Headlines after 2 Hours: Fans treated to epic Cadillac-Porsche duel

 LMGT3

• The Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo began amid blue skies and packed grandstands, with the race delivering intriguing Hypercar and LMGT3 battles throughout the stacked 36-car field
• The #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA Hypercar started by Will Stevens led away from pole position at 11:30 local time but was soon caught and overtaken by Julien Andlauer in the #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 Hypercar
• Andlauer then opened up a gap to Stevens, who fell further behind during the first scheduled pit-stop phase after being penalised for a tyre pressure infraction 
• That allowed the sister #38 Cadillac through into second place with Earl Bamber at the wheel
• The Kiwi proceeded to hunt down Andlauer in a thrilling stalk-and-pounce period, with the New Zealander cutting a 15-second lead to next-to-nothing in the second stint 
• Matters came to a head just before the two-hour mark as Bamber locked up and lost second to the recovering sister Cadillac of Stevens, but after the #12 pitted for a driver change from Stevens to Alex Lynn, Bamber struck again and this time made the move stick
• As the two-hour mark was reached and the second stops began, the #20 BMW climbed to a temporary second place in the hands of René Rast, with the #12 Cadillac third and the #5 Porsche in fourth
• Team Peugeot TotalEnergies are enjoying their best race of the 2025 season to-date as the #94 heads the #93 in the early stages, with Loïc Duval and Mikkel Jensen initially running fourth and fifth
• But Jensen came under major pressure from a charging Laurens Vanthoor in the #6 Porsche in a thrilling cat and mouse battle
• The second of the BMWs, the #15 entry, suffered issues and lost 18 laps to the leaders after a suspected braking issue put the car way out-of-contention 
• Problems similarly struck for the #35 Alpine, as Ferdinand Habsburg was forced to pit after a suspected hybrid issue triggered a ‘red car’ state. The car re-entered the fray after 90 minutes of racing, but 39 laps adrift of the leader

LMGT3

• The LMGT3 category was led early on by the #87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F of Petru Umbrarescu, who overtook the pole-sitting #10 Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin Vantage piloted by FIA WEC debutant Anthony McIntosh midway through the first stint at the Senna ‘S’ corner
• A slow first pit-stop for McIntosh then dropped the Aston Martin down the order, with a subsequent spin at the quick Ferradura corner costing the French-entered car further time still
• Those dramas promoted the #78 Lexus driven by Finn Gehrsitz to second, ahead of James Cottingham in the third-placed #59 United Autosports McLaren
• But when Maxime Martin took over from Martin Berry in the #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes, the Belgian surged through to snatch third prior to hunting down the pair of Lexuses ahead
• Martin swooped past Umbrarescu to claim second just before the two-hour mark
• Once the second scheduled pit-stops had shaken out, however, it was the Akkodis duo that emerged in the lead, with José María López in the #87 car heading Arnold Robin in the #78 machine
• The #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes placed third, with Berry enjoying his second stint behind the wheel
• The #33 TF Sport Corvette followed in fourth, with the #85 Iron Dames Porsche fifth and the #46 Team WRT BMW battling through to sixth after putting in Kelvin van der Linde for the second and third stints 
• A number of LMGT3 cars received five-second time penalties for start procedure infractions, including the #46 WRT BMW, the #81 TF Sport Corvette and the #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang
• The #33 TF Sport Corvette of Ben Keating was handed a ten-second penalty after contact with the #27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin driven by Ian James, who spun wildly at Turn 12 but continued

Check out the RESULTS after 2 Hours.

Watch FIA WEC live or on-demand via the official FIA WEC TV app – your full-access pass to the FIA World Endurance Championship including the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans. Don’t miss a moment. For further information, check out the app.