Ferrari takes surprise WEC Austin win after late Toyota hydraulic failure

Toyota's late hydraulic failure hands victory to Ferrari

Ferrari claimed its first World Endurance Championship victory of 2026 at the Lone Star Le Mans at the Circuit of the Americas after the race-leading No. 7 Toyota suffered a late hydraulic failure. The No. 7 Toyota GR010, driven by Nyck de Vries, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway, had climbed from ninth on the grid and appeared set to deliver Toyota a first WEC win at Austin in nine attempts. With about 15 minutes remaining, the car suddenly slowed on track, allowing the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 499P shared by Nicklas Nielsen, Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina to inherit the lead and the win.

Cadillac and Alpine round out the podium

Jack Aitken, Sebastien Bourdais and Earl Bamber finished second in the No. 38 Jota Cadillac V-Series.R, while Charles Milesi, Ferdinand Habsburg and Antonio Felix da Costa completed the podium in the No. 35 Alpine A424. The podium order was settled after Alpine received a post-race penalty that promoted Cadillac into the runner-up spot.

Early-race strategy and safety-car interruptions shape the order

The six-hour contest effectively began under the safety car, with race control ordering two extra formation laps to allow the damp track to dry. Antonio Giovinazzi held the lead from pole in the No. 51 Ferrari 499P, with Aitken second in the No. 38 Cadillac. An early, shorter fuel stop elevated Molina's No. 50 Ferrari to the front, splitting the field between offset and conventional strategies. A safety car shortly before the halfway mark, deployed to clear debris, reset the order and handed the conventional-strategy runners the advantage, with Bamber leading in the Cadillac and da Costa second in the Alpine.

Toyota charges back into contention before the late heartbreak

De Vries worked the No. 7 Toyota up to fourth by the halfway mark and closed on the leading trio, while Giovinazzi's No. 51 Ferrari lost nearly half a minute when its engine failed to restart during the second round of pitstops. Toyota deployed an offset strategy with its No. 8 GR010 Hybrid that moved Sebastien Buemi from the lower reaches of the top 10 into podium contention. The Toyota charge set up the late-race duel that ended when the No. 7 car's hydraulic issue erased what had appeared to be Toyota's breakthrough Austin result.