WRT BMW Leads at Halfway as JOTA Cadillacs Suffer

Photo: Joao Filipe/DPPI

The BMW M Hybrid V8 of Raffaelo Marciello led the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo at the mid-point of the FIA World Endurance Championship contest as the race began to unravel for the Cadillacs that locked out the front row.

Will Stevens had continued to lead at the start of the second hour in the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R that had started from pole, while Kevin Magnussen in the No. 20 WRT BMW jumped ahead of the No. 38 Cadillac of Earl Bamber.

But both Caddys then had slow 90-second stops at the first round of pit stops, Bamber locking up slightly when he entered the box, causing the mechanics to readjust and delay the No. 38 car, before a sticking wheel nut hampered the No. 12 as well.

This meant Magnussen enjoyed a 10-second lead over Stevens once the out of sequence No. 35 Alpine A424 that pitted early in the first hour returned to the pits.

Bamber was in a net fifth at this stage having rejoined in traffic and being forced off at Turn 5 by the No. 8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley.

Things then got worse for Stevens when he punted the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 into a spin at Turn 8 at the start of the third hour and was given a five-second penalty.

There was more drama when Norman Nato took to the wheel of the No. 12 Cadillac as he spun when battling Phil Hanson’s No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P at Turn 7, all of which helped consolidate the BMW’s advantage at the front.

Marciello was 17.267 seconds ahead of Nato at the conclusion of the third hour with Hanson now up to third.

Fourth place belonged to the first of the factory Ferraris with Alessandro Pier Guidi in the No. 51 machine just ahead of Sebastien Bourdais now at the wheel of the No. 38 Cadillac.

Sixth and seventh were the pair of Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyries, while the brace of Genesis GMR-001s sandwiched the No. 35 Alpine in eighth and tenth.

This was despite Dani Juncadella being sent spinning in the No. 19 car by Thomas Flohr’s AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, and the No. 17 GMR-001 receiving two penalties for contact.

The tight nature of the Interlagos circuit meant a whole host of penalties were being dished out for a range of offences.

Both Peugeots dropped out of the top-ten with the No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 receiving a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flags, while the sister No. 94 machine was given a 30-second stop-and-hold sanction for pit lane speeding.

Both Toyotas were also in the wars as the No. 8 machine of Hartley was hit hard by Andre Lotterer in the No. 17 Genesis, which broke the Japanese machine’s toe rod and it lost 12 laps in the pits for repairs.

Meanwhile, the No. 7 Toyota crew that headed the points standings going into the Brazilian event was 15th after being sanctioned for start and full-course yellow infringements, the latter occurring during a brief caution to retrieve debris.

The TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Peter Dempsey had the advantage in the LMGT3 ranks after three hours as contrasting strategies played out.

The majority of the crews opted to pit towards the end of the second hour as soon as the FIA-graded Bronze driver minimum time in the car was completed.

But two cars opted to stick to a more conventional strategy with Eric Powell remaining aboard the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 EVO that had ran second earlier in the race and Ian James continuing for longer in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.

Once this pair had finally stopped it was the No. 34 Corvette that held the lead with that car also adopting a different strategy by Silver-graded Salih Yoluc starting the race before handing over to Bronze Dempsey.

Dempsey had a lead of 12.601 seconds at the mid-point of the race over the No. 88 Mustang of Giammarco Levorato that had led at the end of the opening hour.

Third was the second of the Mustangs, now with Ben Tuck at the wheel, while the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari of Simon Mann and Zacharie Robichon now aboard the No. 27 Aston completed the top-five after three hours.

Source: Sports Car 365