Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor won WRT BMW's second race of the season in the 6 Hours of São Paulo.
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| Photo by Jakob Ebrey |
The World Endurance Championship made its first appearance since June's 24 Hours of Le Mans at the Brazilian Interlagos Circuit. The weekend format was typical for a six-hour race, as qualifying, which is split into two segments – Q1 and Hyperpole – took place on Saturday, while the race itself was held on Sunday.
The V-Series.R hypercars of the American manufacturer Cadillac lined up on the front row, with the #12 crew, driven by Will Stevens in qualifying, taking pole position by just 0.048 seconds ahead of the sister #38 crew.
With these starting positions, Cadillac's goal was clear – to repeat last year's success, when the American manufacturer claimed victory. After the race start, the two Cadillacs held the top two positions until Kevin Magnussen managed to overtake the #38 car and set off in pursuit of the leading Cadillac.
The decisive moment came during the pit stop of the #12 Cadillac, when the mechanic on the front-right side was unable to remove the wheel nut, costing the team valuable time. This unfortunate moment for Cadillac proved to be a fortunate one for BMW, which inherited the race lead. The only opponent capable of challenging the #15 BMW was James Calado in the Ferrari 499P, who put Dries Vanthoor under pressure in the closing minutes of the race. However, the Belgian driver held on and brought the Bavarian hypercar home in first place.
“All the drivers did an incredible job but the start of Kevin was a key — we could see it gave us track position at the start. We were not the quickest car but we did a faultless race — it was close, but it was enough,” said Vincent Vosse, the team boss.
Kevin Magnussen was very pleased that this triumph came at Interlagos, the circuit where he secured his first and only Formula 1 pole position with Haas in 2022.
“Every time I come here, I still get that amazing support from the Brazilian fans,” he said.
“When we got the pole with Haas, we were the underdogs and the roar from the crowd was crazy. It touched me, and it touches me every time I see the support,” said the BMW driver.
Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi finished second with the #51 Ferrari 499P. The pole-sitting Cadillac #12 came home third with Will Stevens and Norman Nato behind the wheel.
The LMGT3 category was won by Peter Dempsey, Salih Yoluc and Charlie Eastwood in the #34 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R.
The next round of the World Endurance Championship will take place in Austin, Texas, on September 6.