Cadillac claims first WEC victory at Interlagos

The wait is over for Cadillac and General Motors! On the 20th FIA World Endurance Championship race for the V-Series.R, Hertz Team JOTA delivered a historic maiden win for the American brand in Hypercar and a 1-2 finish in the 6 Hours of São Paulo.

The No. 12 of Alex Lynn, Will Stevens and Norman Nato, which started on pole, controlled most of the race, leading the sister No. 38 of Sebastien Bourdais, Earl Bamber and Jenson Button home by 57 seconds.

Both Cadillacs enjoyed a pace advantage throughout the contest and sat first and second in the running for about four of the six hours. It was a dominant showing on a day which saw Ferrari’s four-race win streak snapped after all three 499Ps struggled to fight up front. Only the Le Mans-winning No. 83 Ferrari scored points in eighth.

For the winning Cadillac crew, it was a truly impressive performance, recovering from an early drive-through for running tire pressures too low to take the win.

The penalty came amid a tricky start to the day for both JOTA Cadillacs. The No. 5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 enjoyed a rocket start, with Julien Andlauer powering to the front on the opening lap from second on the grid to take early control over the two V8-powered LMDh prototypes.

But Porsche’s lead didn’t last, as both Cadillacs fought back towards the end of the second hour. Once the V-Series.Rs found a way through at the second round of stops, they held station until the end.

“Honestly, it's just amazing for everyone in this program," Stevens said. "Obviously, to get Cadillac’s first win for us in the No. 12 car is pretty special. But obviously, for us as JOTA as well and carrying on the tradition of getting wins every year, I think super special. This is only the beginning of a long program we have together. A goal for this year was to obviously make sure we win a race, but we have even bigger aspirations to keep on winning races and tick off the big boxes that we want to take in this program. Very special.”

On a quiet day for the Ferraris, Porsche came closest to challenging the front-running Cadillacs. Julien Delfosse/DPPI

The No. 5 finished third, just 1.8s behind the No. 38, but was unable to get close enough to jostle for second when Andlauer was tasked with catching and passing Bourdais in the final hour.

Nevertheless, it was a welcome result for Andlauer and his full-season teammate Michael Christensen, who hadn’t found a way onto the podium in the first half of the season. They were also the only crew to finish on the lead lap with the Cadillacs.

The No. 6 sister Porsche ended up fourth after a consistent run for Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre. The No. 20 BMW rounded out the top five after Sheldon van der Linde fought past Loic Duval in the No. 94 Peugeot in the closing minutes.

It wasn’t a weekend that brought silverware for Peugeot, but both cars collected valuable points on the French OEM’s best weekend of the year so far. Mikkel Jensen brought the No. 93 home seventh behind the sister car.

It was a remarkably clean race in Hypercar, with no major incidents and zero retirements. The only dramas in the race struck the No. 15 BMW that spent 27 minutes in the garage with a braking issue and the No. 35 Alpine, which suffered a hybrid problem and came home 41 laps down.

The race was engaging throughout, though, as the teams battled hard on the short, technical, resurfaced Interlagos circuit. Tire strategy played a role, although most of the field ran exclusively on Mediums, in stark contrast to last year when the Hard compound from Michelin proved most useful for everyone bar Toyota.

The AKKODIS Lexus team finally put it altogether to win in LMGT3. Julien Delfosse/DPPI

In LMGT3, it was another milestone result. AKKODIS ASP scored Lexus its first WEC victory with the No. 87 RC F LMGT3 of Jose Maria Lopez, Clemens Schmid and Petru Umbrarescu.

The French team finally found a way to convert single-lap pace into strong multi-stint speed. On the new Goodyear Hards, both RC Fs found a way to remain competitive for the entire race, the only setback being a drive-through for the winning car for pit lane speeding that ultimately didn’t cost it the lead.

Lopez brought the winning car home 35 seconds up the road from the No. 81 TF Sport Corvette, which battled hard to take second from the No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche at the end.

Charlie Eastwood muscled past Michelle Gatting via a strong run up the inside into Turn 1 with under 15 minutes to go. Gatting was unable to fight back, having briefly vaulted to second at the final round of stops, and instead was forced to look in her mirrors.

The Dane, who is still recovering from a broken foot, eventually crossed the line fourth after hometown hero Eduardo Barrichello found a way past with just minutes remaining in the pole-sitting No. 10 Racing Spirit of Leman Vantage in a move that caused an eruption in the packed grandstands.

"Last year, we were nowhere, and it was an annoying situation because we'd come from winning most GT3 championships in the world (before switching from Mercedes-AMG to Lexus). We have high standards, so it was a big shock to be a backmarker," Jerome Policand, ASP's owner and founder, said post-race.

"But we concentrated on making the car quicker. We know now we have the performance over one lap, but usually, we struggle with deg. So thanks to Goodyear coming with the Harder compound. It was key to us today because usually we lose pace in the second stint, and today we stayed in front."

Behind the Iron Dames Porsche in fourth, the No. 78 AKKODIS ASP Lexus finished fifth after falling down the order in the second half of the race from second.

The championship-leading Manthey 1st Phorm crew of Ryan Hardwick, Richard Lietz and Riccardo Pera did well to finish sixth with their Porsche, which was loaded with success ballast. It was a performance that extended their championship lead over the No. 21 Vista AF Corse team, who finished a lowly 13th in class.

For TF Sport's championship-contending No. 33 Corvette, it was a rough day too. Two time penalties and a drive-through cost Jonny Edgar, Ben Keating and Daniel Juncadella a shot at silverware. They finished seventh.

"It was a disappointing day," said Juncadella. "Three penalties lost us around 55 seconds. So yeah, it's a big deal. But we live and learn and hopefully get better for the next one."

Next up for the FIA WEC teams is Lone Star Le Mans at COTA in Austin Texas on Sept. 7.

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