No.15 BMW WRT win WEC 6 Hours of São Paulo after strategic battle, with Corvette No.34 dominating LMGT3
- Aaron Carroll
- 3 hours ago
- 6 min read
Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello and Kevin Magnussen have won the World Endurance Championship (WEC) 6 Hours of São Paulo in the No.15 WRT BMW, after a race filled with all kinds of strategy and action. Second was the No.51 Ferrari, with the No.12 Cadillac in third.
The No.34 TF Sport Racing Team Turkey Corvette of Salih Yoluç, Peter Dempsey and Charlie Eastwood won LMGT3 after a great middle stint from Dempsey gave them a lead that Eastwood was able to hold in the final hours of the race. The No.69 WRT BMW was second, with the No.92 Porsche in third, after a late race battle for the final podium spot between the sister No.91 Porsche and the No.88 Ford.
As it happened
We got underway on a slightly damp track after some overnight rain, which race control decided to combat by giving the drivers an extra formation lap before getting going. So with five hours and 57 minutes on the clock, we went racing for the 6 Hours of São Paulo.
The two Cadillacs got away well, with Will Stevens in the No.12 holding his pole position ahead of Earl Bamber in the No.38. The No.35 Alpine didn't get a good start in the hands of Ferdinand Habsburg, dropping down the order. The team decided to combat this, by taking an early stop about halfway through the first stint.
Meanwhile in LMGT3, the No.79 Mercedes got the lead from second on the grid, but they were later given a drive-through for jumping the start.
From there the No.23 Aston Martin that was on pole dropped backwards, leaving the No.87 Lexus in front in LMGT3. After an opening tussle between many cars, the No.88 and No.77 Fords emerged has Akkodis ASP's biggest challengers.
As the stint went on the Fords did look quicker, and as the Hypercars went through they both took their opportunity and made it a Mustang 1-2.
Speaking of the Hypercars, it was heating up at the front as Kevin Magnussen in the No.15 BMW looked for a way into second place. He was the beneficiary of Habsburgs slow start, also jumping ahead of the sister No.36 Alpine.
He got a run on Bamber into turn 4, going to the outside and holding it side-by-side up the hill to turn 6, where the two banged wheels. Magnussen was briefly off track but he did manage to get past the Cadillac for second place.
The leaders then came in for their first stops just after we crossed over the one hour mark. This set of stops, really mixed up the order. The No.12 pit from the lead, and a slow tyre change on the front-right put them down the order, and it wasn't the quickest stop for the No.38 either.
So in the end the No.35 Alpine that pit early led, but would jump out of the way when they pit again. From there, the No.93 Peugeot was the lead car of those on strategy, as they, the No.15 and No.36 didn't take tyres.
The Cadillacs fell out of the top 10, but had pace, while the Ferrari's were in the mid-ranges of the points with two fresh tyres.
It was a similar story in LMGT3, with the two Ford's falling down the order and the No.87 finding themselves in the lead once again.
The pace there however was with the No.34 TF Sport Corvette who started the race with their Silver driver - Salih Yoluç - while the rest of the teams opted for their Bronze. He was making good progress, able to hand a good lead over to Bronze Peter Dempsey.
The No.10 McLaren and No.23 Aston Martin both had a spin as the FCY was brought out, but not for either car, just for debris on track.
Brendan Hartley in the No.8 Toyota was clipped by Andre Lotterer in the No.17 Genesis, which broke his front-left toe link, meaning they had to come into the garage for repairs. That car lost 12 laps before rejoining the race, using it as a test session.
When the leading Alpine pit, the No.15 BMW took over the lead of the race as the No.93 Peugeot began to fall back down the order on their older tyres.
Both the No.61 and No.79 Mercedes cars had incidents with Hypercars. The former was spun around by the No.51 Ferrari, while the latter was hit by the No.007 Aston Martin. Lin Hodenius in the No.79 lost the engine during his spin, so was stuck on track briefly while he re-cycled the engine.
The No.61 would also have another spin later on, this time due to a hit from Sean Gelael behind in the No.32 WRT BMW.
A third LMGT3 got looped around by a Hypercar, with the No.12 spinning the No.87 Lexus. The tight hairpins and braking zones on this circuit leading to many incidents as the two classes catch each other.
The No.12 seemed to be hit by karma though, as they were then spun around by the No.83 AF Corse Ferrari. But the Cadillac caught back up, and got past Phil Hanson with a very aggressive move, the two making contact.
After all that action there was more in store with two and a half hours on the clock. The No.35 Alpine led with their strategy, with the No.15 BMW catching them fast, who was in turn being caught by the No.51 Ferrari.
The No.20 BMW was fending off the No.12 Cadillac in fourth and fifth, with the No.83, No.38 and No.50 all in the top eight.
Raffaele Marciello in the No.15 was really putting the pressure on Antonio Felix Da Costa in the No.35 Alpine for the lead. The Swiss driver got past, but was forced to give the place back because he overtook off track.
Meanwhile Alessandro Pier Guidi in the No.51 Ferrari behind was catching them, and catching them very quickly. He couldn't do it in time though, as the Alpine pit and the BMWs pace improved in clean air.
From there a round of pit stops for the leaders left the Alpine back at the front, but further away from the No.15, now with Dries Vanthoor at the wheel. He had ice cold tyres though, and briefly went off the track. He re-joined, but not quickly enough as the No.51 - now driven by James Calado - went past.
Calado had his own troubles on cold tyres though, grazing the pit wall on his way back onto the track. He didn't get any damage, but he ended up driving all of his next stint with a piece of advertising board lodged to the front of his Ferrari 499P.
Rain had threatened to come all race long, and with about 90 minutes to go the clouds hung really low around the circuit, as the skies got darker. But in the end, a few drops were all that ended up hitting the track, not enough to affect the grip levels.
Once the final pit stops were done for the No.15 BMW, they actually came out in front of the pack, but on cold tyres the No.35 of Charles Milesi was right onto Vanthoor's rear end. The Alpine got boxed in by a GT Ferrari as he was about to go by, but Vanthoor locked up and the Alpine went back through. The Alpine would need a splash of fuel at the end though, the BMW would not.
In LMGT3 there was a battle for third between Richard Lietz in the No.92 Porsche and Logan Sargent in the No.88 Ford. Sargent was able to get onto the back of the Porsche, thanks to the defending of his teammate Sebastian Priaulx in the No.77 Ford.
Ayhanchan Guven in the No.91 Porsche caught both of them though, and was able to get past Sargent for fourth place with five minutes to go.
Meanwhile in Hypercar, the No.50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco went down the inside of the No.20 BMW of Robin Frijns for fifth, but he squeezed him too much and the two collided. The Ferrari was spun around, and the BMW was slowed enough to allow the No.83 Ferrari to overtake both cars.
In the end, no one could catch Vanthoor out front, who won from the No.51 Ferrari and the two Cadillacs. The No.83 Ferrari rounded out the top five, with the No.20 BMW sixth.
In LMGT3, Eastwood crossed the line to take the win for the No.34 crew, ahead of the No.69 BMW and the pair of Porsches - No.92 ahead of No.91. Sargent held on to fifth, with the No.61 Mercedes in sixth.
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