WEC: Magnussen's crew won the "6 Hours of São Paulo"

      The WRT BMW team achieved its second victory in the World Endurance Championship stages, but this time the success was achieved by the crew of car No. 15, consisting of Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello, and Dries Vanthoor, who won the 6-hour race in São Paulo. Their BMW M Hybrid V8 crossed the finish line 2.254 seconds ahead of the Ferrari with the number 51, driven by the reigning world champions Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi, and James Calado. Also on the podium in Interlagos were Cadillac drivers Will Stevens and Norman Nato, who won the qualifying the day before.

      At the start of the race, Stevens led, ahead of the second Cadillac crew that started from the front row, but he was pursued by Kevin Magnussen, who quickly passed the Alpine car. Then, towards the end of the first hour, the Dane squeezed between the two American hypercars with a daring maneuver in the Ferradura corner, taking advantage of Earl Bamber, driver of car No. 38, who got a bit stuck in traffic.

      During the race, Kevin and his teammates benefited from the fact that both Cadillac crews experienced delays in their pit stops for various reasons, including a penalty received by Stevens for contact with one of the GT3 category cars and Norman Nato's spin while battling with the Ferrari from the AF Corse team.

      All this prevented Cadillac from contending for the top results, while the Ferrari crew No. 51 moved up to second place. Moreover, during the fifth hour of the race, Calado briefly led, but Vanthoor overtook him after the last cycle of pit stops and ultimately brought the race to victory.

      “BMW had the fastest car, and it worked perfectly! – commented Magnussen after the finish. – The strategy, the pit stops – everything was perfect! I am very happy that we finally won – it took a long time to achieve success, but we did it!”

      Shortly before the end of the race, a battle unfolded between Antonio Fuoco, the Ferrari driver from crew No. 50, and Robin Frijns, who was driving the second BMW hypercar (No. 20). It ended with Frijns sending the Italian car into a spin in the Senna 'esses', allowing Robert Kubica, the AF Corse driver, to overtake them and finish fifth, but he lost nearly 20 seconds to the Cadillac crew that finished in fourth place.

      Frijns crossed the finish line in sixth place but received a five-second penalty, which pushed him down to eighth in the standings. This allowed Ferrari No. 50 to rise to seventh place, while the Aston Martin Valkyrie crew with the number 007 moved up to sixth.

      The factory Toyota team faced problems on the Brazilian track, with its crews finishing only in 12th and 17th places.

      The next round of the WEC season will take place on September 6 – it will be a race at the Texas COTA circuit in Austin.