FIA World Endurance
Championship Countdown

Round 05 – Vantage Wins at COTA as Valkyrie Fights to Fourth

Aston Martin delivered one of its strongest FIA World Endurance Championship weekends of 2026 at the Lone Star Le Mans, combining LMGT3 victory and a double Vantage podium with another fourth-place finish for the #007 Valkyrie Hypercar.

The Heart of Racing Team’s #27 Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 of Ian James, Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi claimed class victory, while Gray Newell, Eduardo Barrichello and Jonny Adam brought the sister #23 home third. In Hypercar, Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble finished fourth in the #007 Valkyrie, only 9.045 seconds behind the winning Ferrari, matching the car’s best FIA WEC result.

Hypercar: Valkyrie Shows Front-Running Pace Throughout the Weekend

The result followed an exceptionally encouraging build-up for Aston Martin THOR Team. Harry Tincknell had put the #007 Valkyrie fastest in both FP2 and FP3, his 1:52.174 in final practice standing as the fastest lap of the weekend at that stage. The sister #009 also showed competitive pace, finishing fifth in FP3. Tincknell then carried that speed into Hyperpole. His 1:52.495 secured fourth on the grid, just 0.050 seconds behind Antonio Giovinazzi’s pole-winning #51 Ferrari. Remarkably, the first four cars represented four different manufacturers and were separated by only five hundredths of a second.

Conditions added another dimension to Sunday’s race. A brief shower before the start required additional formation laps, while sporadic rain, two Safety Car periods and three Full Course Yellows repeatedly compressed the field and disrupted developing tyre and fuel strategies. The #007 remained firmly involved in the leading group from the opening stages. Aston Martin was one of only two Hypercar teams to spend much of the first half on the hard-compound Michelin tyre, and Gamble was running fifth after two hours as Ferrari, Cadillac, Alpine and Toyota fought over the lead.

As the race developed, the Valkyrie continued to battle inside an extraordinarily close top ten. Following the first Safety Car, less than ten seconds covered much of the leading group, with Gamble involved directly in the fight before the #7 Toyota and several rivals worked their way through on differing tyre strategies. The final hour produced a dramatic reshuffling. The #7 Toyota appeared set for victory until a hydraulic pressure problem with barely ten minutes remaining forced Nyck de Vries into retirement. That handed the lead to the #50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, which went on to win ahead of the #38 Cadillac and #35 Alpine.

Through it all, the #007 remained in contention and crossed the line fourth overall after 167 laps, only 9.045 seconds from victory. It matched Valkyrie’s previous best WEC result at Spa, but this time came after a weekend in which the Aston Martin had demonstrated front-running speed from practice through qualifying and into the race itself. The sister #009 Valkyrie of Marco Sørensen and Alex Riberas finished 13th, also completing all 167 laps. The car had run tenth after two hours but ultimately slipped outside the points during the second half of the race.

LMGT3: Heart of Racing Converts Pace into Victory

If the Hypercar performance demonstrated progress, Aston Martin’s LMGT3 weekend delivered the breakthrough result. Heart of Racing dominated Saturday’s Hyperpole session. Eduardo Barrichello put the #23 Vantage on pole with a 2:05.160, just 0.124 seconds ahead of Zacharie Robichon in the sister #27. It completed a third consecutive Aston Martin LMGT3 pole after Le Mans and São Paulo and gave Heart of Racing a complete front-row lockout.

The race itself was far less straightforward. Gray Newell lost the initial advantage in the #23 as the Proton Competition Ford Mustangs surged into the lead during the opening phase, while both Aston Martins remained within the main leading group. Ford’s challenge eventually weakened through penalties and incidents, but the #91 Manthey DK Engineering Porsche emerged as another major threat, leading much of the middle phase of the race. A five-second penalty for gaining an advantage off track subsequently hurt the Porsche’s challenge and helped bring the #27 Aston Martin firmly back into contention.

Robichon produced two strong stints before handing the #27 to Mattia Drudi. Heart of Racing then executed a crucial strategic undercut, allowing Drudi to take advantage of fresh tyres and clean air and begin building a margin over the Porsche. There was an additional physical challenge for the Italian: the #27’s air-conditioning system stopped working, leaving Drudi to complete the closing phase in the intense Texan heat. Despite that, he maintained the pace required to control the race after the final Safety Car.

The #27 eventually crossed the line first after 154 laps, with the #91 Porsche finishing second and the sister #23 Aston Martin third. For Heart of Racing it was the team’s first LMGT3 victory for two years, its second Lone Star Le Mans win in three seasons and its best-ever 1–3 finish in FIA WEC. It was also the first WEC victory for Robichon and Drudi, while James added a second COTA win to his 2024 success. The #23 result created Aston Martin’s first double LMGT3 podium.

From Promise to Genuine Contention

COTA feels like an important marker in Aston Martin’s 2026 WEC campaign. The #007 Valkyrie didn’t simply inherit a strong finishing position. It topped two practice sessions, qualified within 0.050 seconds of pole and remained part of the leading Hypercar contest throughout six hours. Fourth place therefore carries rather more significance than the finishing position alone suggests.

Aston Martin leaves Texas sixth in the Hypercar Manufacturers’ Championship with 52 points, while Tincknell and Gamble have moved to 11th in the Drivers’ standings on 42 points. The championship impact in LMGT3 is even greater. The #23 Heart of Racing entry has climbed to fourth in the Teams’ standings with 49 points, while victory moves the #27 to sixth on 44. Gray Newell and Jonny Adam are sixth in the LMGT3 Drivers’ standings, Eduardo Barrichello eighth and the James/Robichon/Drudi trio ninth.

The FTP assessment is consequently more positive than at any previous point this season. Vantage has now converted its repeated qualifying speed into victory, while Valkyrie has shown that it can fight amongst the fastest Hypercars across an entire race weekend.

For the Valkyrie programme, the next objective no longer feels distant or theoretical. The first FIA WEC podium is now the clear target.