Deadheat promises an exiciting FIAWEC outing in COTA

Dead heat in Texas: Giovinazzi edges Aitken for historic COTA pole

Austin, 5 September 2026 — Antonio Giovinazzi and Jack Aitken wrote a new line into the WEC record book in the most unlikely way: by being exactly as fast as each other. In the closest Hyperpole session in the championship’s history, the Ferrari #51 and Cadillac #38 both stopped the clocks at 1:52.445 at the Circuit of the Americas, with pole position decided only because Giovinazzi set his lap first.

The result sets up Sunday’s Lone Star Le Mans – round five of eight in the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship – with the two fastest cars side by side on the front row, separated not by time but by thousandths of a second on the timing sheets.

Hyperpole: a ten-minute thriller

Under the Texas sun, the ten-car Hyperpole shootout delivered immediate drama. The session, reserved for the ten fastest cars from earlier qualifying, quickly became a duel between Ferrari and Cadillac, with Alpine, Aston Martin and the rest chasing fractions of a second.

Giovinazzi, sharing the AF Corse Ferrari 499P with Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado, laid down his benchmark early. A clean lap through COTA’s demanding sequence of fast sweepers and tight hairpins gave him a 1:52.445, good enough to top the times as the chequered flag approached.

Then came Aitken. The Briton, driving the Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R alongside Earl Bamber and Sébastien Bourdais, matched Giovinazzi’s sector times almost exactly. When his lap ended, the clocks read the same: 1:52.445. Under WEC regulations, the driver who sets the time first takes pole, so the #51 Ferrari retained top spot, with the #38 Cadillac alongside.

It was the first time in the Hypercar era that two drivers have recorded identical fastest laps on the front row of a Hyperpole session.

Alpine and Aston Martin complete the top four

Behind the Ferrari–Cadillac dead heat, the margins were just as tight. Charles Milesi snatched third for the Alpine Endurance Team #35, just 0.029s off the benchmark in the A424 shared with António Félix da Costa and Ferdinand Habsburg.

Harry Tincknell put the Aston Martin THOR Team #007 Valkyrie fourth, 0.050s off pole, ahead of Nicklas Nielsen in the sister Ferrari #50. The #50 crew – Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nielsen – will start fifth, ahead of the #36 Alpine of Frédéric Makowiecki, Vincent Martins and Julien Gounon.

Toyota’s title hopes received a modest boost when the #8 GR010 Hybrid of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryō Hirakawa qualified seventh, with the #7 car of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries ninth. Between them, the Genesis Magma Racing entries took eighth (André Lotterer, Pipo Derani, Mathys Jaubert) and tenth (Mikkel Jaminet, Pierre-Louis Chatin, Daniel Juncadella).

Further down, BMW’s title challenge looked slightly compromised. The #15 of Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor was fastest of the BMWs in 11th, ahead of the #94 Peugeot (Loïc Duval, Malthe Jakobsen, Theo Pourchaire) in 12th and the #20 BMW (Robin Frijns, René Rast, Sheldon van der Linde) in 13th.

LMGT3: Barrichello leads Aston Martin lock-out

In LMGT3, Heart of Racing Team repeated their recent qualifying dominance. Eduardo Barrichello secured Aston Martin’s third consecutive pole in the class – and his third from four Hyperpole appearances in WEC – with a 2:05.103 in the #23 Vantage AMR GT3 shared with George Newell and Jack Adam.

Ian James, Zach Robichon and Marco Drudi completed an Aston Martin front-row lock-out in the #27, 0.181s behind. The result underlines the Vantage’s pace on the abrasive COTA surface, where tyre management and traction out of the slow corners are critical.

Why this matters

The COTA Hyperpole result has immediate implications for both the race and the championship.

• Ferrari starts from pole for the second time in three years at Lone Star Le Mans, with the #51 crew looking to convert pace into points in a season where every result counts.
• Cadillac, with the identical time, has the perfect platform to challenge for victory and underline the V-Series.R’s development over the course of 2026
• Toyota and BMW, locked in a tight manufacturers’ and drivers’ title fight, must now work through race strategy and pace to overcome the front-runners after qualifying just outside the top six.

With six hours of racing ahead and the Texas heat adding another layer of complexity, the stage is set for one of the most finely balanced rounds of the season.

Provisional Hyperpole classification (Hypercar)

1. #51 Ferrari AF Corse – A. Pier Guidi / J. Calado / A. Giovinazzi – 1:52.445
2. #38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA – E. Bamber / S. Bourdais / J. Aitken – 1:52.445 (+0.000)
3. #35 Alpine Endurance Team – A. Félix da Costa / F. Habsburg / C. Milesi – 1:52.474 (+0.029)
4. #007 Aston Martin THOR Team – H. Tincknell / T. Gamble / R. Gunn – 1:52.495 (+0.050)
5. #50 Ferrari AF Corse – A. Fuoco / M. Molina / N. Nielsen – 1:52.873 (+0.428)
6. #36 Alpine Endurance Team – F. Makowiecki / V. Martins / J. Gounon – 1:52.886 (+0.441)
7. #8 Toyota Racing – S. Buemi / B. Hartley / R. Hirakawa – 1:52.985 (+0.540)
8. #17 Genesis Magma Racing – A. Lotterer / P. Derani / M. Jaubert – 1:53.006 (+0.561)
9. #7 Toyota Racing – M. Conway / K. Kobayashi / N. de Vries – 1:53.293 (+0.848)
10. #19 Genesis Magma Racing – M. Jaminet / P. Chatin / D. Juncadella – 1:53.495 (+1.050)

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