Derani Delighted to End 11-Year Wait to Race in WEC in Brazil

Genesis Magma Racing driver Pipo Derani is delighted to finally end what he has called an ’11-year wait’ to tackle his home round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

The Sao Paulo native attended the 2014 edition when trying to secure a switch to sports car racing in the championship for the following year but, with Interlagos not previously being a permanent fixture on the WEC’s calendar, he has never competed on home soil in the category.

After two full years in the WEC, the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship then became his main focus from 2017.

Derani therefore said he is “very happy” to be racing at Interlagos this weekend at the wheel of the No. 17 Genesis GMR-001 alongside Andre Lotterer and Mathys Jaubert.

“In 2014, I was walking down the paddock trying to find a drive and ended up signing to race in 2015 in WEC [with G-Drive Racing in LMP2],” said Derani.

“Unfortunately, that year was the first year that Interlagos was not on the calendar anymore and I had to wait 11 years to be driving in this track at my home race.

“Being from Sao Paulo myself, it’s great to see the Brazilian people and the fans because they’re very passionate.”

It has been another milestone weekend for the Genesis squad as it topped a practice session for the first time when Mathieu Jaminet set the pace in the sister No. 19 car in FP2.

Derani admitted “we’re surprised ourselves with how far we’ve come” and didn’t expect to be so competitive in the car’s debut campaign with the “depth of the field.”

However, qualifying proved to be tricky for Derani as two of his flying laps were deleted because the car’s powertrain was running above the prescribed limit and that left him with one final attempt to progress to Hyperpole but he could only manage 12th place.

In contrast, Jaminet did secure a place in the final shoot-out and was sixth quickest, before picking up a one-place grid penalty for impeding.

“We had two laps that were cancelled due to some illegalities but we managed to fix that but unfortunately, a little bit like a snowball, I only had one lap to get it done,” explained Derani.

“I didn’t quite make the lap perfect, which meant we missed the second part of qualifying, but nevertheless the car seems to be very good for race pace.”

In terms of prospects for the race, he added: “To give the Brazilian fans a small something to cheer for, if we can get those two cars in the points at the checkered flag it would be a very good result for us.”

The other Brazilian on this year’s grid is Augusto Farfus, who will line up ninth in the LMGT3 division at the wheel of the No. 32 WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO that is sporting a special livery comprising the country’s flag.

Farfus is eager to secure a strong result on home soil after only managing tenth and 12th places in the previous two years.

“It’s definitely proud for me to be here as a Brazilian racing with a nice Brazilian livery on the car,” he said. “But we don’t get points for that, we don’t get a trophy for that!

“We’re here to win the race and maximize our chance for the championship.

“Interlagos has been pretty bitter for us. It’s a place I love to come and see my friends, I see a lot of old faces here.

“But, unfortunately, the last two years haven’t been as nice of a race on track as it was off track.

“We’ve put in a big effort for this year and came a month ago to test and even did a race of the local GT championship to get more mileage.”