WEC: Cadillac's Winning Double in São Paulo

      Cadillac Team Jota won the “6 Hours of São Paulo,” and not just won, but achieved a victory double, marking the team’s first such success in the World Endurance Championship.

      The Cadillac V-Series.R hypercar with car number 12, driven by Will Stevens, Alex Lynn, and Norman Nato, was the first to cross the finish line at the Interlagos race track, followed about a minute later by the crew of car number 38, consisting of Earl Bamber, Sébastien Bourdais, and Jenson Button, racing on the same model.

      In all previous rounds of the season, Ferrari hypercar drivers had taken the wins, but twice—the races at Le Mans and São Paulo—the number 12 crew had secured pole position, and now the American team confirmed their speed in the race, which ended late Sunday evening.

      At the early stages of the race, the Porsche Penske crew was leading, but Cadillac drivers managed to pass them—once through tactics, and another time thanks to an exciting duel on the track—allowing the V-Series.R prototypes to lead the 6-hour marathon.

      The pace advantage of car number 12 was so significant that even a penalty for a pit lane drive-through due to slightly lower tire pressure did not prevent their success.

      "Honestly, this is just a fantastic achievement for everyone involved in this program," commented Stevens after the triumphant finish. “It’s especially important because it’s Cadillac’s first victory, but also for our Jota team. This is just the beginning of a long-term program we are implementing together.

      Of course, our goal for this year was to win at least one race, but we have bigger ambitions, so we will try to keep winning...”

      The third finisher at the Brazilian track was the Porsche 963 hypercar crewed by Julien Andlauer and Michael Christensen.

      Ferrari faced difficulties last weekend, and the best among the teams running the 499P prototypes was AF Corse, with Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye, and Phil Hanson, who finished 8th. Factory Ferrari cars did not even make it into the top ten—they were 11th and 12th this time.

      They were not the only unfortunate ones during the Brazilian weekend: for the first time, factory Toyota drivers in the GR010 Hybrid hypercars failed to score points. However, the Japanese manufacturer found some comfort in a class LMGT3 victory, achieved by the Lexus RC F sportscar crew from French team Akkodis ASP, comprising Jose-Maria Lopez, Clement Schmid, and Petru Umbrarescu.

      It is also worth noting that the podium in this class was topped by the Racing Spirit of Léman team, which includes Eduardo Barrichello, son of former Formula 1 driver Rubens Barrichello. The 23-year-old Brazilian secured pole position in the LMGT3 category driving an Aston Martin Vantage AMR.