After Ferrari took their third Le Mans win in as many years, we’ve waited nearly a month for the rest of the World Endurance Championship to be run, and now it’s here! As the Scuderia are battling a car that’s certainly not what it was in the earlier rounds, and Cadillac and Porsche coming to the fore in qualifying, this race really could be a classic. Who will take victory in Brazil?

Cadillac took their second pole in a row thanks to the #12 machine, and it was Will Stevens led the field down into turn one with the #5 Porsche of Julien Andlauer for company. The top four immediately broke away to form their own battle pack, as Andlauer eventually got past Stevens during sector two and Mikkel Jensen also moved forward to fifth through the opening exchanges.

Meanwhile in LMGT3 it was the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman that led with WEC debutant Anthony McIntosh ahead of the Lexus pairing of Petru Umbarescu in the #87 and then the #78 of Arnold Robin. The #95 McLaren meanwhile was also one of the early movers with James Cottingham making his way up to third in the first five minutes of the race.

Aston Martin’s Valkyrie meanwhile began to show its true potential for the first time in race-trim, as Marco Sorensen found himself running 11th and mixing it with the likes of Toyota’s #8 and the Alpine duo. It’s a great sight to see them able to fight, and they aren’t the only ones showing great improvement in the opening exchanges. The #009 car even managed to usurp the #8 and was running 9th overall before long. Mercedes were also running arguably as good as they have all year, with the #61 running 8th and the sister #60 in 12th.

An early pit stop came from the #15 BMW of Kevin Magnussen who came into his box with reported brake issues inside the opening 10 minutes, but soon went into the garage and the crew spent agonising time stripping the front bodywork off to fix whatever malady was occuring. Meanwhile, Andlauer stretched the #5’s lead as the #87 Lexus of Umbarescu moved ahead of the #10 Aston into the lead of the race in LMGT3. Aston’s race then took another hit, as the sister #27 car of Heart of Racing spun round following contact with Ben Keating’s #33 Corvette, which eventually netted the latter a 10 second pit stop penalty.

The first penalties came after four cars – namely the #46 BMW, #51 Ferrari, #81 Corvette and #88 Ford – were all given five second time penalties to be served at their first pit stop after being judged to have breached the race start procedure. After pitting early on, the #15 BMW returned to the track albeit 19 laps down on the field. The next early pit stop came from the #35 Alpine, which too went into the garage with major electrical issues. And the #12 Cadillac also received a drive through penalty for tyre pressure infringements which plummeted it down the field. Just like Qatar it seemed they may be ruining their chances at their own hand. The Alpine’s problems soon turned rather serious as the car was deemed ‘red’ meaning no-one was allowed to touch it due to the live currents inside, and it would have to be wheeled into the rarely used ‘Area 51’ – the place in the paddock where they send such cars for safety reasons. Alpine and BMW now only had one car effectively in the fight.

LMGT3 pit stops then began just before the end of the first hour, with Petru Umbarescu attempting an undercut to preserve his lead as the majority of the field, with the #10 RSL Aston Martin dropping to fifth overall as James Cottingham’s #95 also moved up to third as Lexus took a 1-2 lead with Umbarescu’s #87 leading ahead of Finn Gehrsitz in the #78 sister entry. Iron Dames were also up to fourth overall with the #85, and the Iron Lynx #61 Mercedes of Maxime Martin up to fifth.

Hypercar pitstops then began, with Earl Bamber failing to perform an overcut strategy on Andlauer’s #5, with both drivers remaining in their previous positions. Elsewhere, the #6 of Laurens Vanthoor found himself up to 6th with Rene Rast down to 7th, and the #36 Alpine of Fred Makoweicki climbing to ninth overall. Toyota continued to struggle, now running 11th and 13th with their two cars and Ferrari also remained at the back of the field. Overall though the field remained largely the same as to how it was before the pit stops occured.

Maxime Martin moved up to third after the pit stops, 10 seconds back from the Lexus pairing as the #95 fell to fifth behind the 4th placed Iron Dames #85 Porsche. Before long, Martin was up to second having displaced Umbarescu’s 2nd placed Lexus and was just 8 seconds off Finn Gehrsitz’s race leading #78. Both BMWs had moved up to 5th and 6th placed in LMGT3 respectively, #31 in a special Brasil livery, was ahead of its sister #46 machine.

Early pit stops came again with the #94 of Loic Duval coming very early along with the #009 of Marco Sorensen, while the battle for the lead raged on at the head of the field. Malthe Jakobsen and Alex Riberas took control of the #94 and #009 respectively.

So with the first two hours done and dusted, it’s the #5 Porsche of Julien Andlauer disputing the overall lead with the #38 JOTA Cadillac, ahead of the #12 and #6 Porsche and the #20 BMW completing the top five places. Toyota and Ferrari are still struggling and comfortably out of the top ten. LMGT3 meanwhile is still in the hands of the #78 Lexus as Maxime Martin thrusts his #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes forward from second position. 4th is the Iron Dames #85 Porsche while BMW still run 5th and 6th respectively. The lead battle then became even more rowdy, with the #12 Cadillac of Will Stevens joining in the fight against Andlauer’s Porsche before pitting. Earl Bamber eventually made his move into the Senna S and Cadillac led overall for the first time in nearly 2 hours.

An exciting if uneventful opening two hours, with traffic playing a huge role in the lead battle and shaping the key moments so far.

thumbnail credit – Morio, CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/, via Wikimedia Commons