The #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing crew of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa has won the 6 Hours of São Paulo, with the trio taking their second victory of the season and the Japanese manufacturer becoming the first automaker to triumph in Interlagos’ FIA World Endurance Championship event twice, having won the inaugural edition in 2012.
The crew of the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid was untroubled at the front of the pack after a fuel pressure sensor issue for the early-leading, pole-sitting sister car of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries, which resulted in a lengthy pit-stop.
Buemi took the checkered flag, heading home the #6 Porsche Penske 963 of Laurens Vanthoor, Kévin Estre and André Lotterer, with the second of the Porsche Penske Motorsport entries (the #5 car of Michael Christensen, Matt Campbell and Frédéric Makowiecki) completing the podium.
The #51 Ferrari AF Corse driven by James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi was just beaten to fourth place with Kamui Kobayashi executing what surely was the move of the race in the recovering #7 machine.
Taking sixth was the #50 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning Ferrari 499P of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen.
MANTHEY PURERXCING RETURNS TO WINNING WAYS
The #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche dominated the LMGT3 class with Klaus Bachler, Aliaksandr Malykhin and Joel Sturm taking the trio’s second victory of the season and first since the season-opening Qatar 1812km race.
With the second Manthey Porsche of Yasser Shahin, Richard Lietz and Morris Schuring having a difficult opening hour of the race and finishing outside the points, the #92 crew gained a significant lead in the standings, with the two entries tied on points before the Brazilian round. Porsche also became the first manufacturer with four LMGT3 class victories to its name.
Heart of Racing Aston Martin took its best result of the season with second place as Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli and Alex Riberas claimed a well-earned runners-up position despite serving a drive-through penalty for a full course yellow infringement late in the race.
Rounding out the podium was the #95 United Autosports McLaren trio of Marino Sato, Joshua Caygill and Nico Pino who delivered the first-ever podium position for McLaren in the FIA WEC.
Heartbreak struck again for the Iron Dames Lamborghini crew of Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey as they retired from second place with a mechanical issue, having started from pole position.
