Nico Muller led the No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 to claim the fastest time in the brief opening practice session for Sunday’s FIA WEC 6 Hours of Sao Paulo.
TotalEnergies’ No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 set the fastest time in the opening practice for the FIA WEC 6 Hours of Sao Paulo at Interlagos on Friday morning with Nico Muller delivering a 1:26.341 on a drying track following light downpour prior to the session.
The drivers recorded several time improvements throughout the session after starting on wets and later switching to slicks as conditions improved with the Swiss setting the benchmark during the final hour of the practice.
But just as Muller posted his time, an incident happened at Turn 4 prompting a red flag, cutting short a string of impressive lap times. Arnold Robin’s No. 78 AKKODIS ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3 crashed into the guardrails, which called for significant barrier repairs that halted the practice with 19 minutes remaining on the clock.
However, Race control confirmed a time extension for FP2 which was held between 14:30 and 16:45 local time to make up for lost time.
Muller finished 0.179 seconds faster than Earl Bamber’s No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R as Andre Lotterer finished third in the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963, which currently leads the Hypercar championship.
Sebastien Buemi was fourth fastest in the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid while Ye Yifei’s No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P rounded out the top five. Rene Rast made it six different manufacturers inside the top six with a time of 1m26.871s in the No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8.
The Le Mans 24 Hours-winning No. 50 Ferrari came in seventh place in the hands of Miguel Molina. Meanwhile, Mike Conway made a return to racing after missing Le Mans to recover from injuries from a cycling incident and completed about 10 laps in the No. 7 Toyota, recording the eighth-fastest time.
Michael Christensen was ninth in the No. 5 Porsche as Jean-Karl Vernay finished a surprise tenth in the Isotta Fraschini Tipo6-Competizione. The two Alpine A424 LMDh entries finished in positions 12 and 13, while Jota and its two customer Porsche 963s finished last in the Hypercar rankings.
The majority of teams finished the session with over 20 laps completed, marking the first time the field had a chance to collect data on the Interlagos circuit using their current cars. The #38 JOTA Porsche, which arrived late for the session, was the only car to miss double figures.
Home favourite Nicolas Costa drove the No. 59 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 to top in LMGT3 with a lap time of 1:35.881. He was only 0.003 seconds faster than Alex Riberas’ No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, which was second fastest.
Matteo Cressoni drove the No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 to finish third fastest in class.
