Toyota and Porsche on podium at Interlagos

WECHyperCar

Jul 15

Start of the 2024 6 Hours of São Paulo. — 📷 © Courtesy of FIA WEC. Start of the 2024 **6 Hours of São Paulo.**

Toyota Gazoo Racing with #8 GR010 Hybrid won round five of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the 6 Hours of São Paulo’s Hypercars’ race ahead of the two Porsche Penske Motorsport Porche 963.

Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa first win this season

📷 © Courtesy of FIA WEC. Victorious Toyota #8

Ryo Hirakawa took the lead with #8 GR010 Hybrid in the third hour when repairs were needed on a control unit of the then leading sister #7. By half distance he had extended his lead to 30secs and extended his lead of over 40 seconds after pitting for new tires before handing over to Sébastien Buemi. Buemi maintained the #8’s consistent speed at the front and resuming with a clear lead, finishing 1min 8.811secs ahead of the #6 Porsche.

📷 © Courtesy of FIA WEC. First victory this season for Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa.

Sébastien Buemi (Driver, car #8): “It is an amazing day for us on car #8, winning a race for the first time this year. We had a great car. Tyre management was one of our strengths, particularly the fact we could use the medium compound throughout the race which really helped us have good pace. I’m so happy to finally have a weekend without any issues after a tricky start to the season. We had a strong qualifying with the one-two but car #7 was unlucky with their issue. They were very fast and deserved a much better result than that. We scored good points in the manufacturers’ World Championship, and we will go to the next race aiming to keep that going.”
Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8): “It feels great to get the first win of the season. We haven’t had the best of seasons up to now on car #8 so to get this win is fantastic. Car #7 did an amazing race, they were flying today, so I feel bad for them. My first stint at the start was not easy, with a lot of tyre degradation but we got on top of that and had a nice, clean race. We got the win and that’s what matters. We also scored good points for the World Championship, so we want to keep this momentum for the next races.”
Ryo Hirakawa (Driver, car #8): “I am so happy for our first victory of the year. It has been a long time since Bahrain when we last won but we never gave up and always pushed hard. My stint was not easy with the degradation, so I needed to look after the tyres. I had the chance to change tyres on the right-hand side but I still had to manage the tyres a lot, so I was happy I could keep the gap to the car behind. For the team in the manufacturers’ World Championship, it was important that we won the race, and I am happy we did it. Thanks to the fans for their support all weekend and thanks to the whole team for their huge effort this week. There are three races to go so we will keep pushing for the title.” Source: Toyota Gazoo Racing

Two podium spots for the Porsche 963

The two Porsche 963 racing cars fielded by the Porsche Penske Motorsport works team wrapped up the six-hour race in São Paulo, Brazil, in second and third place.

📷 © Courtesy of FIA WEC. Second row for Porsche 963 #5 and Cadillac #2

Despite a difficult first stint for Laurens Vanthoor who initially lost lost a lap due to a puncture after a collision caused by the #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963, both André Lotterer and Kevin Estre charged to the top for the Frenchman to bring the car across the finish line in second place, just ahead of the sister car shared by Makowiecki, Michael Christensen from Denmark and Australia’s Matt Campbell.

Thanks to this double podium, Porsche continues to top the leaderboard in the manufacturers’ classification of the FIA World Endurance Championship WEC, four points ahead of Toyota.

Thanks to P2, works drivers Kévin Estre, André Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor extend their lead in the drivers’ championship.

Laurens Vanthoor (Porsche 963 #6): “What a perfect result for the championship! We didn’t expect it. I’m delighted. My stints were good but unfortunately, there was an unnecessary collision with a Jota car. But anyway, we caught up and extended our lead in the world championship – it doesn’t get much better than that.”

Campbell, Christensen and Makowiecki have advanced to fourth overall in the drivers’ championship.

Michael Christensen (Porsche 963 #5): “I was determined to turn my laps without incident, only to have a GT car rear-end our Porsche. Everyone opted for different tyre strategies, which led to constant changes in the pecking order during the race. Toyota was simply stronger today. Second and third place was the best we could do based on what was possible.” Source: Porsche

Toyota #7 fourth.

Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries, in the pole position-winning #7 GR010 HYBRID, were on course for victory until a long pit stop for a technical issue dropped them down the field. However, a stunning fight back delivered fourth place and 12 valuable World Championship points.

📷 © Courtesy of FIA WEC. Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries end fourth.

Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7): “For the team, this was definitely our week. We had good pace in qualifying then both cars were really strong in the race and we managed the tyre degradation really well. Congratulations to car #8 for the victory; they drove a great race. Obviously, car #7 had the potential to win but unfortunately we had an issue and that cost us time in the pits. From then on it was a difficult situation for us but we tried our best to come back, and fourth was the best we could realistically achieve. Thanks to the team for all their hard work. We will analyse what happened on our car and come back even stronger for the next races.”
Mike Conway (Driver, car #7): “We had such a strong car all day. I made a mistake with the FCY, just over-speeding slightly, but we managed to get back into the lead anyway. We had really good tyre wear at that point and thought we were looking good. But at the end of my stint, we started to notice the issue. The team tried to fix it and we lost time, so we went all the way to the back. Kamui and Nyck drove well to get us back up to fourth. We couldn’t do any better in terms of a recovery, but we still feel like this one got away from us.”
Nyck de Vries (Driver, car #7): “I think overall the weekend has been very positive. The performance has been great and the team did a stellar job. Kamui obviously qualified the car on pole, and all was looking positive. Unfortunately, this technical issue took away our opportunity to finish the job. It’s a pity. We did a very strong recovery between us to come back from last to fourth which was impressive. It hurts that we didn’t bring home the victory but I am very happy for car #8 to bring home the win for the team.” Source: Toyota Gazoo Racing

Ferrari fifth and sixth

The two Ferrari 499Ps were rather inconspicuous at Interlagos probably due to a good weight gain via the BoP. Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari finished fifth after being handed a drive-through for a Full-Course Yellow infringement in the second hour and not being able to resist to the hard charging #7 Toyota at the end of the race.

Le Mans winning #50 sister went off early in the race after a contact with #91 Porsche 911 GT3 R and was never able to be in the top 5. Fuoco - Molina - Nielsen ended 6th. They keep a second place in the drivers’ championship but the gap with the Porsche #6 trio now extend to 19 points.

Bad operation for Ferrari who drops in third place in the manufacturers’ championship 17 points behind Porsche.