New Zealander Brendon Hartley and teammates Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi powered to a crushing victory in this morning’s 6 Hours of Sao Paulo at Interlagos.
The trio, sharing the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, finished 1 minute and 8 seconds ahead of their closest rivals, the World Endurance Championship-leading #6 Penske Porsche 963 of Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor, who recovered from an early puncture after contact with the #12 Jota Porsche.
The Porsche Penske #5 of Matt Campbell, Frederic Makowiecki, and Michael Christensen completed the podium despite suffering damage to the rear section, which resulted in them being shown the black-and-orange flag.
The #5 looked to have the advantage over its sister car but lost 20 seconds while changing the tail section after contact with an LMGT3 entry.
The result could also have been better for Toyota, who locked out the front row in qualifying and looked likely for a one-two through the opening hours.
The #7 GR010 pole-sitters Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries led the early stages but received a drive-through penalty for an infringement under full-course yellow.
Conway led Hartley by 18 seconds before the penalty and quickly recovered to re-take the lead.
Their race was further compromised in the third hour, however, when a fuel pressure sensor issue cost the car three minutes.
De Vries and then Kobayashi recovered ground over the final hours, with the Japanese driver taking fourth off the #51 Ferrari 499P LMH in the final five minutes.
The #51 of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovanazzi held on for fifth as the last car on the lead lap. They, too, were delayed by a drive-through penalty for a full-course yellow infringement early in the race.
The Le Mans-winning #50 Ferrari finished sixth.
Both of the Italiamanufacturer’s entries and the #7 Toyota gained places late in the race after the #38 Jota Porsche of Jenson Button, Philip Hanson and Oliver Rasmussewereas forced to stop out of fourth place for a tyre pressure infringement.
Button brought the #38 home in seventh, ahead of the Peugeot #93 9X8 2024, shared by Nico Muller, Mikkel Jensen and Jean-Eric Vergne.
Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello and Marco Wittmann brought BMW’s WRT-run M Hybrid V8 LMDh home in ninth, ahead of the first Alpine, the #36 A424 LMDh shared by Mick Schumacher, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere.
Cadillac Racing’s Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn battled brake issues in the #2 V-Series.R and finished in 13th, two laps behind the winners.
The World Endurance Championship returns with Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of the Americas on September 1.
Header Image: Toyota Gazoo Racing
