Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina steered their Ferrari 499P to an unexpected victory at the Lone Star Le Mans in Austin.
The #50 crew claimed the manufacturer’s first World Endurance Championship triumph since the 2025 24 Hours of Le Mans. The result came after the race-leading Toyota suffered a late hydraulic failure. Nyck de Vries, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway were just 11 minutes away from securing the win before their #7 Toyota TR010 lost power steering.
Offset Strategy Proves Highly Decisive
Ferrari laid the foundation for their triumph during the opening hour by bringing Molina into the pits for an early fuel stop. This aggressive offset strategy launched the #50 machine into contention. It allowed the drivers to maintain late-race pressure on Toyota without overstressing their equipment.
While Tymek Kucharczyk recently proved his IndyCar potential with a flawless drive, the pole-sitting #51 Ferrari crew endured a torrid afternoon. James Calado lost almost half a minute to an engine restart glitch during his pit service. Adverse safety car timing then relegated the crew to an eleventh-place finish.
Toyota driver de Vries reflected on the sudden failure that stripped his crew of a comfortable win. “Obviously that was a very sad end to a great day. We really gave it our all and the team executed extremely well,” he said.
The World Endurance Championship paddock now heads to Japan for the 6 Hours of Fuji on 27 September.
