Vantage, the most successful racing car in the great sporting endurance history of the legendary British brand, claimed its 11th class podium in the world famous 24 Hours of Le Mans, when the Heart of Racing Team finished third in the LMGT3 class on Sunday.

Gray Newell, on his race debut, driving alongside FIA World Endurance Championship team-mates Dudu Barrichello and two-time Le Mans GT class winner Jonny Adam, raced to a fraught and fiercely contested final podium spot, finishing ahead of the rival Lexus by just 2.5 seconds in a dramatic end to the race.

This excellent result ensured the latest generation of the Vantage GT3 finished in the top three in its class at Le Mans for the first time.

“This was an outstanding performance from Vantage, another excellent weekend at Le Mans for Aston Martin, and a great result for our partners Heart of Racing Team,’ said Aston Martin Head of Endurance Adam Carter. “This generation of Vantage has been a contender at Le Mans since it made its debut in 2024, and it is satisfying to see it achieve a podium in the hands of a very competitive, well organised partner. We believe the car is capable of winning, and showed as much again throughout the race, so we will be back next year to try again. Our congratulations go to Gray who was exemplary on his debut, to Dudu who continues to impress and of course to Jonny, who has been an outstanding champion for Aston Martin and deserves this latest accolade.”

The podium was the first for the US-based Heart of Racing Team at Le Mans, which brought two Vantage GT3s to the event for the first time. The #27 THOR Vantage, driven as always by team principal Ian James, Zach Robichon and Mattia Drudi, took pole position for the second consecutive year, after Drudi set a new qualifying lap record of 3m52.433s. Sadly the trio, who led the class for several hours during the race and were one of the pace-setting cars, had their hopes dashed in the 21st hour when they suffered technical issues.

Their misfortune allowed the #23 Vantage to move into podium contention, having run in or around the top five all race. As the 94th edition of the French classic moved into the final few hours, it became a clear fight for third behind the victorious Corvette and the pursuant Lexus. The sister Japanese machine then put Barrichello under intense pressure in the final laps, which the young Brazilian calmly absorbed to record his own first podium at Le Mans.

“I gave everything I had in those last laps and took every inch out of the car.” said Barrichello. “In those situations, you trust the people around you and my engineers were giving me information and targets to hit. I just had to keep my cool and do my job and thankfully that was good enough to finish on the podium!”

For Adam, the podium means that 50% of his Le Mans starts have concluded with a visit to the Le Mans rostrum, having won his class in 2017 and again in 2020: “Aston Martin has always had a special relationship with Le Mans, so to stand on the podium here, at a race so steeped in the brand's history, means a great deal. We had some good fortune and some bad fortune with safety cars and strategy during the race, but overall it came together really nicely. I'm especially pleased for Gray because this was his Le Mans debut and to come away with a podium is huge for his confidence and a great reward for all his hard work. It could have been an incredible story for both cars today, but we'll celebrate this result.

For Newell, the result will of course be written indelibly in his memory: “More than anything, I just feel incredibly fortunate to be part of this team. These guys are the best. The culture at Heart of Racing is phenomenal and it's something that stood out to me from the moment I arrived. To come here for my first Le Mans and experience that environment, while standing on the podium at the end of it, is special. One of the biggest takeaways from this week is how encouraging it has been for me personally. To come here, compete at this level and feel comfortable gives me a lot of confidence. It shows me that the skill set is working and that I'm moving in the right direction.”

“What a 24-hour race,” added Ian James, “Those guys executed all week. I’m disappointed for the #27 car, we were in contention for the win there until we lost the gearbox. It’s a strange feeling because it obviously hurts in some ways, but I am very happy that the team took its first Le Mans podium. This place is so special and it’s a privilege to race here. Now we look forward to Brazil and see if we can get a win on the books.”

The two THOR cars were joined by Racing Spirit of Léman trio, debutants Clement Mateu and Marius Fossard, as well as Aston Martin works driver Valentin Hasse Clot in the #59 Aston Martin Vantage GT3. The trio finished a creditable 11th.

Source material - HoRT / DPPI

 

The #007 meanwhile would continue to round off a decent opening race meeting for drivers Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble as they would secure an encouraging P9 finish – a position twice as good as their first race around Imola in that car last year.

The #23 Vantage LMGT3 of Newell, Kobe Pauwels and Jonny Adam would also fare well in class despite the former Le Mans winners supporting two series rookies as they also finished P9 in class at the end of the six hours.

 

The team will now look forward to the next round to the season from the more favourable racetrack of Spa Francorchamps in Belgium in just a couple of weeks’ time.

Photo credits – Team / AMR / DPPI

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning’s news see no surprises within the #23 car as Ian James is again joined by both Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi as the Canadian and Italian look to build upon their rookie year of last season.

The team’s new for 2026 #27 car entry is confirmed with Newell as he takes another massive step up the GT racing ladder from his GT4 days within the GT America/GT4 America Series earlier and his GT3 experience from within the GT World Challenge America Series which he shared under the tutelage of AMR factory driver Darren Turner.

 

 

Joining him will be the familiar face of Eduardo Barrichello as the Brazilian goes double duty with the team within their WEC and IMSA race programmes this season with both drivers this year operating under the overall guidance of AMR factory driver Jonny Adam.

Two times Le Mans 24hr GTE class winner and multiple British GT Champion, the Scot needs no further introduction as Barrichello is himself only entering his second year of GT racing having competed within the championship last season with the Racing Spirit of Leman team.

 

 

“I am super excited to be joining The Heart of Racing in 2026 and returning to WEC,” said Adam. “Teaming up with Dudu, who had some awesome performances last season in LMGT3, alongside supporting Gray’s first year in WEC and the Le Mans 24 Hours is something that I’m really getting fully involved in. The goal is to gain experience along the way and hopefully have some successful results for the team with the Aston Martin Vantage. I believe that’s entirely possible with this line-up.”

Although probably already testing together somewhere around the world, the more official track action isn’t that far away with the Prologue Test which precedes the opening round to the season in Qatar just over three weeks away.

 

The Heart of Racing team will be the sole runners of both Aston Martin and Aston Martin Racing powered machinery this season.

Photo credits – Team / Series / Blackthorn

 

 

A magnificent performance in Hypercar qualifying was the highlight of Saturday’s on-track action as the #007 entry of British trio Harry Tincknell, Tom Gamble and Ross Gunn led the #009 in an all-Valkyrie one-two; ensuring that both Aston Martin THOR Team cars would progress to the Hyperpole session and challenge for pole position for the first time. Sixth and ninth positions on the grid marked the first time two Valkyries had qualified inside the top 10 in the WEC.

Aston Martin’s first ‘Le Mans Hypercar showed more potential during the eight-hour race as, following a mid-race safety car period that bunched the field, Riberas charged from fifth place into the lead – the first time Valkyrie has headed a WEC race. It was a fitting end to a trail-blazing debut season that featured the car’s maiden podium finish in North America’s IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship in October’s gruelling Motul Petit Le Mans at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta.

Raced by the works Aston Martin THOR Team, it is the only car in WEC’s premier category derived from a road-legal hypercar and made its global debut in the Qatar 1812km in February over a grueling season that has covered more than 22,000 racing miles, and eight rounds of WEC (including the 24 Hours of Le Mans) for the two stunning, green Aston Martins.

“The aim for Aston Martin in Hypercar in 2025 was to compete in endurance racing at the very highest level of competition, both globally in WEC and in North America in IMSA,” said Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport. “Both are magnificent series with manufacturers, teams and drivers that have been at the pinnacle of the sport for, in some cases, decades. To have brought such a unique car as Valkyrie to the stage, to start where we did, and to consistently improve our performances to the point where we’ve come to the WEC finale in Bahrain and perform the way we have, shows the ability and desire of everybody that is a part of this programme. We have made satisfying progress in 2025 and will continue to build on this next season.”

Aston Martin’s most successful sportscar of all time, the Vantage meanwhile finished the FIA World Endurance Championship season with a podium finish in the LMGT3 class in Bahrain.

The Heart of Racing Team drivers Ian James, Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi finished third in an action-packed race to claim the team’s first top-three finish of the season for the ultimate racing version of Aston Martin’s most focused sportscar.

The trio ran inside the top six throughout the race with Aston Martin works driver Drudi closing down a 30-second gap to the leaders with two hours to go to put himself in the hunt for victory in the closing stages.

THOR’s result was the second WEC podium finish of the season for Vantage, after Racing Spirit of Léman finished third in Brazil during the summer. It was also a 14th WEC rostrum finish for Vantage in Bahrain; those results scored across the LMGT3 class and its predecessors, LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am. RSL’s Anthony McIntosh, Eduardo Barrichello and Aston Martin works driver Valentin Hasse-Clot finished 14th in LMGT3 aboard their #10 Vantage.

“The ultra-close nature of the competition in WEC means that to fight at the front, you must have first-rate machinery and partner teams capable of delivering when it counts,” said Adam Carter, Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport. “In The Heart of Racing Team and Racing Spirit of Léman we have two outstanding partners, who have both scored pole positions and podium finishes this year. This is a testament to the strength of both organisations, to the accessibility and robustness of Vantage to drivers of all levels of experience, and to a set of regulations that keeps the competing machines close. We are already looking ahead to a 2026 season.” 

Source material – Aston Martin

Running of course parallel race programs with their IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship sister car, recent results have seen at least one of these Valkyries first break into Hyperpole qualifying within the WEC before securing their first ever podium finish at the season finale of the IMSA Championship.

Having had many of the team and crew get in some last minute R&R on the Galapagos Islands before this week’s finale, that investment have proved worthwhile for the team as the #007 Valkyrie of Harry Tincknell, Tom Gamble and Ross Gunn topped the qualifying timing screen for the first time, narrowly beating the sister #009 car of Marco Sorenson, Alex Riberas and Roman De Angelis for a well-deserved 1-2 in class.

Moving into the later Hyperpole session, the fairytale season ending wasn’t quite there unfortunately as the #009 eventually finished sixth fastest with the #007 nineth ahead of tomorrow’s eight-hour race. Compare and contrast that to the distant P18 and P16 positions at the opening round in Qatar!!

It was harder work for the two Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 crews however, as both the #27 Heart of Racing AMR of Ian James, Mattia Drudi and Zacharie Robichon and the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman AMR of Anthony McIntosh, Eduardo Barrichello and Valentin Hasse-Clot struggled within the mid table of their class during the three earlier Free Practice sessions after another swathe of Balance of Performance adjustments across the class.

As always, one hot lap is never enough for any endurance race as (like all), both crews will have another eight hours to improve upon their P4 and P15 qualifying positions (for the #27 and #10 cars respectively) after their own Qualifying and Hyperpole sessions.

The final race of the FIA WEC season will be waved off at 14:00hrs local before finishing under the veil of darkness (although the circuit is mostly floodlit) where all four crews could seriously improve upon their final championship positions in class with thirty eight points being again on offer to each class winner.

Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media

Valkyrie had already made headlines on Thursday by topping the timesheets in an official IMSA session for the first time as Ross Gunn went fastest in night practice followed by Gunn taking the hypercar’s best qualifying result to date with fifth place on Friday.

De Angelis and Gunn, THOR’S regular IMSA season drivers, were joined at Petit Le Mans by Alex Riberas; part of Aston Martin THOR Team’s FIA World Endurance Championship line-up and a multiple race winner in IMSA’s GTD classes.

All three drove magnificently and backed up by some clever strategic calls from the pit crew, raced Valkyrie #23 into a podium spot with two hours to go. An inspired decision to make a final pitstop with 50 minutes left, rather than speculatively staying out in case of a Full-Course Yellow period which could have allowed the car’s energy reserves to be stretched without an additional stop, meant that De Angelis ran at full attack to the end of the race.

Despite dropping to seventh, 50 seconds behind the leader, he charged back into contention while gaining positions as the track remained ‘green’ and others made their final fuel stops. The Valkyrie slotted into second with less than 10 minutes remaining. De Angelis closed to within six seconds of the victory while securing the best result for Valkyrie in all competitions, completing an IMSA season in which the car finished every race and completed over 4,300 miles of hard racing around eight of the most iconic North American motorsport venues.

The only entry derived from a road-going hypercar competing in either IMSA or the WEC, Valkyrie is developed from its production version by Aston Martin and THOR. The competition example blends a race-optimised carbon fibre chassis with a modified 6.5-litre V12 powerplant that revs to 11,000rpm and produces over 1000bhp in standard form, but adheres to a strict 500kw (680bhp) power limit as per hypercar regulations.

Valkyrie has positioned Aston Martin in the top division of US sportscar racing for the first time since 2011; a season in which five outright victories and seven podiums were achieved in the American Le Mans Series.

“What a day! To score the first podium for Valkyrie and finish second at Petit Le Mans is a testament to the hard work everybody’s put in, not just this year, but across the whole project from the group in the UK and the Aston Martin THOR Team here on the ground. The execution was pretty much perfect, and the drivers excelled. It’s been a great year in IMSA for Valkyrie, and I can’t wait for the new season to start at Daytona in January” said Team Principle Ian James after the chequered flag.

Source material – Aston Martin

Despite that and the race being the first time within the Championship and the LMGT3 variant of the AMR Vantage for McIntosh, that still permitted the #10 car to steal a late class podium finish by the end of what was the fifth round of the season nearly two months ago.

DeBoer rejoins his counterparts for this weekend’s six-hour race for what is listed as being his swansong appearance within the Championship this year before McIntosh again deputises for his countryman and sees out the remainder of the season.

The team also secured their first class win of the season within the parallel European Le Mans Series race from Spa Francorchamps two weeks ago where Hasse-Clot, Clement Mateu and Erwan Bastard did similar at the end of that four-hour affair so confidence within the team and crew should be running high

Amongst the eighteen strong LMGT3 entry also sees the #27 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage LMGT3 of Ian James, Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi, a team who didn’t have a great showing last time out in Brazil where there usual steady progress saw them bring home a disappointing P14 in class finish for a second non points scoring finish to the year after James crashed out in Italy.

With three races of the season still to complete, both teams still find themselves significantly behind the present LMGT3 class leaders with a forty-two points deficit to the #27 crew – increasing to fifty-eight points for both Barrichello and Hasse-Clot within the #10 car.

Like the Hypercar class before it, the LMGT3 class will also see sweeping balance of performance changes across its nine strong manufacturer entry with the Vantage seeing changes within its power, energy and base weight parameters with the #10 car also getting additional success weight ballast thanks to their P3 finish last time out.

First track action for the event will be Free Practice 1 on Friday morning.

Photo credits - Teams

Many US-based motorsport fans are familiar with Valkyrie, which is the only LMH to compete in both the FIA WEC and in North America’s IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship and has scored top 10 finishes in every race it has contested in the USA – including Road America most recently, where the US-based version of the Aston Martin THOR Team finished in an encouraging sixth place.

In WEC, where Aston Martin competes against seven of the world’s most prominent endurance sportscar manufacturers, Valkyrie is also growing in competitiveness. This was evidenced by its combined best qualifying performance (11th and 12th) in the most recent Rolex 6 Hours of Sao Paulo, in July. The car also raced deep into the top ten in the early hours of the event. This follows an encouraging 24 Hours of Le Mans (in June) where both Valkyrie Hypercars completed their maiden twice-around-the-clock event without issue, finishing 12th and 14th, and the UK-based ‘WEC’ arm of the Aston Martin THOR Team registered the cars’, and Aston Martin’s first Manufacturer’s World Championship points in the Hypercar Class.

Valkyrie made its global debut in the Qatar 1812km in February. The British machine has subsequently demonstrated outstanding reliability, having finished 14 times from 15 starts in all competitions.

The Aston Martin THOR Team will keep to its two regular WEC Valkyrie line-ups for the Lone Star Le Mans, with the #007 driven by Tom Gamble and Harry Tincknell and the #009 by Alex Riberas and Marco Sørensen.

There are few circuits on Earth more suited to showcasing the breathtaking prowess of Aston Martin’s Vantage GT3 than the Circuit of the Americas – the venue for Round 6 of the FIA World Endurance Championship and the scene of unprecedented glory for the British brand’s most successful racing car.

In its various iterations, Vantage has claimed no less than 10 class victories derived from 13 podium appearances – four of which were double-class wins – as well as seven class pole positions. Its credentials were cemented further in 2024, when the latest iteration – Vantage GT3 – underpinned The Heart of Racing’s (THOR) and team principal Ian James maiden victory in the LMGT3 Class, along with his co-drivers Alex Riberas who now forms part of the Valkyrie works line-up, and Daniel Mancinelli.

James returns this year as a regular class frontrunner, alongside Zach Robichon and Mattia Drudi looking to repeat the team’s home race heroics of 2024 with of the #27 Vantage.

The Racing Spirit of Léman crew, returns to its original 2025 driver line-up of Derek DeBoer, Eduardo Barrichello and Aston Martin works driver Valentin Hasse-Clot in the #10 Aston Martin Vantage GT3. The team arrives in Austin still on a high from its first WEC podium finish in LMGT3, after Barrichello raced to a dramatic third place in the closing stages of the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo in July. RSL will be looking to maintain that momentum in Texas this weekend.

“It seems as though we have been competitive all season long in WEC,” said Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport Adam Carter. “And yet for one reason or another, it’s taken until the second half of the season for Vantage to achieve its podium potential. A winner last year in COTA, we see no reason why both cars are not capable of competing for similar results this year in the Lone Star Le Mans. We wish both our partner teams (The Heart of Racing and Racing Spirit of Léman) well in pursuit of this goal.”

Source material – Aston Martin (Racing)