WEC Austin: BMW e Aston shines in free practice sessions

The WEC Austin weekend kicked off on Friday with the first two Free Practice sessions—finally, we might add—after enduring a long summer break without the thrill of this fantastic championship. As we had predicted, BMW showed strong pace with the V8 M Hybrid fielded by Team WRT.

The fastest time of the day came from the #20 car, driven by Rast, Frijns, and Van der Linde, who topped the timesheets after completing 35 laps with a best lap of 1:51.946.

Lap times improved notably during FP2, mainly due to scorching track temperatures reaching 57°C. Michelin tyres seem to perform well under these extreme conditions, but the data might be misleading, as rain is forecasted for Sunday—adding another layer of unpredictability to the race.

Also worth noting is the solid performance by the Ferrari 499P, which delivered a surprisingly strong result in FP2. The #51 car secured P2, trailing the leading BMW by just under half a second—an encouraging sign for the Maranello squad.

But perhaps the biggest surprise came from Aston Martin, with the Valkyrie AMR-LMH slotting into P3. The British hypercar clearly found a well-balanced setup for the Circuit of the Americas, showing unexpected pace that could shake things up for the race.

Need a quick refresher before the action continues? Here’s a look at the updated Balance of Performance (BoP) adjustments for the Austin round. WEC BoP: Is Austin favorable for outsiders?

Is Cadillac hiding its true pace?

The team that triumphed at the 6 Hours of São Paulo didn’t shine quite as bright yesterday, especially during FP2, where they only managed P10 and P16. Has the BoP effectively put them on the back foot, or is the American manufacturer planning a surprise attack in qualifying?

After all, this is their home race, and expectations are high. Interestingly, in FP1 earlier in the day, they stunned everyone with a P1 time of 1:53.5. However, as the track temperatures rose in the afternoon, they struggled to keep pace with the frontrunners.

We now look ahead to FP3 of the WEC Austin to see if the hierarchy will shift once more, or if the teams we’ve seen dominate so far will remain the ones to beat on Sunday. Either way, it’s shaping up to be an unmissable race, and we’ll be following it breath by breath with all the latest updates on http://Sportchaos.live

WEC Austin LMGT3 Top 3

WEC Official website https://www.fiawec.com/