Race day at the Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo began with a slightly damp track, which caught out Mike Conway on his reconnaissance lap as the recent 24 Hours of Le Mans winner made contact with the pit wall and had to have the front bodywork changed on the #7 Toyota TR010 Hybrid Hypercar
Will Stevens led away confidently at the start prior to opening up an early five-second margin over the #15 BMW M Team WRT entry driven by Kevin Magnussen, after the Dane had put a decisive move on the front row-starting #38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R of Earl Bamber
Magnussen complained of a lack of power in the opening exchanges, before regaining pace and running confidently in second behind the short-fuelling #35 Alpine A424 piloted by Ferdinand Habsburg
Les Bleus elected to short-stint to seize track position, duly usurping the lead in the second hour but slipping down the order after Habsburg handed over to António Félix da Costa during the second stop after 1h45m of action
But there was disaster during the first pit-stop for initial leader Stevens, who lost around 15 seconds after a front-right wheel nut appeared to get stuck, costing the American Hypercar eight places
That drama forced Stevens into a superb recovery drive, in which he hunted down and overtook several rivals, including the #8 Toyota driven by Brendon Hartley, the #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P of Antonio Giovinazzi and the #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Yifei Ye; at the two-hour mark, the #12 runs second behind the Magnussen-piloted BMW
The highest-placed Ferrari is the #83 entry, as Ye battled back from a five-second stop-and-go penalty for a starting infringement to run third ahead of the #94 Team Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 driven by Loïc Duval in the opening two stints
Giovinazzi sits fifth in the #51 Ferrari following an action-packed first two hours; the durable scarlet machine overcame several instances of contact, although it was placed under investigation for a clash with the Martin Berry-driven #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 entry just before the two-hour mark
The recovering #38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA V-Series.R fought back into the top six after losing time at its first stop due to being out-of-position on its entry to the pits
The #17 Genesis Magma Racing GMR-001 runs seventh, after surviving a significant clash with the #8 Toyota, while the pair of Aston Martin Valkyries are currently eighth and ninth; the sister Genesis rounds out the top 10 after being tipped off the track by the #54 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari of Thomas Flohr, who received a 10-second stop-go penalty for the incident
The #8 Toyota was forced to pit for repairs after contact firstly with the #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie of Marco Sørensen and later the #19 Genesis of Daniel Juncadella; Hartley rejoined at the tail of the field, 13 laps down on the leader
A brief Full Course Yellow came after 70 minutes of racing for debris on the track, but otherwise the race has run green
LMGT3
Proton Competition’s pair of Ford Mustangs starred during the opening hours, as the American muscle cars ran one-two after forging to the front in a stunning display
Stefano Gattuso in the #88 car usurped Petru Umbrărescu in last year’s race-winning #87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus, completing a pass for the lead into the Senna S corner after half-an-hour of racing
Eric Powell in the sister #77 Mustang followed suit to instal the two Fords at the head of the order for the first 80 minutes of the race
Following the first scheduled stops, the Akkodis ASP Team Lexus re-took the lead after short-fuelling, and Umbrărescu headed the #34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette as the two-hour mark arrived
At the beginning of the race, pole-sitter Gray Newell appeared to misjudge the start and was swamped by the pack, allowing Iron Lynx’s Johannes Zelger and subsequently Umbrărescu into the lead before the Fords attacked and moved to the front
But the close intra-team racing between the Mustangs got contentious after 90 minutes, when Gattuso and Powell made contact at the exit of the Senna S corner and the American was forced wide, costing him momentum
The race came back to the Proton pair after two hours, however, and they currently run one-two again, although the net lead is in fact in the hands of the Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette
That car hit the front between pit-stops courtesy of a stellar double stint by Salih Yoluç, who subsequently handed over to the crew’s Bronze-categorised driver, Peter Dempsey
Ian James in the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage put in a couple of solid and uneventful stints, with the Brit getting ready to hand over to team-mate, Zacharie Robichon
Alexander West spun the #58 Garage 59 McLaren just after making first pit-stop, but recovered to rejoin the race
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