Rebellion, United Autosports, and two Aston Martin teams win at the Circuit of the Americas.
AUSTIN, Texas—February 23rd—For the second time this season, the Rebellion team took pole position for the Six Hour Lone Star LeMans race at the Circuit of the Americas Sunday and then went on to win the overall competition. A well-managed fuel supply led to a 52-second victory over the Toyota Gazoo team of Bruno Senna, Gustavo Menezes, and Norman Nato.
CIRCUIT OF THE AMERICAS, – FEBRUARY 23: #1 Rebellion Racing Rebellion R-13 – Gibson: Bruno Senna, Gustavo Menezes, Norman Nato during the COTA at Circuit of the Americas on February 23, 2020, in Circuit of the Americas, United States of America. (Photo by JEP)
Rebellion got off to a great start, too, blocking both Toyota Gazoo drivers (number eight of Sebastian Buemi and number seven of Juan Maria Lopez). The Swiss team continued to exchange leads throughout the entire six hours as Buemi, and his co-drivers, Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley, were the only teams that could match the Rebellions. It wasn’t until the last pit stop that Toyota number eight realized the race was lost.
Other classes had very close races as well. The LMP 2 version wasn’t decided until two hours from the end. Paul Di Resta had a strange beginning when his United Autosports entry suffered a problem that his mechanics could not find. The Scot then failed to join the rest of the grid on the formation lap. It took a couple of minutes for Di Resta to find whatever the issue was, and he then rejoined the group for the start of the race.
Following that dilemma, Di Resta and co-drivers Phillip Hanson and Filipe Albuquerque were flawless the rest of the day. They came in for their final fuel stop with less than an hour left in the race. It worked out, too, as the team finished in front 25 seconds ahead of the Jackie Chen entry of Ho-Pin Tung, Gabriel Aubry, and Will Stevens. Taking third was the JOTA team of Roberto Gonzalez, Felix De Costa, and Anthony Davidson.
As it always is, the GTE Pro division was tight throughout the entire six hours. And like the last time the race was run here, the Aston Martin team won with Danish drivers Marco Sorensen and Nicki Timm. The second-place Porsche of Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre encountered a battery problem just 90-minutes before the end of the race. Up to that point, it was a duel with the teams exchanging leads. The Porsche ended up second but finished far behind the winner. Finishing third was the Ferrari AF Corse team of Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado.
In the final class, the GTE Amateurs, it was a two-way fight between the privateer Aston Martin (known as TF Sport) with Robert Eastwood, Salih Yoluc, and Jonathan Adam finishing 3-seconds ahead of the company Aston Martin car driven by Paul Dana Lana, Darren Turner, and Ross Gunn.
Round Six of the World Endurance Championship will continue on March 18th at Sebring, Florida. That day will feature the annual 1000 Miles of Sebring event.
