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?

With Earl Bamber having taken the lead, he set about immediately creating whatever gap he could before his pit stop, as the large gaps meant the third placed #6 Porsche was a full minute behind its sister car. Further behind, the #50 Ferrari installed Nick Nielsen in the cockpit as the team tried to climb back up the order, emerging 14th overall and a lap down.

Two more penalties came for the LMGT3 runners, firstly a drive through for the #95 after it breached tyre pressure limits and then a 10 second stop and go for the Iron Lynx #60 of Lorcan Hanafin.

#38 then came in for its stop, five minutes into the hour after taking a longer fuel stint and it eventually emerged behind the sister #12 car that pitted a couple laps earlier, meaning that JOTA Cadillac led 1-2 overall, with the Porsches struggling to match their pit times.

Contact with the #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari at turn 6 saw Harry Tincknell spin round and lose time. Luckily for the #007 crew the chassis sustained no significant damage, though a curious full course yellow was thrown minutes later so the marshalls could retrieve a stray kite from the side of the track.

So with 3 and a half hours left the top five was now comprised of the #12 and #38 Cadillacs, both Porsches – #6 had moved up to fifth thanks to Kevin Estre – and the #94 Peugeot of Malthe Jakobsen. Alex Lynn and Jenson Button had taken over the #12 and #38 machines respectively.

Corvette were another brand coming into the race, as their #33 car that won back in Qatar led the sister #81 car of Rui Andrade as they challenged to reach the top 4, running currently 5th and 6th as the #88 Ford of Gianmarco Levorato went into the garage.

A close incident meanwhile happened just after the Senna S, as while defending against the #59 McLaren of Sebatian Baud, Ben Keating moved across the track in his Corvette and made contact with the #50 Ferrari of Nicklas Nielsen who managed to keep it pointing straight but lost some bodywork on his right rear. A full course yellow was called to move the debris to safety, and while the #50 received the black flag and forced to pit for mandatory repairs Rahael Frey made the most of the situation, making a great move to go up to third in LMGT3. Keatings #33 Corvette was eventually handed a 10 second stop and go penalty in 2 time stops time.

Pit stops then meant the all female crew were elevated to the lead of the race ahead of the #81 Corvette, both able to go longer than those around them. Both Lexus cars pitted early again looking for another successful undercut, carried out metronomically while Iron Dames would run third ahead of the #10 RSL Aston that was rising up the order again. Though Jose Maria Lopez hadn’t had as smooth a stop as had been thought, gaining a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. The lead was now a sizeable one, and it went the way of the sister #78 car. Further drive throughs came for the #20 WRT BMW and Iron Lynx’s #61 Mercedes for breaching full course yellow procedures.

Porsche meanwhile seemed to be really mounting a challenge as the race slowly descended into a fight between the two manufacturers with Peugeot running 5th and 6th as the outsiders. Though Cadillac had a 22 second advantage with their two cars ahead of the #5 Porsche, with Kevin Estre having lifted the #6 Porsche into fourth overall. Ferrari were now running inside the top 10 with the #50 and #83. In LMGT3 with the lead gap now down to 9 seconds the #85 Iron Dames Porsche moved up to 2nd after Yuichi Nakayama’s #78 Lexus pitted early and was now firmly in contention for the win. In Hypercar, the lead gap was double that of LMGT3 with Alex Lynn leading his teammate Jenson Button with Micheal Christensen a further 17 back in the Porsche #5. More penalties then beckoned, most significantly for the #6, a 5 second stop and go for a pit speed infraction and for the #60 Iron Lynx Mercedes a drive through for track limits infringements.

Heading into the final third of the race, it’s still the Cadillac duo of Alex Lynn’s #12 and Jenson Button’s #38 machines that hold a 1-2 lead ahead of the #5 and #6 Porsches, with Peugeot running 5th and 6th with the #94 and #93 in that order. Marco Wittman sits as the lone competitive #20 BMW in 7th overall with the #83 Ferrari running as the best of the Scuderia’s cars.

LMGT3 sees Lexus lead still, with the #87 Lexus of Clemens Schmid leading teammate Yuichi Nakayama in the #78, with the Iron Dames in third with Michelle Gatting in the #85. RSL’s #10 Aston Martin sit 5th ahead of Charlie Eastwood’s #81 Corvette in 6th. BMW and McLaren are struggling, with their best placed cars running a lowly 7th and 8th on track with the #46 ahead of the #59.

With two hours left, it’s still all to play for especially in LMGT3, so who will win the 2025 6 Hours of Sao Paulo?

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