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Photo: Charly Lopez/DPPI Ferrari should not “regret” its narrow defeat to Toyota in the opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship at Imola as it lost for reasons beyond its control, believes Alessandro Pier Guidi. The Italian driver made the remarks in the wake of finishing second on home turf aboard the No. 51 Ferrari 499P he shared with James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi, behind the winning No. 8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi. Pier Guidi was referencing the second virtual safety car period of the race that allowed the No. 8 crew a chance to change all four tires at low cost, after it had jumped ahead by virtue of triple-stinting its tires. By contrast, the No. 51 car that Pier Guidi took over from Calado changed two tires under green, before changing the remaining two under caution, after which it was never able to reassert the advantage. “They decided to go for a triple [stint] and they might have paid a penalty in term...

Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI Toyota scored victory with its updated TR010 Hybrid in the opening round of the new FIA World Endurance Championship season at Imola, overcoming Ferrari in a strategic race-long battle. Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi took the Japanese marque’s 50th victory in WEC competition in its 100th appearance aboard the No. 8 car, 13.352 seconds ahead of the No. 51 Ferrari 499P of Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado. Rounding off the podium in third was the No. 7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries and Mike Conway. Toyota gained the strategic edge over the No. 51 Ferrari, which led early on from pole, during the third hour as the No. 8 car did not change tires at the second round of pit stops while the Ferrari changed two tires. A subsequent virtual safety car triggered by Nick Cassidy beaching his Peugeot 9X8 in the gravel allowed Toyota to put Hirakawa on to a fresh set of new tires for ‘free’, while the No. 51 cr...

Photo: Jessica Johnk/Porsche Tom Sargent claimed a commanding flag-to-flag victory in the opening Porsche Carrera Cup North America race of the weekend on the streets of Long Beach. The Porsche Motorsport North America Selected Driver, who was making his first start in the single-make series since 2023, dominated Saturday’s 40-minute contest from pole in the No. 32 GMG Racing Porsche 911 Cup. Sargent took a 2.245-second win over the No. 24 Kellymoss entry of Aaron Jeansonne. Jeansonne, who started third, passed the No. 9 JDX Racing Porsche of Callum Hedge at the start but was unable to challenge the Australian driver, who was subbing for GT World Challenge America powered by AWS co-driver Kyle Washington. Hedge came home in third, ahead of the No. 77 Topp Racing Porsche of Tyler Maxson, who swept the season-opening pair of races at Sebring International Raceway last month. Maxson pressured Hedge in the closing laps, including making contact multiple times in the final laps of ...

Source: Sports Car 365

Photo: Mike Levitt/IMSA ***The No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 is good to go for this afternoon’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach following the completion of a chassis change after Colin Braun’s accident in Friday’s second practice session. It’s understood the Ohio-based team worked until 1 a.m. this morning to build up what is essentially a new car for the 100-minute IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race. ***Frederik Vesti, who is subbing for Earl Bamber this weekend, is making his Long Beach debut, one year after the Dane took part in his first non-IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup race at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, also in place of the Kiwi due to a clash with the FIA World Endurance Championship. ***Vesti told Sportscar365: “I love my time in IMSA and get to do new races that I haven’t done before is huge. The first laps were really cool. I had a massive smile under my helmet. I was just looking to explore the track. There were a few tricks that I was told and ha...

Photo: Perry Nelson/IMSA Laurin Heinrich was quickest in opening practice for this weekend’s Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach. The Long Beach rookie, aboard JDC-Miller Motorsports Porsche 963, reeled off a chart-topping time of 1:13.240 in the closing stages of Friday morning’s session to dethrone the No. 60 Meyer Shank Racing Acura ARX-06 of Tom Blomqvist, who led much of the session. Filipe Albuquerque in the No. 10 Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac V-Series.R was third, also in a late session improvement. It bumped Laurens Vanthoor, in the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 to fourth. However, co-driver Kevin Estre stopped late in the session after brushing the Turn 4 wall, before the Frenchman made his way safely into a track cut-out. Both of the factory Porsches, which are undefeated in IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition so far this season, are carrying 45 kg/99 pounds of additional weight as part of a pre-event Balance of Performance adjustment. Heinrich’s Porsche is...