We are into the second half of the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo as the FIA World Endurance Championship returns to Brazil and indeed to South America for the first time in a decade. Currently we are looking at a three-way battle for fifth place in GT3 with Jose Maria Lopez of Argentina in the #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3, Belgian Maxime Martin in the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3, and Switzerland's Gregoire Saucy aboard the #59 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo. The Lexus has made incredible strides since debuting three or four months ago when we were in Qatar for the 1,812 kilometers, the season opener for FIA WEC in 2024. Akkodis ASP and team boss Jerome Policand have gotten on top of this car and dialed it in.
Two Platinum-rated drivers vs. a Gold-rated driver in Gregoire Saucy. Lopez and Martin are both Platinum-rated. The McLaren is looking stout as we head into the second half of the motor race here in Sao Paulo this afternoon. Robert Kubica being interviewed by Bruce Jouanny, says that the race started well, and they gained places before having high pressures on the tires and in trying to double stint the tires, the strategy didn't work. After contact with one of the cars, their strategy backfired, and they also incurred a drive through penalty for contact with a BMW. Nobody knows, will the next race be better? Yifei Ye tagged the rear of one of the BMW's and the team incurred a drive through penalty.
Both Corvette #81 and McLaren #59 have been warned by the stewards for the contact we saw between them a wee while ago. Allow racing but be responsible and friendly. Don't let contact get out of hand. We still see the GT3 battle for fifth in class is hot and heavy between Lopez in the Lexus, Martin in the BMW, and Saucy in the McLaren. Three different cars of course, with three different mechanical combinations. Past them went Paul di Resta in the #94 Peugeot and Andre Lotterer in the #6 Porsche as Charles Milesi in the #35 Alpine also goes by.
Michael Christensen for Porsche leads the race with James Calado in second and Mikkel Jensen third for Peugeot in the #93 sister car. So, #5 ahead of #51 and #93. Charles Milesi in the Alpine has the #7 Toyota in the hands of Dutchman Nyck de Vries bearing down on him. de Vries dives past one of the GT cars! Meanwhile, the battle for fourth in Hypercar and in the overall is also hot and heavy. Toyota vs. Ferrari. Miguel Molina from Spain in Ferrari #50 and Ryo Hirakawa of Japan in Toyota #8. The #38 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963 is being investigated by the stewards for a technical infringement. Michael Christensen leads ahead of James Calado and Mikkel Jensen. Ferrari, Porsche, Peugeot.
Only a reprimand for the #38 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963. We have not seen a Full Course Yellow to temper the race pace. Miguel Molina in Ferrari #50 is now four and a half seconds back from the #93 Mikkel Jensen driven Peugeot. The Hypercars are working GT3 traffic and now, the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 is coming back into the picture in GT3. Zacharie Robichon, the Canadian, now at the controls. Robichon sharing with American Ryan Hardwick and Ben Barker from England, very much in the points.
Ryo Hirakawa closing in on Miguel Molina in a battle for fourth in the overall with 2/3rds of a second between them. Traffic is playing a big part in all of this. Porsche #5 is 17 seconds to the good over Ferrari #51 completing 123 laps, 329 miles. The new black livery for Toyota makes it stand out compared to the red, white, and black scheme they used to use. One of the Alpine A424B's exits the pit lane, the #36 car now in the hands of Frenchman Nico Lapierre. He is racing his first laps at Interlagos in a decade. Critical laps for Toyota to show pace. The Alpine darted out in front of the Toyota. Pardon me. Charles Milesi in the sister #35 Alpine has been there all along but Nyck de Vries has reeled him in and is now right on his gearbox.
Half an hour to pick up seven places. Ahead of this battle, in ninth place it is Scotsman Paul di Resta in the #94 Peugeot 9X8. Nyck de Vries is being bold and daring! He is going for a pass around the outside of Charles Milesi! Now he is trapped behind the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3R and Milesi might just be able to make a move. Milesi toughs it out past de Vries and that was almost a very close shave through traffic! Oy vey! Morris Schuring in the #91 Porsche, stay on the racing line. He couldn't move. He was trapped by the Hypercars, the Dutchman. So, now, Nyck de Vries is over a minute, almost a minute and a half behind the leaders having taken the pain of the extended pit stop to repair the faulty fuel pressure sensor.
Before their dramas, Toyota #7 was on a Sunday drive here in Brazil leading to the tune of more than 20 seconds. Ten seconds, excuse me. Porsche #5 is in the pit lane for routine service. Michael Christensen is in from the lead. Ferrari are the erstwhile leaders with James Calado in #51. 126 laps now on the board. Quite a few Hypercars need to pit on this particular lap. A full four-tire change on the Porsche. The right rear tire is being brutalized around this circuit. Now, Milesi in the Alpine and de Vries in the Toyota are both coming in. Yikes! The Toyota locks it up almost slewing sideways and into the back of the Peugeot!
Peugeot #94 vs. Toyota #7 on the pit stops. #7 will get right side tires. Is there a problem on the right rear? Maybe there is a vibration or a handling problem. Medium compound right side Michelin's and the car is down and away. The Peugeot is gone already. Mikkel Jensen now second with Oliver Rasmussen being passed. de Vries did get past the Peugeot. Rasmussen is a backmarker. He is laps down. Peugeot now in the pit lane and so is the #51 Ferrari. Ryo Hirakawa cycles back to the lead in Toyota #8. Miguel Molina in the #50 Ferrari 499P is also pitting for service. No driver change at Ferrari. Both Ferrari's in at the same time. Right side medium compound Michelin's for #51, down and away.
I think the same will be true for the sister car. Nope. Our guess was completely off. Hard compound tires for the #50. Is that call made by the engineers or the driver? So, the #50 car will take more time to get the tires bedded in on one side. The Porsche went off the road, nearly, in the previous hour, after making a similar decision. It can take as many as three laps on track before the hard compound Michelin is sufficiently warm and gets the bite, the traction it needs to be effective. Peugeot the quickest team on pit road. Edoardo Mortara in Lamborghini #63 has Mikkel Jensen in Peugeot #93 in seventh spot bearing down on him.
Seventh after the stop for the Peugeot and now being hounded by Ferrari #50. Jensen has four hard compound Michelin's on the Peugeot. Hard to tell if they are all new or if half are new and half are from a scrubbed set. Molina is motoring. All new hard tires for the Peugeot, weaving on his first flying lap out of the pit lane on cold tires. Mikkel Jensen feeling the pain, squirming and shimmying all over the shop to try and get that race car under him so he doesn't make an unforced error. Miguel Molina is absolutely right on his six. On clean tires, the #38 Jota Sport Porsche 963 of Oliver Rasmussen splits the battle between the Peugeot and the Ferrari.
Molina is fighting this. Miguel "El Matador" Molina, all over Rasmussen like the proverbial cheap suit. Rasmussen goes by Molina and now he is going to make quick work of Mikkel Jensen at the wheel of the Peugeot too, I would think. That is the difference between hot tires that have been bedded in and stone-cold brand-new tires just bolted onto the car straight out of the pit lane. Ferrari have had pace all year especially at Le Mans. We have seen pace from Porsche, particularly from the factory cars but also from the customer entries.
Toyota lead Porsche second, Alpine third. Amazingly we see Alpine, the specialty sports car arm of Renault, who won Le Mans overall with their A442 open cockpit spyder back in 1978, beginning to take the fight to the big boys. Peugeot and Alpine both having good races here in Brazil surely stirring the hearts of the French fans. With fresher tires, Mikkel Jensen in the Peugeot has been able to gap the Ferrari of Miguel Molina. Oliver Rasmussen on hot tires on all corners, he has a slender advantage. Rasmussen making a dive on the Peugeot. The sports car racing rules set is open enough for teams to show strategy. It is not so templated that you don't have wiggle room on strategy.
Yikes! A slight kiss from the Jota Porsche 963 to the #60 GT3 class Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 up the hill through the final corner at Arquibancados, turn 15. No harm, no foul. Oliver Rasmussen trying to go the long way around Jensen. Rasmussen with grip to spare bit didn't have the car placed in the right spot. Rasmussen absolutely motors past the Ferrari into Curva do Sol, turn four. Peugeot competed in the Indianapolis 500 and won in the early days and have had success and wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with two different packages in two eras. Twice at the very tail end of Group C with their awesome 905 V10 powered prototypes in 1992 and '93, and then with their diesel LMP1 908 HDI FAP in 2009 beating their bitter rivals in the diesel LMP1 days, from Audi.
Not there with the 9X8 yet but they are coming. In the battle for second spot, Michael Christensen is harrying Charles Milesi in the #35 Alpine. Again, two different cars with two different mechanical combinations. The Porsche 963 with its 4.6-liter turbo V8 hybrid motor and the Alpine with its 3.4-liter turbo V6 Mecachrome motor derived from a Formula 2 spec open wheel racing motor that is being used in endurance racing and under serious development. Milesi the meat in a Porsche sandwich in this battle for second, third, and fourth spot. Lotterer, Milesi, Christensen. The German, the Frenchman, and the Dane.
This scrum is for the podium. Christensen and his Porsche teammates are very well versed in saving their tires and not taking the goody out of them from the GTE production-based road/race car era of FIA WEC and are applying those same strategies in the Hypercar prototypes. Paul di Resta in the #94 Peugeot is just ahead. The Alpine seems to have everything it needs to show these factory Porsche's what it is made of. Penske and Porsche have been a dominant force this season in both WEC and IMSA, on both sides of the pond.
Penske Porsche now second and third but we are one on-track drama away from this motor race being thrown on its head. Jensen and Rasmussen continue their scrap. A pit stop infringement will force the #59 United Autosports McLaren to incur, on its next scheduled stop, a five second time penalty addition. Gregoire Saucy in the car, racing in sixth. This won't make a dent for McLaren because their better placed car is the sister #95 car fourth in class in the hands of Nico Pino of Chile. Both McLaren's are in the top half dozen. Toyota leading from the two Porsche's as we keep watching the genuine battle for position between Jensen and Rasmussen, the two Danes.
Just a shade over two and a half hours of racing to go. Oliver Rasmussen trying to pass Mikkel Jensen. Rasmussen being told to be sensible but there was a slight degree of the Kimi Raikkonen "leave me alone, I know what I'm doing" situation. So, now we see Nyck de Vries on the march through the Hypercar field and he is right on the tail of the #15 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of the Swiss-Italian Raffaele Marciello. In the GT3 class Rahel Frey has lost ten seconds to Joel Sturm in the continuing saga of Manthey Pure Racing Porsche vs. Iron Dames Lamborghini.
She has also dealt with the challenge and easing away from Daniel Mancinelli in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3. de Vries can use some of the hybrid boost (in the right place), but it will bury him on SOC, State of Charge, battery life. de Vries can use some of the hybrid boost, but you cannot deploy it below a speed threshold of 140 kilometers per hour (87 and a half miles an hour). He is stuck in traffic and gets inside the red #31 BMW M4 GT3 vs. the #777 D'station Aston Martin. That is the Brazilian Augusto Farfus racing with Frenchman Erwan Bastard.
Nyck de Vries will try the one second push to pass but there's no hybrid boost. OK. We have seen the two French Hypercars (the Alpine and the Peugeot) squabbling. Now, we see a mano e mano wrestling match between the two Italian's. Ferrari vs. Lamborghini. Pride of Italy on the line between Maranello and Bologna. Side by side stuff! Sixth spot being dealt with there between Spaniard Miguel Molina and Italian Edoardo Mortara, so, give the place to the Ferrari. The Prancing Horse makes a move on The Raging Bull.
Edoardo Mortara will next be defending against the #83 AF Corse Ferrari in the hands of Yifei Ye, the Chinese driver. The Lamborghini's windscreen is splattered with oil. So, there is a car on the road venting oil or venting fluid out the back of it. We don't know which one. Oh! Oh! There's a move afoot as Rasmussen very nearly snuck his nose to the inside of Jensen in the ongoing saga of Jota Porsche vs. one factory Peugeot! This is a fantastic battle between the two Danish racers! Jensen moves to the inside of the #11 Isotta Fraschini currently in the hands of Carl Bennett the Thai driver. Miguel Molina is also going to close that gap and make his way past.
Factory cars racing each other and the privately entered Hypercars are in their own points championship and invisible for any kind of points that would go towards the overall constructors' championship. That is the Hypercar World Cup. The Isotta Fraschini moves to the right, and Carl Bennett allows Miguel Molina through. The American fans tuning in for the race today say 'this is all well and good but where is the sound of fury? Where is the Cadillac?" Well, the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V Series.R is languishing way down in 18th place in the Hypercar field. It is ahead of only the Isotta Fraschini.
We have heard reports of the brakes squealing on the #2 Cadillac which is an oddity. I have never heard of that happening. It must be the nature of the circuit here at Interlagos. I can tell you, my pals here stateside who run the Cadillac in IMSA at Action Express, who did race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, I don't recall that our team has had such similar braking issues and of course, stateside, there are not tracks that are too similar to Interlagos, that are on the IMSA schedule, I don't think. Phew! We've just seen contact with the #87 Lexus RC F GT3 from the Lamborghini! Oh dear. Mortara is incredibly close and there's the Peugeot! Yikes! Mortara on the dirt, losing traction and being dusted by Jensen in the Peugeot.
OK. Now, myself and our mate Martin Haven in the broadcast booth are both confused. Mikkel Jensen has gone by Edoardo Mortara. Miguel Molina has gone by Edoardo Mortara. So, in the battle of the major Italian Hypercars it appears to be one nil between Maranello and Bologna. Jensen to fifth, Rasmussen sixth, Molina seventh. Aye yaye yaye. The Lamborghini could be struggling on some very slimy Michelin tires that are just about at the end of their life cycle before new ones will be needed. Phil Hanson looking happy with life from the Jota pit box. They go by the #88 black and gold liveried Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 and no, I am not sure who is in that car.
It is either Norwegian Dennis Olsen, Dane Mikkel Pedersen, or Germany's Christian Ried, the team boss at Proton Competition, the head cheese of the organization. Yikes! Yikes! Rasmussen right alongside Mikkel Jensen down the hill! Rasmussen crawling all over the back of Jensen like a bad rash that is giving him pain and he needs relief for, now. Don't scratch the itch, you could make it worse. This is a different sort of "Dane Train" than what we have seen in FIA WEC over the years. That was the moniker we used to apply to the Danish crewed Aston Martin GTE cars way back in the day and for well over a decade or more.
Somehow or other the Peugeot is just motoring away from the Porsche! Rasmussen was right on Jensen's six earlier and under braking, the Porsche is incredibly strong. Again, the powerplants in these cars are different. The Porsche with the 4.6-liter twin turbo V8 motor and the Peugeot with the 2.6-liter twin turbo V6 lump in the back of it. Different concepts, different balance, different driver technique, and different tires. Slightly different tires. Wow. Now we see a change of position between the factory Penske Porsche's as Michael Christensen aboard car #5 is going around Andre Lotterer in the sister #6 Porsche 963. Lotterer ran wide, lost grip, and lost oodles of time out of Curva do Sol, turn five.
Rasmussen is right on Jensen's six now. The Peugeot is struggling in sector two. Is it a grip/traction issue? In sector two here at Interlagos if you have tire woes, sector two eats you alive and eats away pace like Pac Man eating marbles in the classic video game. Even if you don't, sector two will squish your lap time compared to sector one and sector three. Speaking of squishing, there is traffic ahead that is going to stymie the Peugeot in a major way. Mikkel Jensen has the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche as the cork in the bottle, look. This is allowing Oliver Rasmussen to close right up again.
Tbree across down the frontstretch out of the Arquibancadas turn, turn 15. Mikkel Jensen didn't panic and anticipated the GT3 car was going to run out wide, and so, the GT3 Porsche did run wide, and Jensen could have gotten bottled up, but he didn't. Mikkel Jensen knows what a GT3 car is capable of as he has driven them before. Jenson Button is suiting up and readying for his stint aboard the #38 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963. Bring on the World Champion, the 2009 Formula 1 champion. Oliver Rasmussen has to continue preserving the tires. Button will be set to take over from Oliver Rasmussen.
Ryo Hirakawa is booking it, putting the hammer down, 44 and a half seconds to the good out in front! Holy smokes! Hirakawa is bish, bash, boshing it this afternoon! Team radio between Rasmussen and his crew chief, his chief mechanic for the #38 Hertz Team Jota Porsche. He is told to keep the pressure on and force the Peugeot into a mistake and keep thinking about the tires. The last time was calm down and don't overdo it. Now you just go for it. Now we move back to the battle for tenth place in Hypercar, the #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Yifei Ye and the #36 Alpine of Nico Lapierre. Side by side and they make contact through turns four and five!
Well, well, well. That was all the way through Descida do Lago. World championship points and now, Now, Jensen vs. Rasmussen redux! Round two, high wide and handsome around the turn! Rasmussen on the outside shoots past the Peugeot up the hill from Juncao all the way past the Subida dos Boxes and into the final corner, turn 15, Arquibancadas. Great stuff! A big grin from Phil Hanson. Jensen is not done with Rasmussen yet. The Peugeot has the straight-line speed going for the divebomb into the Senna S! Jensen handed the outside line, hung out to dry while Rasmussen slams the door in his face another time.
Rasmussen knew that would come. But it is excellent racing here from both drivers! Wow! That was one of the best cat and mouse games I have ever seen. With the red soil and the Eucalyptus trees Interlagos reminds me of Bathurst, Mount Panorama where we've seen GT3 cars race and of course the fabled Bathurst 1,000 for the Australian touring cars/Australian Supercars championship. Yifei Ye is fending off the challenge from Nico Lapierre in the battle between the Ferrari and the Alpine for tenth place. There are many fo these same kinds of battles up and down the order. Fabulous motor racing here at Interlagos on this Sunday afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.
Slightly down the order, Robin Frijns in the #20 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 has the sister #35 Alpine of Charles Milesi right behind him as well. The BMW in 14th and the other Alpine in 15th spot. Six battles alone underway in Hypercar as the #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche just two seconds ahead of the Lamborghini of Edoardo Mortara. This is a spellbinding race. The depth of competition is bonkers! Nyck de Vries goes by Nico Lapierre who absolutely gives it away! I wonder if he clattered over a curb or something. Lapierre skated out wide and de Vries needed no second invitation. That was taking candy from a baby.
Lapierre shaking his fist in the cockpit. He is furious with himself for making that mistake! Lapierre was in full opposite lock drift mode! Good grief! Carried the car into the corner, rotated on the brakes, and wriggled and shimmied over the curbs! An impassive Michael Schumacher looking on. So many second and third gear corners here at Interlagos. Interlagos is a medium speed course; it is not a fast course at all. You are on full throttle for just half the lap here, 50%. There is a lot of off throttle time. So, Nyck de Vries is now into the top ten in the overall aboard the #7 Toyota.
Of the top six as they stand, just one car has won this year, the #6 Porsche that won in Qatar at the beginning of the year. Will we see BMW win? Will we see the #83 Ferrari win? Porsche has pace. Ferrari has pace. Toyota has pace. It is about running as clean a race as humanly possible. Toyota #8 leading the motor race has put 144 laps in the book, 385 miles. We can see the #83 Ferrari and the #15 BMW in their own battle. Yifei Ye vs. Raffaele Marciello. Marciello in the BMW has the traction up the hill, and it will be a drag race on the front straightaway! 3-liter twin turbo V6 in the Ferrari, 4-liter twin turbo V8 in the BMW.
Marciello makes the move and both cars are on hard Michelin tires. Everyone has the pain of running on medium tires out of the way. No one has run medium compound boots for a wee while as we see Robert Shwartzman getting suited and booted. He will be next up at the wheel of the #83 Ferrari. The Israeli American driver who is a Ferrari factory pilot is on deck. Ah. #83 is on old hard compound Michelin tires that are probably like hockey pucks by now. So, they will need new tires. That is for dead sure.
The AF Corse team for the #83 Ferrari, they have been burning through their allocation of hard compound tires, I think. You've got too use your tire allocation as much as possible! Oh no! Oh no! Terrible news! Ladies and gentlemen, the Iron Dames Lamborghini is in trouble! It is pouring water out of the radiator overflow on the side of the car! The Lamborghini is steaming! It's steaming like a kettle. It looks like water. That is good old-fashioned steam coming out of the right side of the motor. Dear, oh dear. That car is going no further. Michelle Gatting just got in but she is exiting. She can smell fuel.
I was wrong. Maybe that isn't steam. That's gasoline vapor. We can't tell from looking at it. The team will be able to tell from smelling it. They'd better mop up that fuel out of the pit lane because it could light up and cause a fire if someone is careless or if the red-hot exhaust touches it. I digress. I stand corrected. That's not fuel. My earlier assertion was correct. It's water. Never, ever second guess yourself. Go with your gut and my gut tells me that's water vapor. Coolant smells different than fuel does. The man with the fire extinguisher isn't panicking. That's coolant. It's blown a radiator hose off the car.
Blimey! What do the Iron Dames need to do in order to find a little success? Meanwhile, we revisit the top three in GT3. The Manthey Pure Racing Porsche #92 continues to lead. They have now run 131 laps, 351 miles. The #95 United Autosports McLaren is now second, nearly a minute behind. The exact gap is 59 seconds. In third place, the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3. Nico Pino has brought the McLaren into the pits from second place. Team WRT and Maxime Martin move up to second. Alex Riberas, the Spaniard, is now driving the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin now in third place. This could be a split radiator hose for the Iron Dames.
Their troubles at the Iron Dames might not be as bad as we first thought, and they are still in this. My apologies to the ladies for counting them out too soon! OK. Manthey Pure Racing Porsche #92 is in the pit lane for routine service and a driver change as Klaus Bachler, the Austrian, should be getting into the car. Alex Malykhin completed his stint making way for Joel Sturm and Klaus Bachler. Now, Maxime Martin is still in the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 going for the lead. Now, we have not seen Valentino Rossi have a driving stint here in Brazil yet.
Martin climbs over the curbs. Fuel into the #92 Porsche the tirs are being changed. They have put a full srt of tires on. Michelle Gatting cannot believe it. Rahel Frey in the front of the picture. The #46 BMW comes into the pit lane. We are going to see a few more cars drop further down the order, the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang, the #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3, and the #95 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo. Valentino Rossi is making his first ever drive in a racing car in South America.
He has raced cars in Europe. Many times, he also raced in South America during his motorcycle racing career. He has not raced a car in South America until now. The sister #31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 has already won in LMGT3 this year, but the #46 team is still knocking on the door. Team WRT changing to a new set of Goodyear tires. The Iron Dames are not giving up. They are doing everything to fix the car and get back on track. It looks like there was a connection, a fitting, or a hose that came loose on the radiator and the cooling system on the V10 engine. Water spewing out into the undertray and into the pit box. Michelle Gatting cannot believe it! Highs and lows, this is motorsport and sport in general.
At Imola back in April, recall the BMWs went 1-2 in the GT3 class. #31 won the race that day but the #46 was right behind in second spot. They were side by side, in the rain, battling for the win. I am afraid the #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini will now be completely out of contention even if they get back out there after fixing the radiator. Just a little over two hours to go and we have a battle on our hands in GT3. Porsche, Aston Martin, Ford Mustang, McLaren, and Lexus, the top five, with five brands and five teams, and five drivers. Just a tad over two hours of racing remaining.
We have a battle for position afoot in the middle of the Hypercar pack now. Lamborghini vs. BMW with Alpine in the background, waiting in the wings. This is Raffaele Marciello vs. Edoardo Mortara. Nico Lapierre in the Alpine is applying the pressure to Mortara as well, look. In GT3, Alex Riberas in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin is closing the gap to the #92 Manthey Pure Racing Porsche, again, with Klaus Bachler at the wheel of it. The Hypercars weaving through the GT3 traffic, and we catch a glimpse of the #11 Isotta Fraschini. Carl Bennett from Thailand still at the wheel.
The #35 Alpine of Charles Milesi is scrapping for 14th place with the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Robin Frijns. Milesi getting alongside Frijns. Will he make the move stick? The answer is... hang on here... the answer is... yes! Milesi moves up to 14th place. We have Bruce Jouanny in the pit lane interviewing Joel Sturm from Manthey Pure Racing. Sturm says, "Tire degradation is very hard on this track. During my stint I tried hard to manage the tires as good as I could and got into a rhythm." "I found a good rhythm. So far, we have pulled a gap and it's looking OK for the rest of the race."
Trouble in paradise, look, for the #82 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. It is stopped on course. Dani Juncadella just came out of the pit lane and the Spaniard needs rescuing, maybe. Juncadella on his out lap. I wonder what the trouble is. Dani Juncadella has experience at Interlagos. He did a Formula 1 test session here, but I cannot say when or with which team. We could be going to Full Course Yellow if the #82 Corvette is still stranded. Yifei Ye tells the team at AF Corse he is sliding on the right side, so the right-side Michelin's on Ferrari #83 are fading. That is the side of the car that has the most load in it. Daniel Juncadella totally lost power in the #82 Corvette. We ride onboard with him and everything is fine until it isn't and the engine cuts out and stops.
He tries having drive. The engine is fine but he has no drive. We could see Full Course Yellow as Dani Juncadella needs rescuing by the marshals. It won't be long, but the snatch vehicle will be needed as we look again at the battle for sixth in Hypercar between Mikkel Jensen in the #93 Peugeot and Norman Nato in the #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963. Who is ready to pit? Who will this Full Course Yellow benefit? Two hours and eight minutes to go. The #82 Corvette is stopped. This will be a short yellow, in 20 seconds. We will go under Full Course Yellow in 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Full Course Yellow.
Porsche #12 of Norman Nato and the leading #8 Toyota are closest to the end of their fuel stint. Nato has seven laps of fuel left. Mikkel Jensen had Oliver Rasmussen behind him and has the sister gold Porsche. This might be a very short Full Course Yellow because the track workers are going tow Dani Juncadella to safety and won't even lift the car onto a flatbed. It is just the rescue pickup truck with the tow rope. Isotta Fraschini have pitted and I assume Carl Bennett will get out of the car because he is at the end of a double stint.
The Iron Dames have not left the pit lane. Ryo Hirakawa in the #8 Toyota leads the motor race from Michael Christensen in the #5 Porsche factory car. Toyota have driven a fine race so far. In third place is the #6, the sister Penske Porsche 963. Then comes the first of the Ferrari's, the #51 car. After that, it is the #38 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963 followed by the first of the Peugeot 9X8's, the #93. Then it is the second #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche. After that, in eighth, is the #50 AF Corse factory Ferrari followed by the #7 Toyota and the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 for Team WRT.
Marshals will be collecting debris from around the track and clean up the circuit. So, the housekeeping is underway. No chance to sweep up the tire debris. But there is bodywork offline at turn four, Descida do Lago. OK. Full Course Yellow ends in 25 seconds. 20 seconds to remove Full Course Yellow. Now, for the countdown. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Full Course Yellow removed. We are back to green flag racing here in Brazil. The battle is on for ninth place in the GT3 class. Ben Barker in the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 ahead of Erwan Bastard in the #777 D'station Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3. Third in line is Sean Gelael, the Indonesian driver now at the wheel of the #31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3.
This is a three-car GT3 battle for position. This is for ninth, tenth, and 11th in class. Barker, Bastard, Gelael. The #31 BMW won GT3 at Imola in the wet back in April. Three front-engine GT3 cars. Two of them powered by V8 engines and one powered by a V6 motor. Things could be looking up for the Iron Dames. After spending 16 minutes in the pit lane making repairs, the #85 Lamborghini is back on track. Wherever the water leak was, the team lost precious time by having to remove the floor from under the car. Not a quick fix. With Sean Gelael trying to poke his nose past Erwan Bastard, this is allowing Ben Barker to scamper away.
Charlie Eastwood is next up ahead of Sean Gelael in the sister #81 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette. Pit stop time for some of the Hypercar contenders. One factory Ferrari and one factory Porsche both pitting. Actually, I believe it is the #83 Ferrari. So, Yifei Ye and Andre Lotterer are pitting as we speak. There will be a driver change. The #83 will drop down the order and we fear there could be trouble in paradise for Carl Watana Bennett and Isotta Fraschini. Car #11 may be headed for the house early. That's such a shame after they finished at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Fresh tires for both the Porsche and the Ferrari.
We also caught a brief glimpse of the fifth-place battle as Mikkel Jensen continues holding off Norman Nato. Peugeot #93 vs. Hertz Team Jota Porsche #12. The cars we have just seen pit, they are weaving back and forth to scrub the release agent off the tire. We talk about it in endurance racing all the time. Fresh, green tires usually have this gunk on them that needs to be scrubbed off and the gunk I am talking about is the release agent that helps a new tire slide out of it's mold. We cannot see the Isotta Fraschini on track. Therefore, it is logically concluded, that car is now in the garage.
Oliver Rasmussen has now finished his stint and handed the sister Jota Porsche 963, car #38, to Jenson Button. Excuse me. I stand corrected. Oliver Rasmussen is still driving the #38 car. Button is suited and booted for his stint. Rasmussen, we guess, has three to four laps of his stint remaining before bringing the car in. Mikkel Jensen in the Peugeot running fifth while Norman Nato in the first of the two Jota Porsche's is in 12th matching his car number. The battle is heating up in GT3 as we look at the split screen battles. Jose Maria Lopez in the #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 is now running ahead of Valentino "The Doctor" Rossi aboard the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3.
There are 13 world championships collectively between Lopez and Rossi. Nine earned by Rossi on two wheels and four earned by Lopez on four wheels. Yikes! They are three wide! Well, make that four! Norman Nato continues sticking to Mikkel Jensen like glue. This is the battle for fifth place in the overall and in the Hypercar class. The Peugeot remains the meat in the Hertz Team Jota Porsche sandwich. Nato to the inside, look, and smoothly and cleanly makes the pass. Done and dusted.
He did have two wheels on the dirt going to the inside of the GT3 Ferrari, one of the two Vista AF Corse silver Ferrari 296 GT3's. He had the shorter run past the Ferrari after Mikkel Jensen had motored around the outside. You tend to pass if you are at the same speed, but of course, you find the shortest distance between two points.
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