The 2024 Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo marked the 90th WEC race since the World Championship was inaugurated in 2012.
It was the fourth visit to Interlagos after the Brazilian circuit formed part of the calendar for the first three years of the WEC (2012 – 2014), and an abortive plan to return in February 2020 fell victim to commercial difficulty with the event promoters.
The official attendance over the weekend was 73,205 attendance meaning that every race since Qatar this year has seen a paying attendance of 70,000+.
Here are some of the key stats and notes from the race, class by class:
Hypercar
On track, the win for the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 HYBRID saw a fifth different car win in the WEC in five races this season.
It was not only the first win for the #8 crew in 2024 it was their first podium finish!
The win saw Sebastien Buemi claim a landmark and record 25th overall race win in the FIA WEC.
Teammates Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa scored their 22nd and fifth wins respectively.
The win marks a 47th overall victory for the Toyota Gazoo Racing – still a more than 50% strike rate across the WEC’s history thus far.
It was the 18th win for the GR010 HYBRID in the Hypercar era since the start of 2021.
The results for the Toyota team, with the sister #7 car recovering to fourth after a delay to replace a faulty fuel pressure sensor, sees the Cologne-based squad leapfrog Ferrari AF Corse to second in the Manufacturers’ World Championship standings.
Porsche Penske Motorsport still leads the way with 126 points, but now has just a four-point margin over Toyota.
In the drivers’ standings a great recovery drive from the #6 Porsche crew after an early clash resulted in a puncture and front bodywork damage saw Laurens Vanthoor, Andre Lotterer and Kevin Estre score a hugely valuable second place. This extended their points advantage over the #50 Ferrari crew to 19, with Nyck de Vries and Kamui Kobayashi a further three points behind.
The only Hypercar retirement was the #11 Isotta Fraschini Tipo6-C. The Italian team’s race ended prematurely with engine issues after an encouraging early run that saw it pass several cars in the early stages and retain its position for some time.
Hypercar World Cup
A class win for the #38 HERTA Team JOTA Porsche 963 of Jenson Button, Oliver Rasmussen and Phil Hanson saw the crew take their first class win of the season with seventh place overall. That also marked their best overall placing of the season so far.
The sister #12 Porsche finished 18th overall after a late race ‘off’, but secured fourth place points and retained its healthy 54-point lead in the Hypercar World Cup standings for privately-entered top class cars.
Below the #12, the remaining three cars in the class are covered by just six points!
HYPERCAR WORLD CUP STANDINGS >>>
LMGT3
São Paulo saw the second win and fourth podium finish of the year for the #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3R squad in LMGT3.
Alex Malykhin, Joel Sturm and Klaus Bachler now lead the points standings with 100 points ahead of the sister #91 Mathy EMA car after coming into the Brazilian round all-square.
The #31 Team WRT BMW squad are now a single point behind in third with the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin squad a further 19 points astray. That gap has closed though with the Vantage’s second-place class finish.
The #95 United Autosports McLaren GT3 Evo scored a first WEC podium for the brand and a first for United in any GT class (adding to its record in LMP2). For Nico Pino, there is another reason to celebrate too, as he became the first Chilean driver to finish on a WEC podium.
Six of the nine LMGT3 marques have now scored at least one podium finish (Porsche, BMW, Aston Martin, Ford, Lamborghini and now McLaren) leaving only Ferrari, Corvette and Lexus without a top-three finish thus far.
There were two retirements in LMGT3 in Brazil.
The #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini suffered a broken water hose after running in the top two positions in the early stages of the race. The car was repaired and emerged from the pit lane but later retired with subsequent issues.
The other casualty was the #82 TF Sport Corvette, which lost drive.
Images courtesy of Porsche and DPPI
