No.12 leads Cadillac 1-2 for the 6 Hours of São Paulo

Credit: DPPI

The No.12 Hertz Team Jota Cadillac grab pole position for the 6 Hours of São Paulo, less than half a tenth ahead of the sister car, the No.38. The No.36 Alpine and the No.15 BMW will start third and fourth but were not that far behind in qualifying, both cars being less than a tenth slower than the pole sitters.

As it happened

Qualifying

It took more than the first five minutes for the teams to attempt their first push laps, and the lap times were consistently around the mid to late 1:23s. The gaps were extremely tight, and the teams were constantly swapping in and out of the elimination zone.

Mathieu Jaminet in the No.19 Genesis reported a loss of power as the Genesis did not seem to lose lap time.

Similar to the LMGT3 qualifying, most drivers had lost their tyres towards the end and struggled to set competitive times. Most drivers bailed out of their final laps, except for a few at the bottom. That did not seem to be an issue for Jack Aitken in the No.38 Cadillac, who went fastest in his final go.

Second was the No.19 Genesis, just nine milliseconds behind the No. 38, and four hundredth behind them was the No.50 Ferrari.

Those who were outside the top ten and consequently eliminated were, in order: No.51 Ferrari, No.17 Genesis, No.93 Peugeot, No.8 Toyota, No.009 Aston Martin, No.7 Toyota, No.20 BMW.

Hyperpole

Credit: DPPI

The No.007 Aston Martin was the first to set a competitive lap, just shy of the five minute mark. The Aston Martin set two push laps before anyone set their first with a lap time of 1:23.5.

The No.19 Genesis went second fastest, just 11 milliseconds shy, but was soon demoted to third as the No.38 Cadillac went half a second quicker to grab provisional pole.

The gaps were still tight heading into the final minute of Hyperpole, the top three separated by less than half a tenth.

Unlike the other Qualifying sessions, the lap times did not slow down towards the end. It was only the No.12 Cadillac in the hands of Will Stevens that could outclass the No.38, grabbing pole position and a front row lockout for Cadillac.

The No.36 Alpine were 0.067 seconds behind the pole sitter in third, sharing the second row with the No.15 BMW. The other Alpine, the No.35, will start fifth with the No.19 Genesis qualifying sixth for the team's best qualifying performance.

The No.50 was the leading Ferrari in seventh, with the No.94 Peugeot starting alongside. The No.007 Aston Martin and the No.83 Ferrari occupied the final top ten positions.

The Cadillac start 1-2 tomorrow, but the gaps between all the Hypercars are marginal, with the top four separated by less than a tenth of a second. Rain is expected for tomorrow, and the cars are very close together. Qualifying certainly does not dictate the race performances.

The race starts at 11:30 AM BRT tomorrow.