Toyota Scores Commanding 6H Sao Paulo Win

Toyota notched up its second victory of the FIA World Endurance Championship season with a dominant display in the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo for the No. 8 crew of Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi.

On a day where the Toyota GR010 Hybrid displayed a clear pace advantage over its Hypercar competition, Hartley, Hirakawa and Buemi ran out the winners by a margin of 1 minutes and 8 seconds ahead of the second-placed No. 6 Penske Porsche 963.

It could have been a 1-2 for the Japanese manufacturer if not for a rare control unit problem early in the third hour that resulted in a time loss of around two minutes for the No. 7 Toyota that had led in the early stages.

That problem allowed the No. 6 Porsche crew of Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor to extend their championship lead, the trio recovering from a first-hour puncture following contact between Vanthoor and the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche of Will Stevens.

Estre led home a 2-3 for Porsche Penske Motorsport ahead of the No. 5 car of Matt Campbell, Frederic Makowiecki and Michael Christensen, although the positions would have likely been reversed if it hadn’t been for Christensen being shown the black-and-orange flag due to damage to the rear section.

Porsche was obliged to change the rear deck of the No. 5 car as Christensen made way for Campbell at the penultimate pit stops in order to repair the so-called ‘cheese wedge’ at the right rear, which had become damaged.

The recovering No. 7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries salvaged fourth place, thanks in part to a late stop-and-go penalty for the No. 38 JOTA Porsche and an incisive overtake by Kobayashi on Alessandro Pier Guidi’s No. 51 Ferrari with less than five minutes to go.

Pier Guidi brought home the 499P he shares with James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi for fifth on a day to forget for the Italian marque, ahead of the sister No. 50 car of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen.

JOTA’s No. 38 car, shared by Jenson Button, Oliver Rasmussen and Phil Hanson slipped to seventh following its penalty, awarded for a technical infringement.

The sister No. 12 Porsche dropped to 18th and last of the Hypercar finishers after Callum Ilott spun off at Turn 4 and rear-ended the barriers, an incident that required a trip to the garage to repair.

Peugeot scored its best result to date with the revised 9X8 introduced at Imola as the No. 93 car of Jean-Eric Vergne, Nico Mueller and Mikkel Jensen enjoyed a clean run to eighth place.

Completing the points scorers were the respective best entries from BMW and Alpine, the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 and the No. 36 Alpine A424.

Cadillac’s No. 2 V-Series.R finished down in 13th place after suffering from brake problems, while an unscheduled stop for the No. 63 Lamborghini SC63 for a puncture left the car in 17th.

The only non-finisher was the solo Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 Competizione, which dropped out due to engine issues.

Manthey PureRxcing Wins Again in LMGT3

In the LMGT3 class, Manthey PureRxcing took its second win of the season with the No. 92 Porsche 911 GT3 R of Alex Malykhin, Joel Sturm and Klaus Bachler, and fourth as a whole for Manthey.

A pass by Malykhin on the class pole-sitting No. 85 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Sarah Bovy laid the foundations for the No. 92 car’s victory, its path eased when the Iron Dames car retired with fluid pouring from the car.

Bachler came under pressure from the Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo in the latter stages of the race, with Alex Riberas coming within three seconds of the race-leading Manthey PureRxcing Porsche at one point.

However, a late drive-through penalty for a Full Course Yellow infringement effectively ended Heart of Racing’s victory bid, with Riberas bringing home the No. 27 car he shares with Ian James and Daniel Mancinelli a lap down.

United Autosports scored its first podium of the season with the No. 95 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Marino Sato, Nico Pino and Josh Caygill, with the sister No. 59 car of Nicolas Costa, Gregoire Saucy and James Cottingham finishing one place behind in fourth.

The top five was completed by the WRT BMW shared by Maxime Martin, Valentino Rossi and Ahmad Al Harthy.

The only other retirement besides the Iron Dames Lamborghini was the No. 82 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, which caused the second of three FCY periods when Daniel Juncadella came to a stop on his out lap.

RESULTS: 6 Hours of Sao Paulo