Stevens leads Cadillac front row sweep for 6 Hours of Sao Paulo

The grid is set for the FIA WEC 6 Hours of São Paulo, and it will be Cadillac Hertz Team Jota's V-Series.Rs that will lead the field across the line at the start, after locking out the front row in this afternoon's qualifying.

It was a repeat of last year's Hyperpole, with the No. 12 taking pole ahead of the No. 38 (which also ended up P2 12 months ago, but was penalized post-session and started third). Will Stevens set the pole time in the shootout, a 1m23.041s in the final moments of the session. That dethroned the No. 38 Cadillac, which had held the spot following Jack Aitken's 1m23.089s. The result marked Cadillac's fifth WEC pole position and Jota's fourth front row lockout.

Will this lead to another memorable 1-2 finish in the race for Cadillac? Traditionally, qualifying is particularly important at this event, which has never produced an overall winner that started off the front row.

"Big thank you to the team and Cadillac for giving us a good package. The circuit is super challenging," Stevens said. "Getting the tire in the right window on our prep laps is key. We knew it would come to us at the end of the session, and I managed to put together a pretty decent lap. Let's hope we can hold the position tomorrow."

On the second row, the No. 36 Alpine A424 will start third courtesy of Victor Martins' 1m23.108s, and the No. 15 WRT BMW will grid up fourth.

It was another impressive showing for Genesis Magma Racing. The No. 19 GMR-001 will start sixth behind the No. 35 Alpine following a 1m23.341s from Mathieu Jaminet, who has been fast all weekend so far.

In contrast, it was a tough session for Le Mans winner Toyota Racing. Neither of its TR010s made the shootout and will start 14th (No. 8) and 16th (No. 7).

"The lap was clean for me, I think we maximized everything we could," Ryo Hirakawa, driver of the No. 8 Toyota, admitted. "I think we have pace in the race, though. It's going to be fun tomorrow, I'm looking forward to it."

The reigning world champions in the No. 51 Ferrari will also start outside the top 10, in 11th, after Antonio Giovinazzi narrowly missed the cut by half a tenth. He and his teammates will start just behind the other two 499Ps, which ended up ninth and 10th in Hyperpole.

Aston Martin rolls on in LMGT3 qualifying. Andrea Lorenzina/DPPI

In LMGT3, it was Kobe Pauwels who wrote the headlines in just his second WEC weekend. A superb 1m33.350s in Hyperpole from the 21-year-old Belgian racer, who is standing in this weekend for Dudu Barrichello, put the No. 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin on class pole for the first time this season.

"I'm so happy. We dialed the car in for qualifying and Gray (Newell) and Kobe (Pauwels) delivered," No. 23 driver Jonny Adam said. "Track position is important, so being on pole is special."

Statistically, it was Aston Martin's 72nd WEC pole position, a new championship record. It follows up on Aston Martin partner team Racing Spirit of Leman's LMGT3 pole at this event last year.

Iron Lynx's No. 79 Mercedes-AMG came closest to pole, with Lin Hodenius putting the car on the front row. The No. 87 Lexus RC F LMGT3, which won the race last year, ended up third, four tenths off, and will start alongside the No. 69 WRT BMW on the second row.

The third row on the grid will be occupied by the No. 77 Proton Ford Mustang and No. 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes, which added to the team's impressive showing.

Further down the order in the class, the No. 34 Racing Team Turkey Corvette made it into Hyperpole and will start 10th, two positions ahead of the Le Mans-winning, championship-leading sister No. 33 TF Sport Z06 LMGT3.R, which will start 12th, despite carrying 36 kilos of success ballast.

"I'm very happy with how we qualified," said Ben Keating, who qualified the car. "I did not expect to be P12. In the last session, I did a qualifying sim, and I was one place away from being P-last. This qualifying performance was over a full second faster than I was able to do this morning. And so, yeah, I did not think we would be in this position.

"Because we won Le Mans and because we're leading the championship, we're carrying an extra 36 kilograms, and so we're heavier than any other car out here. On this track with all the tight, twisty turns, it really makes a big difference. So when I look at our place and our time compared to everyone else that doesn't have weight, I'm pretty happy with where we are."

It was a forgettable day at the office for Garage 59's McLarens and the Vista AF Corse Ferraris, as all four cars across the two teams failed to make the shootout.

The race tomorrow is set to get underway at 11:30am local time and airs live on truTV, HBO Max and FIAWEC+ with coverage starting at 10:30am ET.

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