Ferrari wins COTA pole in WEC dead-heat

Antonio Giovinazzi put the 2026 Lone Star Le Mans on its head on Saturday when he and Cadillac‘s Jack Aitken both clocked an identical 1m52.445s during the ten-minute Hyperpole session at the Circuit of The Americas, with pole position going to the Italian because he set his time first. Giovinazzi claimed his second pole of the 2026 World Endurance Championship at Austin after ending up tied at the top of the times with Aitken. The result keeps Ferrari’s unbroken run at the top of qualifying at this circuit alive, and it matters in the championship, too.

Identical to the thousandth, and the rule handed pole to Ferrari

It is only the second time qualifying has ended in a dead heat in the FIA WEC, and the first under the single lap format. The other came at the 2014 6 Hours of Shanghai, when the #14 Porsche 919 Hybrid beat the #8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid on the four lap average system in use at the time. The regulation is blunt: when two drivers record an identical time, the one who set it first takes priority. Giovinazzi posted his 1m52.445s as the chequered flag fell, then Aitken stopped the clocks at exactly the same time aboard the #38 Jota Cadillac V-Series.R on his second push lap. Pole went to Giovinazzi because he set his time first.

Think about that for a moment. Not a tenth, not a hundredth. Zero difference. With Giovinazzi setting the benchmark first, Giovinazzi became the first repeat pole-sitter of the 2026 season, after the opener at Imola in April, and maintained Ferrari’s unbeaten Hypercar qualifying record at the circuit.

Ferrari’s unbeaten COTA qualifying record stays intact

Ferrari has successfully maintained its 100% pole position record during the Hypercar era of Lone Star Le Mans, a streak that now stretches across every visit to Texas since the 499P first appeared at this circuit. It is Ferrari’s 10th outright FIA WEC pole position, and Giovinazzi’s fifth.

That last number is the one to sit with. Fifth career WEC pole for a driver who spent years on the fringes of the top category in motorsport. At COTA, he is a different animal entirely, and Saturday confirmed it was no accident.

Four manufacturers, 0.050s: the closest Hyperpole in WEC history

Just 0.050s covered four cars from four manufacturers, the tightest top four in the history of FIA WEC Hyperpole. That is the headline buried inside the headline. Ferrari and Cadillac sharing the front row is one thing. The sheer compression of the field behind them is another story.

Charles Milesi was another late improver aboard the #35 Alpine A424 LMDh, his 1m52.474s propelling him to third. Harry Tincknell continued Aston Martin’s strong COTA weekend by placing the #007 Valkyrie fourth on a 1m52.495s. Four cars, four manufacturers, five hundredths.

Nicklas Nielsen could not reproduce his session-leading qualifying lap when the field returned for Hyperpole, but his 1m52.873s still secured fifth for the #50 Ferrari. The gap between fifth and first is already 0.428s. That is where the real separation happened, and it tells you the 499P has pace in hand when it matters.

Aston Martin had led every practice session

The story going into Saturday afternoon was Aston Martin. The Valkyrie had topped practice throughout the weekend, with Harry Tincknell the name on every timing sheet. FP2 and FP3 pacesetter Tincknell took fourth for Aston Martin THOR Team. Fourth is not nothing, given how tight the session was. But it also means the car that dominated free practice could not convert when it counted.

That is the Hyperpole format doing its job. Ten minutes, one shot, full pressure. Robert Kubica, who was the defending pole-sitter at COTA and has qualified on the front row each of the past two years aboard the #83 AF Corse Ferrari, could only manage 14th this time around. Nothing in this session was guaranteed.

The title picture after pole

The #51 499P of defending world champions Alessandro Pier Guidi, Giovinazzi and James Calado came to Texas fourth in the drivers’ standings on 57 points, 18 behind the leaders. BMW’s Rene Rast and Robin Frijns share the top of the table on 75 points with Toyota’s Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries. The single point for pole cuts the Ferrari crew’s deficit to 17 before a race wheel has turned.

Giovinazzi’s comment after the session said it all. “Qualifying actually was better; for Hyperpole I think the wind picked up and it was not easy to drive the car so I didn’t do a perfect lap, but it was enough to put the car on pole,” he said. “One point for the championship, good position for tomorrow’s race.” That is the thing about this result. It did not require perfection. It just required doing it first. Cadillac’s Aitken was equally fast, perhaps equally quick on the day, and he goes home with front-row bragging rights and nothing more.

The race itself runs on Sunday at COTA, and given how tight qualifying was, the opening stint could be extraordinary. Follow every result from the Lone Star Le Mans weekend on our WEC Texas race hub.