It’s a tug of war between Toyota and Porsche, with Ferrari lurking after the first two hours of the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo.
This fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship got underway under bright sunshine with temperatures rising to 20°C, the highest seen so far this weekend, and there were shivers at the start when Brendon Hartley completely cut the ‘S of Senna’, running wide, but then catching up with his colleague Mike Conway, who was able to escape in his #7 GR010 Hybrid.
Paul-Loup Chatin’s #35 Alpine also spun at the first chicane on the second pass, but the first real problems were caused – for a change – by the Bronze drivers of LMGT3.
A disastrous Yasser Shahin, not at all elated by his victory at Le Mans, sent Tom Van Rompuy’s (TF Sport) Corvette #81 into a spin, before hitting Thomas Flohr’s (TF Sport) Ferrari #54 on the left rear at the end of the straight, causing the AF Corse driver to suffer a puncture.
The Swiss driver, among other things, had already been hit by the #87 Lexus of Takeshi Kimura (Akkodis-ASP) in the first corners, and with the 296 in bad condition he had to return to the pits.
Meanwhile Shahin, who had to bring his Porsche #91 back to the Manthey EMA pits to repair the bodywork and replace the front right, was first given a Drive Through and then a Stop&Go, also reporting (as if that wasn’t enough!) a wheelie given on the side to the Ferrari #50 of Nicklas Nielsen who was lapping him in the central sector.
Meanwhile, from lap 21 the Cadillac of Earl Bamber – at that time fourth – began to suffer, losing positions to the Porsches of Will Stevens (Jota #12) and Laurens Vanthoor (Penske #6), and the Ferrari #51 of Antonio Giovinazzi.
The Apulian then took advantage of the fight between the two 963s to move up to fourth, as Vanthoor and Stevens touched and the Belgian of the official #6 had the worst of it, returning to the pits with a puncture on the front right. The Englishman instead received a 30″ Stop&Go for not holding his line, causing the collision.
The carousel of first stops was inaugurated at the end of the first hour by the LMGT3 (whose overtakings are proving to be at times thrilling), followed by the HYPERCARS. Here Toyota, Porsche and Ferrari #51 have chosen to keep the same tyres, on the 499P #50 instead the hard ones on the right were changed, leaving the medium ones on the left (initial choice also adopted by the sister car).
Another twist came halfway through the second hour, when the race direction punished the Toyota #7 and the Ferrari #51 with a Drive Through for infringement of the Full Course Yellow regime, and in LMGT3 the BMW-WRT #31, Ferrari-AF Corse #55, Corvette-TF Sport #82 and Ford-Proton #88.
#38 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963: Jenson Button, Philip Hanson, Oliver Rasmussen
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
In the HYPERCAR class, despite having served the penalty, the #7 Toyota remains in the lead having previously built up a huge advantage with the excellent Conway over the #8 of Hartley, who was chasing by a handful of seconds.
The #5 Team Penske Porsche closed in on the New Zealander with Frédéric Makowiecki, who had managed to get rid of the #51 Ferrari driven by Antonio Giovinazzi on lap 49, repeating the feat on lap 70 to take second place.
Meanwhile the 499P is fourth with about 7″ to manage on the Cadillac which is back in fifth, but in the sights of the #50 Ferrari which Nielsen has put ahead of the #38 Porsche of Jota, current leader of the privateer classification.
The #93 Peugeot climbed into the Top 10, overtaking a tyre-challenged Robert Kubica in his #83 499P run by AF Corse.
The Pole was then hit by the #99 Proton Competition Porsche of Julien Andlauer and spun at Turn 7, moving the Frenchman up to ninth, with the #36 Alpine of Mick Schumacher completing the top 10.
Close behind them are the #63 Lamborghini and the #94 Peugeot (penalised 10″ for ‘Unsafe Release’ at the first pit stop), plus the #15 BMW. The Isotta Fraschini is running a very honest race in 16th place, having lost a bit of pace in the second stint after starting very well and gaining 5 positions.
Behind the Tipo 6-C we find the #6 Porsche, which being on a different strategy now finds itself at the back, but also fighting with the rivals in front when it is close to the pit stop.
#85 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 Evo2: Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
In the LMGT3 class, after an initial escape, Sarah Bovy was reached and overtaken by Alex Malykhin, so the #92 Porsche of Manthey PureRxcing now took the lead, with the #85 Lamborghini of the Iron Dames behind it.
Further back were the other cars and with the penalty inflicted on the #55 Ferrari, third place passed to the #46 BMW of Team WRT (which Valentino Rossi has not yet driven), which, thanks to Maxime Martin, climbed onto the podium, overtaking the #27 Aston Martin of Heart of Racing and with the McLarens of United Autosports occupying fifth and sixth place.
The #87 Akkodis-ASP Lexus is eighth, followed by the #81 TF Sport Corvette, the #55 Ferrari and the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang.
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