After a lengthy break for both the FIA World Endurance Championship and myself (a lovely 2 week holiday in the Netherlands, if you’re wondering) and just one week before I head over to Silverstone for my first ever in person sportscar race we have the sixth round of the action packed series. With Aston Martin the big shock of the weekend so far can they continue their promising run here? And can Cadillac go back to back by taking a second win on home soil? 6 Hours will settle it.

Before things got going, there was a tiny peice of housekeeping to do: Jean-Eric Vergne lost his 4th place in qualifying and was sent to the back of the grid after failing to turn his rain lights on during Hyperpole

Up at the front though it was Ferrari who set off tentatively amidst some of the wettest conditions seen all year in the World Endurance Championship, albeit behind the safety car. It continues a trend of torrid weather the paddock has experienced all weekend here in Austin.

Even behind the safety car some proved just how needed the safety car was, as Julien Andlauer spun the #5 Porsche at the esses. Another consequence of this was that the Bronze drivers were able to use up their mandatory time, which wasn’t of great benefit to the #87 Lexus. They’d originally had Clemens Schmid in the car but after fifteen minutes, and with conditions likely to worsen as the day ran on, Bronze driver Petru Umbarescu was installed to use up some of his Bronze time.

Other LMGT3 opportunists were the #85 Iron Dames Porsche of Celia Martin and Francios Heriau’s #21 AF Corse Ferrari. Both started on the back row of the grid, and with the safety car showing not signs of leaving the track they didn’t actually lose any time. Tom Van Rompuy also brought in the #81 Corvette, placing it at the back of the field.

And it wasn’t just the LMGT3 runners as having been moved to the back of the Hypercar field prior to the race start Jean-Eric Vergne pitted his #93 Peugeot with 25 minutes remaining in the first hour. The #87 Lexus also returned to pit lane having been called in by the stewards to fix their headlights which hadn’t been properly switched on since the start. They returned a lap later and the car was parked in the garage, the issue having not been resolved on the earlier stop. Eventually the car would return to the track after a 15 minute repair job.

More cars eventually entered the pits including both BMW LMGT3s as with forty minutes elapsed the race was yet to green, as Rene Rast pulled the #20 BMW to the side of the track where it stopped with hybrid issues. The crew would become the first official retirement of the race, having effectively finished before the race even really started.

The first LMGT3 fuel cycle was next up, during which time the #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes took the opportunity to fix some damage to the front end.

Then it was the Hypercars to pit, with the main player of the race, by which I mean the safety car, having a mixup. Half the field accidentally followed the safety car into the pits when they should’ve stayed out, resulting in Frederick Makowiecki’s #36 Alpine being promoted into the lead of the race ahead of the #83 and #51 Ferraris.

But before there was an opportunity to sort that out, the race control brought out the Red flag. During this time, the stewards reset the grid to how it previously was before the safety car mixup. A tyre change was also carried by the teams, with the announcement of the red flag ending with 4 hours and 20 minutes remaining. The #61 Mercedes also rejoined the track during the red flag period.

And when the safety car finally pulled in with 4 hours and 10 minutes left on the clock Phil Hanson led the field away in the #83 with James Calado’s #51 Ferrari and Laurens Vanthoor’s #6 Porsche chasing him down. Immediately there was more trouble for the #93, as a drive through was handed to the Peugeot for exiting the pit lane with a red light.

The action was frantic as Calado kept his fellow Ferrari honest, the gap just over a second as the first lap of green flag running was complete. A fast starter was Alex Riberas who stormed up to sixth by the end of the first lap from ninth in his #007 Aston. His run was cut short after a high speed collision with the #36 Alpine at the esses which saw the safety car brought out barely 2 laps after it had been called in. The Alpine was left with considerable damage to the bodywork with the collision also damaging the barriers.

So with the first 2 hours elapsed almost entirely under yellow or red flag conditions here’s how the field stands:

In the lead it’s a Ferrari 1-2, with Phil Hanson heading James Calado while Laurens Vathoor is third. Fourth is the #50 of Nicklas Nielsen while commendably in 5th, running as well as they have all season are Proton Compeition with the #99.

In LMGT3 the lead is held by the #95 McLaren of Darren Leung from Ian James’ #27 Heart of Racing Aston. Third is Tom Van Rompuy’s #81 Corvette ahead of Andrew Gilbert’s #60 Iron Lynx run Mercedes. Fifth is the second TF Sport Corvette, the #33 of Ben Keating.

United Autosports, CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0, via Wikimedia Commons