MOTORSPORT – Porsche Penske Motorsport claimed their first victory of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) season early yesterday morning, winning the Lone Star Le Mans in challenging conditions at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas, in the US.
Porsche Penske’s trio of Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor, and Matt Campbell – sharing the duties in their #6 Porsche 963 Hypercar – overcame a rain-hit six-hour event, which marked the sixth of eight rounds in this WEC campaign.
The race’s early stages took place behind the safety car, and following a red flag interruption, racing got underway before one-third distance.
Initially, it was the front row-sitting #83 and #51 Ferrari 499P Hypercars that held sway in the 18-strong, top-tier category, but the #6 Porsche in the hands of Vanthoor was never far behind in third, which became second when Philip Hanson in the #83 challenger of AF Corse lost more than half-a-minute due to a pit-stop delay.
Following a solid middle stint by Campbell, the crucial moment came approaching the four-hour mark, when Estre exploited a tentative safety car re-start by Alessandro Pier Guidi in Ferrari AF Corse’s #51 car to prise the door open into the first turn and assume a lead he would not relinquish.
Thereafter, Estre was flawless, and each time his advantage was wiped out by a neutralisation, he immediately set about rebuilding it, going on to take the chequered flag 8.625 seconds behind the #50 Ferrari AF Corse trio of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, and Nicklas Nielsen, also in a Ferrari 499P.
Completing the overall podium, featuring all Hypercars, were the Peugeot TotalEnergies trio of Loic Duval, Malthe Jakobsen, and Stoffel Vandoorne, racing in a #94 Peugeot 9X8.
“The conditions were very difficult, especially when the track began to dry,” Estre told fiawec.com.
“The Ferrari behind was very strong towards the end and kept us under pressure, and it was a matter of deciding whether to put slicks on or not. It was tricky, but I was pretty confident the guys would make the right choice and it feels really good to be back on the top step, where we belong.”
Estre and Belgian teammate Vanthoor are defending Hypercar drivers’ world champions. “This feels so sweet,” said Vanthoor. “We didn’t come here this weekend with the expectation of winning, but in the changeable conditions we showed that no matter our pace, we still know how to execute a race – and we did that perfectly.”
Meanwhile, taking the win in the lower-tier LMGT3 class were United Autosports’ Darren Leung, Sean Gelael, and Marino Sato, driving their #95 McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo.
They had a narrow 0.256s gap at the chequered flag from runners-up Team WRT, comprising Ahmad Al Harthy, Kelvin van der Linde, and nine-time world motorcycling champion Valentino Rossi, competing in their #46 BMW M4 LMGT3.
In third were the #54 Vista AF Corse crew of Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci, and Davide Rigon in a Ferrari 296 LMGT3.
The WEC season now heads to Japan for its seventh and penultimate round of the season in the 6 Hours of Fuji, scheduled for September 26 to 28.
That will then set the stage for the grand finale in the kingdom, the Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain at Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, set for November 7 and 8.
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