Cadillac claimed its first-ever victory within the FIA World Endurance Championship with a dominant 1-2 end within the 6 Hours of São Paulo.
The No. 12 Cadillac V-Collection.R run by Jota and shared by Alex Lynn, Norman Nato and Will Stevens took the chequered flag with a commanding 57-second benefit over the No. 38 sister entry, crewed by Jenson Button, Sebastien Bourdais and Earl Bamber.
With Ferrari and Toyota by no means that includes close to the entrance, the race rapidly developed right into a three-way struggle between the 2 Cadillacs and the No. 5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 of Julien Andlauer and Michael Christensen.
Andlauer made a lightning begin from second on the grid to grab the lead for Porsche, whereas Stevens dropped to 3rd within the pole-sitting No. 12 Cadillac after being handed a drive-through penalty for a tyre infringement. That promoted Bamber within the No. 38 automotive to second.
By the tip of the second hour, each Cadillacs had reeled in Andlauer, who initially fended off the stress. However Bamber ultimately muscled previous the Porsche into the Senna S to place the No. 38 Cadillac in entrance.
Simply earlier than the lead modified palms, Stevens had pitted early, and the undercut allowed Lynn—newly put in within the No. 12 Cadillac—to leap forward of the No. 38 automotive, now within the palms of Button.
Though the No. 38 held a gasoline benefit at that stage, each vehicles stopped inside a lap of one another at the beginning of the ultimate hour, successfully locking within the No. 12’s observe place.
Nato introduced the automotive house forward of Bourdais to seal a 1-2 end for Normal Motors. The win additionally marked Jota’s second general WEC victory, following Stevens and Callum Ilott’s triumph ultimately yr’s 6 Hours of Spa in a buyer Porsche 963.
Andlauer mounted a last push within the closing phases however needed to accept third place in the perfect of the Porsches. Simply three vehicles completed on the lead lap.
The No. 6 Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre climbed from seventh on the grid to fourth, overcoming a five-second penalty for a pitlane infringement.
Sheldon van der Linde, Rene Rast and Marco Wittmann introduced the No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8 house in fifth, recovering from a drive-through penalty for a Full Course Yellow violation. Van der Linde sealed the place with below 10 minutes remaining, overtaking Loic Duval’s No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 into Flip 4.
Duval, together with teammates Malthe Jakobsen and Stoffel Vandoorne, secured sixth—the French producer’s greatest results of the season. The No. 93 Peugeot of Jean-Eric Vergne, Paul di Resta and Mikkel Jensen adopted in seventh to spherical out a double factors end for Peugeot.
Ferrari’s profitable streak within the 2025 WEC got here to an finish in Brazil, with the Le Mans-winning No. 83 499P entered privately by AF Corse ending a distant eighth within the Hypercar class.
Mick Schumacher introduced the No. 36 Alpine A424 he shared with Frederic Makowiecki and Jules Gounon to ninth place, whereas the ultimate level went to the No. 99 Proton Porsche of Nico Varrone, Neel Jani and Nico Pino.
The perfect of the manufacturing facility Ferrari LMH vehicles was the championship-leading No. 51 entry of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi, which completed eleventh after incurring a five-second penalty for a begin infringement and a drive-through within the last hour for an unsafe overtake on the Proton Porsche.
The No. 50 Ferrari languished in twelfth after contact with the No. 33 Corvette Z06.GT3 of Ben Keating led to an unscheduled cease for rear-end repairs.
Toyota suffered an much more bruising afternoon than Ferrari, as each of its GR010 Hybrids trailed house a number of laps down and out of the factors in 14th and fifteenth—a yr on from its dominant victory final yr.
Lexus triumphs in LMGT3
Whereas Toyota struggled in Hypercar, its sister model Lexus delivered a dominant efficiency in LMGT3. The No. 87 ASP Lexus RC F GT3 pushed by Jose Maria Lopez, Clemens Schmid and Razvan Umbrarescu took the category victory by greater than half a minute.
Umbrarescu handed the pole-sitting No. 10 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Anthony McIntosh at the beginning and by no means seemed again, main from the entrance all through the race.
Though the win was by no means doubtful, the battle for second raged to the end. Charlie Eastwood handed Michelle Gatting late on to safe the runner-up spot within the No. 81 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R he shares with Rui Andrade and Tom van Rompuy.
House favorite Eduardo Barrichello additionally cleared Gatting to take third within the No. 10 Aston Martin with McIntosh and Valentin Hasse-Clot.
Gatting, together with Sarah Bovy and Celia Martin, completed fourth within the No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Take a look at the total outcomes for the WEC Sao Paulo race right here
