Toyota Racing left Le Mans in control of the Hypercar title races. Fast forward a month, and it has departed São Paulo with a real fight on its hands for the second half of the season.
BMW’s second Hypercar victory, scored this time by the #15 crew of Kevin Magnussen, Raffale Marciello and Dries Vanthoor, Ferrari’s eye-catching performance with the #51 499P, and Toyota’s first pointless weekend of the season, have combined to tighten both the Drivers’ and Manufacturers’ World Championship battles. Throw in TF Sport’s Jonny Edgar’s emergence as the outright LMGT3 Drivers’ Championship leader, and Interlagos looks likely to be remembered as a pivotal event when we look back on the season.
For Toyota, the warning signs had been present throughout the weekend. The TR010 HYBRID never looked like a factor around the undulating Interlagos circuit, lacking the outright pace to challenge the front-runners from the opening practice session onwards. A difficult qualifying performance left both cars on the back foot, starting 14th and 16th, and things failed to improve once the race began.
When the chequered flag fell, it had failed to score a single point with either car, for the second year running at the event. Nyck de Vries, driver of the #7 TR010, gave a blunt assessment. “We had a very tough weekend. We lacked performance; we weren’t quick enough all week and had operational mistakes at the start of the race, which put us on the back foot. From there, we were battling blue flags, which takes you out of the rhythm of the race.”
On paper, it’s a result that looks catastrophic, but nobody on the team will panic. The Japanese marque still leads the Hypercar Manufacturers’ Championship with 132 points, albeit now by just five over BMW, on 127. Ferrari also remains in contention on 88, its consistent scoring keeping it within striking distance despite its winless run (which dates back to Le Mans last year) extending in Brazil.
The fact that Toyota escaped Interlagos still leading the standings owes to its strong start to the season. Wins at Imola and Le Mans have laid the foundations for a title challenge, but it will need to stop the rot quickly and ensure that Interlagos was a blip rather than the start of a trend to claim the title, as BMW is in fine form.
“If you had asked me before the event if we were fighting for victory, I wouldn’t have guessed it,” BMW M Motorsport boss Andreas Roos told DSC. “Now we have two victories in three races and a P2. It couldn’t be better at the moment. But we have to stay focused because it’s so tight and the level is so high. It feels super nice.
“I won’t comment too much on Toyota because we focused on ourselves. But I expected them to be in the mix because they have a very good car. I am pretty sure they will be back in the fight.”
Sunday’s performance from WRT was significant not simply because it produced a second WEC win in three races for the M Hybrid V8, but because it also saw the #20’s full-season drivers – René Rast and Robin Frijns- gain ground on the #7 Toyota trio in the Drivers’ standings.
Their eighth-place finish, adding to their win at Spa and second-place finish at Le Mans, sees them move level on 75 points with Toyota trio Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries, and carry momentum into the next round at CoTA.
Meanwhile, Ferrari’s championship hopes rest primarily with reigning champions Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi, whose 57-point tally reflects a campaign built on consistency rather than outright domination like last year. The second-place finish last night seemed crucial; not only did it mark a turnaround in form for the 499P at the twisty, undulating Interlagos circuit, but it has reignited the #51’s crew’s title hopes.
“It’s massive. It brought our championship back alive again,” Calado told DSC. “Without that, it would have been difficult going forward. The whole team expected a tough race, like last year. We don’t really know or fully understand why it wasn’t.”
It’s a performance which may prove crucial, especially when factoring in the high likelihood of the 10 and eight-hour rounds at Qatar and Bahrain, which offer more points than standard WEC races, being replaced with shorter, six-hour races at Barcelona and Monza.
“We’ve got to take it race-by-race. It’s too early to think about the title, but it has put us back into contention,” Calado added. “Whatever happens with the calendar, it’s the same for everyone. We’ll just have to do our best at each track.”
What about Cadillac, which locked out the front row and looked on course to repeat its dominant run from 12 months ago? Third- and fourth-place finishes for the V-Series.Rs will feel frustrating in the wake of a standout performance throughout the event at Le Mans, which also ended without a win. Will Stevens and Norman Nato, who share the pole-sitting #12, are 33 points off the lead, having let a second consecutive win at Interlagos slip away.
“First podium of the season and P4 for the sister car is a good result for the team,” summarised Nato. “But we can’t help but feel disappointed as we had the car and the pace with both cars to get another 1-2 here. Unfortunately, the time loss in the pitstop and small penalty for contact with another car meant the result didn’t go our way. But we keep pushing, and the win will come.”
The LMGT3 championship has taken an intriguing turn, too.
While the #34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Sport Corvette claimed its first class victory of the season at Interlagos, the sister #33 Corvette also left with an important result.
The team’s measured drive to another points finish, while carrying 36 kilos of success ballast, moved Jonny Edgar clear at the top of the Drivers’ Championship on 76 points. More significantly, he now enjoys a four-point advantage over team-mate Nicky Catsburg, while Bronze driver Ben Keating remains third on 54 after missing both Spa and Le Mans, meaning TF Sport drivers occupied first, second and third in the standings. It is a highly unusual championship picture!
The result also underlines how much of a force TF Sport has become with Corvette’s Z06 LMGT3.R package. The operation now arguably has two championship protagonists, giving the team enviable tactical flexibility heading into the closing stages of the campaign.
Behind Edgar and the #33 car, the fight is still alive, though it feels like a contender or two will need to emerge from the chasing pack to take it to the wire.
Manthey’s #92 Porsche drivers—Riccardo Pera, Richard Lietz and Yasser Shahin—share fourth on 49 points (they also sit second in the Teams’ standings behind the #33), just ahead of the #31 WRT BMW trio of Anthony McIntosh, Daniel Harper and Parker Thompson on 43.
Charlie Eastwood, Peter Dempsey and Salih Yoluc are tied on the same total in the Turkish-flagged Corvette, while Ferrari’s Alessio Rovera, François Heriau and Simon Mann remain within range on 42 points.
McIntosh believes it will be a real struggle for anyone to catch Edgar and the #33 Corvette, though. “The WEC is unique because if you don’t win Le Mans, it can be almost impossible to win the Championship,” he told DSC.
“And with success ballast, when you win races later in the season, you’re swinging everywhere. We carried it at Spa after winning Imola. We know it’s tough. So I think going forward this year it’s going to be about building our core team, learning and working towards next year.”
Images courtesy of DPPI
