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 Michelle Gatting in the #85 Iron Dames Porsche, the good news was that not only was she cleared to drive for this race but as comfirmed by teammate Rahael Frey, the Dane was feeling fully fit to take her Porsche to the chequered flag without any discomfort despite the injury she suffered back at the Le Mans test day.

And though LMGT3 was incresingly looking like Lexus’s race to lose, Hypercar meanwhile had almost entirely gone the way of Cadillac. With a large gap coming out of the next pit stops, as with Le Mans Porsche just seemed unable to have what it took to overcome their adversaries. So it was shaping up to be a duel between the #12 and #38. This was largely cemented as the case when the #6, that had fought hard to climb to fourth overall, slipped off the lead lap. Hypercar now had just 3 cars on the lead lap, whereas LMGT3 had 11.

The main point of intrigue at this point was the Iron Dames’ stellar run four and a half hours into the race, as with Michelle Gatting behind the wheel the #85 car was hounding the #78 Lexus of Yuichi Nakayama for 2nd in class, with the leader 20 seconds further up the road. But that mission was all but put to bed when the Dane was judged to have sped under full course yellow procedures and penalised with a drive through, meaning the teams’ chances of a podium were in severe doubt, let alone a race win. A really tought break for a team that’s really deserved much better luck in their endeavours.

And yet, after the penultimate round of pit stops for the LMGT3 runners a new challenger emerged: that of the #81 Corvette that through clever strategy and consistent pace had placed itself in between the Lexus duo and was now just 8 seconds off the class leading #87 of Jose Maria Lopez as Ford’s day got worse. Already had the #88 car long since retired, now with just over an hour remaining the #77 car was also drawn into the garage with a cracked muffler.

And with the finals stops due in for the Hypercar teams, which saw the race leading #12 in first, taking four fresh tyres and was on its way with more than a minute’s advantage to the #38, that also took four fresh tyres alongside less fuel. Meanwhile in LMGT3, the #61 Mercedes of Maxime Martin trundled slowly round the track with a puncture as 50 minutes remained on the clock.

Incredibly though the #78 Lexus struggled at its penultimate pit stop and dropped back to ninth inexplicably, allowing not only the Iron Dames to find its way back up to 2nd in class despite their previous drive through penalty, but also for the sister #92 Porsche into third with the #33 Corvette fighting for fourth in class with the #59 McLaren. Johnny Edgar was now tasked with defending his podium for 40 long minutes against Marino Sato’s McLaren until the pit stops provided respite and Corvette ran 3rd and 4th before a full course yellow was brought out for debris from the #99 spilled onto the track. The #95 was the latest victim of the penalties in this race, as a technical infringement saw the 8th placed McLaren hit with a 5 second stop and go penalty.

With 20 minutes the LMGT3 field began to condense, as the battle for the runner up spot took shape. Once again the #85 found themselves in another tense battle, this time it was Michelle Gatting attempting to hold onto their second place from Charlie Eastwood’s #81 Corvette, while in Hypercar Julien Andlauer hunted down the #38 of Sebastian Bourdais for second place, the gap just 3.5 seconds with 20 minutes left in the race.

There was worse to come for an already difficult day for Ferrari, as their championship leading #51 Ferrari was handed a drive through penalty with 16 minutes left after being judged to have pushed the #99 Proton Porsche off track. Even without the considerable timeloss, the #51 crew were well off the lead lap and down in 11th, outside the points and all this served to do was obliterate their chances of scoring any.

The LMGT3 podium battle really heated up after Charlie Eastwood made a lunge into the Senna S, and while Michelle Gatting tried to stay with him the #81 Corvette powered away to turn 4 now running 2nd in class, with Eduardo Barichello now hunting the Iron Dames down with 4 seconds separating the two.

10 minutes remained with two different battles to settle, the #85 and #38 pushed hard to hold on from their respective challengers behind as the #20 BMW got a storming run through the Senna S and dove up the inside of the #94 Peugeot at turn 4 to secure 5th overall in a quiet race for BMW. Meanwhile, Andlauer closed in on the JOTA #38 ahead and the gap was now less than a second as they hit traffic.

As that was happening, Michelle Gatting was desperately trying to hold onto a podium as Eduardo Barichello in the #10 Aston closed in, until the gap was barely a car length. The move seemed inevitable given how Gatting was saving fuel and tyres towards the end, and Barichello made the move at turn 5 up the hill. One battle solved, and with just 2 minutes remaining the battle for second overall seemed settled too.

And indeed time would secure 2nd overall for Sebastian Bourdais and the #38 Cadillac crew, but winning the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo is the #12 JOTA Cadillac of Norman Nato and Will Stevens. LMGT3 would be won by Lexus and the #87 of Jose Maria Lopez, Clemens Schmid and Petru Umbarescu. Not only have Cadillac and Lexus taken their first ever victories in the FIA World Endurance Championship, but both have done it on the same day. Porsche finished 3rd and 4th with the #5 ahead of the #6, with BMW’s #20 having a quiet yet successful day in the office. And Peugeot will be more than happy with a double points finish, 6th and 7th overall for the in-house crew.

LMGT3 meanwhile saw a heart breaking finish for the Iron Dames who lose a podium finish – and had to settle for 4th in the end – with just minutes left in the race to the #10 RSL Aston of home hero Eduardo Barichello, Valentin Hasse-Clot and WEC debutant Anthony McIntosh who take third in class. Corvette also make it back to back LMGT3 podiums after their 3rd place at Le Mans thanks to a great effort in the last hour from Rui Andrade, Charlie Eastwood and Tom Van Rompuy. Lexus’s #78 car was delayed in the closing stages but eventually the crew of Finn Gerhsitz, Arnold Robin and Yuichi Nakayama finished 5th.

So then, Sao Paulo’s annual 6 hour affair is over, and now there’s an agonising wait of six weeks until the World Endurance Championship touches down on COTA for another weekend of Hypercar action. I’ll see you then, as the sportscar racing scene lets up for the rest of July. As ever it’s been a great afternoon of action, and I can’t wait to bring you every remaining hour of the season.

– Thomas.

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