WEC COTA Pre-Race Setup
Resources
- Official Website
- Live Stream (Paid Stream)
- Live Timing
- Live Timing (Alternative)
- Spotter Guide
- Timetable
Key Notes
» Porsche locked out the front row of the grid with a dominant display in qualifying. Despite having a previous fastest lap deleted, the #1 Porsche 919 of Tandy/Jani/Lotterer took pole by a tenth of a second over the sister #2 Porsche.
» Toyota will be frustrated by the second row start, but alarmed at the gap between to Porsche. The #8 Toyota TS050 will start third, but was 1.6 seconds off of pole. The #7 Toyota was 4th, but 2.3 seconds back. Toyota seemed to be within striking distance of Porsche in practice, but unable to match them in qualifying.
» Anthony Davidson will miss the COTA weekend due to personal reasons. Toyota reserve driver Stephane Sarrazin will take his seat in the #8 Toyota. Davidson is expected to return for Toyota’s home race at Fuji.
» Tyres will be a key point for the race. The heat of Texas and the high speed section at COTA tends to produce high tyre wear. Porsche gave each driver a brand new set of tyres for their qualifying runs, and put the #1 car back on the original set after it had a time deleted. Toyota meanwhile only used one set per car in qualifying, so enter the race with an extra set of fresh tyres.
» Signatech Alpine are on pole in LMP2, with the #13 Rebellion lining up alongside. The LMP2 grid was decided by track limit violations (get used to that this weekend) as the timing screens changed quicker than anyone could keep up with. Looking strong for the race are Signatech, Rebellion and Jackie Chan DC Racing.
» The LMP2 cars appeared to struggle with the heat in the high speed corners. The extra power of this years cars was proving troublesome in the stadium section, drivers struggling to get the power down exiting corners. Tyre wear may prove an issue in LMP2.
» Ferrari are on pole in GTE-Pro. #71 AF Corse of Bird and Rigon are looking to bounce back from a frustrating Mexico City event. #67 Ford and #95 Aston Martin are within a quarter of a second of the pole time. The nearest Porsche 911 is the #91, 1.3 seconds off of pole.
» The Auto-BoP system continues to provide questionable results. Whilst we now have 3 cars within a quarter of a second, the Porsche is firmly rooted to the bottom of the GTE-Pro grid. We’ll have to see how the race pans out for them, but they don’t look to be in a position to challenge.
» #98 Aston Martin took a commanding pole position for GTE-Am. The Dalla Lana/Lamy/Lauda car qualified 1.3 seconds ahead of the Spirit of the Race Ferrari 488.
