places third in the hands of Nicklas Nielsen who then hands over to Antonio Fuoco who will take it to the flag
• Cadillac Racing place fourth as Earl Bamber gets his second stint of the wheel and attempts to catch the Ferrari, although also has to watch a close gap to fifth placed No.20 BMW M Team car driven by Robin Frijns over two stints and then Sheldon van der Linde
• The top six is completed by the No.8 Toyota of Brendon Hartley after he capitalises on a rare mistake by Andre Lotterer in the points leading No.6 Porsche Penske
• No.8 Toyota is seventh heading the No.38 Hertz Team Jota which also leads the FIA World Cup for Hypercar race
• No.5 Porsche Penske is ninth, while the leading Alpine is the No.35 A424 driven by Ferdinand Habsburg in his second stint at the wheel
• The No.12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963 spends most of mid-race in the pits after hitting issues following a pit stop and being stranded on the track for several laps as Norman Nato attempts to re-start car. Nato returns to action but is 40 laps off leader and soon returns to pits with issues.

LM GT3: LEADER – No.27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin

• No.27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage stretches advantage in mid-phase of race as Daniel Mancinelli leads the No.92 Manthey Rxcing Porsche which comes through the pack first in the hands of Aliaksandr Malykhin and then Joel Sturm
• Alex Riberas gets in to the class leading cockpit just before the fifth hour arrives and is in a direct battle with the now Klaus Bachler driven Porsche
• Trouble for the No.85 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 as Rahel Frey comes in to contact with the No.81 TF Sport Corvette at T12 and suffers suspension damage
• That drops Iron Dames down the order and out of contention, while TF Sport has to make repairs to front bodywork that was damaged. Incident placed under investigation
• Despite the damage Andrade still places third in the TF Sport Corvette but he comes under attack from Gregoire Saucy in the No.59 United Autosports McLaren which was started by James Cottingham
• But Saucy falls back in to the clutches of a flying Valentino Rossi in the No.46 Team BMW WRT and ‘The Doctor’ makes his move in to fourth place after 3hrs 20minutes of action
• But he is adjudged to have caused avoidable contact when overtaking and is docked 5-seconds at his next pit stop
• Rounding out the top six is the No.55 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari as Simon Mann takes over the cockpit from start driver Francois Heriau
• Trouble strikes for D’Station Aston Martin of Erwan Bastard, Marco Sorensen and Clement Mateu as they lose several laps in the pits with a suspected starter motor problem

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