The No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 HYBRID piloted by Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi won the 2024 FIA WEC 6 Hours of Sao Paulo.
Toyota Gazoo Racing secured its second victory of the season following a dominant run at the 2024 FIA WEC 6 Hours of Sao Paulo for the No. 8 crew of Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi.
The Toyota GR010 Hybrid easily outperformed its Hypercar rivals in terms of speed as the No. 8 won by a margin of one minute and eight seconds over the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963, which came in second.
However, the sister No. 7 Toyota, which had led early on, lost over two minutes of time due to a peculiar control unit issue that occurred early in the third hour denying the Japanese manufacturer a 1-2 finish.
The setback was to the advantage of the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963, shared by Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, and Laurens Vanthoor, which was able to increase their lead in the championship after overcoming a hitch following Vanthoor’s contact with Will Stevens’ No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche during the first hour of the race.
The sister No. 5 963 piloted by Matt Campbell, Frederic Makowiecki, and Michael Christensen finished third marking a 2-3 finish for Porsche. However, if Christensen hadn’t received the black-and-orange flag for damage to the rear, the order of finish would have probably flipped.
The No. 5 was forced to swap out the rear to fix the damage at the penultimate pit stops, and Christensen gave way to Campbell.
The No. 7 Toyota piloted by Mike Conway, Nyck de Vries, and Kobayashi, managed to recover to fourth place after getting the upper hand following a late stop-and-go penalty for the No. 38 JOTA Porsche and an aggressive pass by Kamui Kobayashi on Alessandro Pier Guidi’s No. 51 Ferrari with less than five minutes remaining.
On a disappointing day for Ferrari, Pier Guidi secured fifth place with the 499P he drives alongside James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi, beating the sister No. 50 car driven by Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, and Nicklas Nielsen.
JOTA’s No. 38 car—shared by Jenson Button, Oliver Rasmussen, and Phil Hanson—fell to seventh place following a penalty for a technical infraction. Meanwhile, Callum Ilott’s spin at Turn 4 and subsequent rear-end collision with the barriers forced the sister No. 12 Porsche to fall to 18th place and finish last among the Hypercar entries, after requiring a trip to the garage for repairs.
The Peugeot 9X8 achieved its best-ever results after the No. 93 car driven by Jean-Eric Vergne, Nico Mueller, and Mikkel Jensen cruised to eighth place while the leading entries from BMW and Alpine, the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 and the No. 36 Alpine A424, rounded out the top ten.
The No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R finished in 13th place due to brake issues, while the No. 63 Lamborghini SC63 had to make an unscheduled stop for a puncture, landing the car in 17th place. The sole Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 Competizione was the only entry to withdraw from the race due to engine problems.
Manthey PureRxcing wins in LMGT3
In the LMGT3 class, Manthey PureRxcing won their fourth race overall and second of the season with the No. 92 Porsche 911 GT3 R driven by Klaus Bachler, Joel Sturm, and Alex Malykhin.
The No. 92 car’s route to victory was facilitated by Malykhin’s overtake on Sarah Bovy’s class pole-sitter, No. 85 Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2, which retired with fluid dripping from the car.
The Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo put pressure on Bachler at one point in the latter stages of the race as Alex Riberas closed the gap to the race-leading Manthey PureRxcing Porsche to just three seconds.
Heart of Racing’s hopes of winning were, however, dashed by a late drive-through penalty for a Full Course Yellow infraction with Riberas, driving the No. 27 car he shares with Ian James and Daniel Mancinelli, to finish a lap down.
United Autosports secured its first podium of the season with the No. 95 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo driven by Marino Sato, Nico Pino, and Josh Caygill. The sister No. 59 car, driven by Nicolas Costa, Gregoire Saucy, and James Cottingham, came in fourth.
The WRT BMW, driven by Ahmad Al Harthy, Valentino Rossi, and Maxime Martin, completed the top five.
The No. 82 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R was the only other retirement besides the Iron Dames Lamborghini with Daniel Juncadella’s stop on his out lap resulting in the second of three FCY periods.
