Lynn Heads Up Cadillac 1-2 at Halfway Point

Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA was in control of the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo at the halfway stage, with Alex Lynn leading a 1-2 ahead of stablemate Jenson Button.

Lynn, piloting the No. 12 Cadillac V-Series.R, held an advantage of 11.804 seconds over the sister No. 38 machine, with Michael Christensen an additional 7.941 seconds further back aboard the No. 5 Penske Porsche 963.

Christensen’s Porsche Penske Motorsport co-driver Julien Andlauer led the opening hour, but came under increasing pressure from the pair of Cadillacs towards the end of the second stint.

Initially, it was Earl Bamber’s No. 38 Cadillac that led the charge, closing rapidly on Andlauer with the No. 12 machine of Will Stevens in tow.

When Bamber then locked up at Descida do Lago, Stevens slipped up the inside into second before pitting to hand over Lynn.

Not much later, Bamber successfully completed an overtake around the outside of Andlauer at the first corner to put Cadillac into the lead of the race, but the undercut from the No. 12 car then left Lynn out front ahead of the newly installed Button.

Kevin Estre briefly took the No. 6 Porsche into fourth after a pitstop for the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 of Malthe Jakobsen.

Estre’s co-driver Laurens Vanthoor fought his way into the top five after a lengthy battle with the No. 93 Peugeot in the hands of  Mikkel Jensen, which was decided in the Belgian’s favor when he used LMGT3 traffic to pass the Dane out of Turn 10.

The No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8 held fifth at the halfway mark amidst the pit cycle, but is set to drop back having received a drive-through penalty for a Full Course Yellow infringement.

Akkodis ASP Team held the lead of the LMGT3 class with a 1-2 led by the No. 87 Lexus RC F GT3 of Clemens Schmid, followed by the sister car in the hands of Yuichi Nakayama.

Rahel Frey moved the No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R into third place after passing the No. 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Martin Berry coming out of a Full Course Yellow.

That neutralization was triggered when the No. 33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Ben Keating made side-by-side contact with the No. 50 Ferrari 499P driven by Nicklas Nielsen on the Reta Oposta.

This ripped off a part of the Ferrari’s rear right bodywork, while Keating was given a ten-second penalty for the incident.