PODIUM FOR TEAM WRT IN CHAOTIC LONE STAR LE MANS

PODIUM FOR TEAM WRT IN CHAOTIC LONE STAR LE MANS

17/09/2025

After a long summer break, the FIA World Endurance Championship was back this weekend in Austin, Texas, for Round 6 of the 2025 season. The Lone Star Le Mans at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) proved to be one of the most eventful races of the year, with rain, multiple Safety Cars, Full Course Yellows, and a red flag adding to the challenge for all competitors.

RACE HIGHLIGHTS

• The #46 BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Ahmad Al Harthy, Valentino Rossi and Kelvin van der Linde started from P4 on the grid but had to recover from a drive-through penalty early in the race. A key strategic call to switch from rain to slick tyres allowed the crew to climb into podium contention in rapidly changing track conditions. The car eventually finished third on track but was later promoted to second place after a post-race penalty for the winning Ferrari.
• The sister LMGT3 car of Yasser Shahin, Timur Boguslavskiy, and Augusto Farfus also had a solid drive overall. The same slick tyre strategy gave them a big jump 45 minutes from the end of the race, allowing them to run just behind the #46. The car crossed the line fourth in class but was later handed a time penalty for contact with another car during the race, which dropped them to ninth in the final classification.
• Tougher outing in the Hypercarc class, with car #20 forced to retire after just over one hour due to an isolation issue in the hybrid system, ending its race prematurely. Car #15, driven by Magnussen, Marciello, and Vanthoor reached the chequered flag in P12.

LOOKING AHEAD

Next on the calendar for Team WRT is a return to Japan for one of the most iconic races in endurance GT racing: the 1000 KM of Suzuka, scheduled for September 14th. This round marks the fourth event of the 2025 Intercontinental GT Challenge (IGTC) and carries particular significance as Suzuka rejoins the calendar after a six-year absence. The last edition was held in 2019, and it was Team WRT who took the win.

Vincent VOSSE, Team Principal Team WRT: “Finishing the weekend with a podium for the #46 crew is making us smile a lot and gives us a lot of motivation and energy to go to our next race the following weekend in Suzuka. It was a great race in GT with nice fights, some ups and downs, as we had penalties on both cars that dropped us far away, but at the end of the race, our crews made the right call to put the slicks on and it helped us a lot. On the other side, disappointing weekend for the Hypercar program. We are coming out of this weekend without points. We did not do many races in wet conditions. It’s our very first race where we did almost the full race with wet tires and no slicks. We tried some on car #15 but way too early. We must analyse why #20 had a hybrid issue and why car #15 wasn’t working like we wanted.”

Augusto FARFUS, driver #31: “That was a very challenging race. We didn’t expect to finish in third and fourth, which later turned into second and ninth. The team did an amazing job. Congratulations to the #46 crew on the podium. I received a penalty for the contact with the Ferrari Hypercar. It was an unfortunate situation and by no means intentional. Something like that can happen in such a tight corner on a slippery track.”

Ahmad AL HARTHY, driver #46: “A rollercoaster of a weekend! This is my first ever podium in America. We never gave up and we kept fighting all the way to the last laps. I’m really happy for the team, we deserve this, and it’s been a long time since we were on the podium. A big thank you to Team WRT and BMW M Motorsport.”

Valentino ROSSI, driver #46: “It’s unbelievable! It felt like this race was never going to finish… We were fast, but we had some unlucky moments during the race. We were last at one point, but after, we were able to come back, and with these conditions in the end when we could run with slicks, our car was very good, and Kelvin did a fantastic job. I’m very happy about this podium for me, for my teammates and for all the guys from the team.”

Kelvin VAN DER LINDE, driver #46: “Great result for everyone considering where we’ve come from the last three weekends, where we’ve really struggled with pace and these conditions are perfect for the car. We’re all very happy. The team did a great job; it was a huge team effort and I’m very proud of everyone!”

Raffaele MARCIELLO, driver #15: “This was not the race we wanted. We really struggled out there. Now we need to analyse and understand why we were so slow under these conditions today."

René RAST, driver #20: “It’s frustrating not to even be able to properly start the race. I think we had a good package and could have scored a lot of points here. But that’s how motorsport is sometimes. Now we must focus on Fuji and try to get back on the podium there”.