Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA returned to the rostrum for the first time in a year in last weekend’s Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo (10-12 July), as the Anglo-American alliance celebrated a double top four finish – but Norman Nato was nonetheless left feeling ‘disappointed’ after a potential victory slipped through the squad’s grasp.
Back at the scene of Cadillac’s breakthrough triumph in the FIA World Endurance Championship, the pair of V-Series.R Hypercars maintained their Interlagos supremacy by locking out the top two positions on the grid in Saturday’s Hyperpole session. With the race having never previously been won from beyond the front row, a second series success looked to be on the cards 24 hours later – until the gold-liveried prototypes’ bid began to unravel…
Pole-sitter Will Stevens led confidently throughout the opening stages of the Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo, with stablemate Earl Bamber not far behind in third, but disaster struck during the first round of pit-stops as a stubborn wheel nut for the former and a lock-up on entry for the latter cost them almost 20 seconds each and dropped both outside of the top ten in the fiercely-contested category.
Stevens immediately set about regaining lost ground as he overhauled Toyota’s Brendon Hartley, defending world champion Antonio Giovinazzi (Ferrari), Alpine ace Frédéric Makowiecki and AF Corse’s Yifei Ye, but a five-second penalty for a coming-together with Clemens Schmid’s LMGT3 Lexus while lapping the Austrian further compromised the #12 crew’s challenge.
That was then compounded by a clash between team-mate Norman Nato and Phil Hanson’s Ferrari that sent the Cadillac into a spin, before the Frenchman continued the fightback as he, like Stevens, underscored the V-Series.R’s scintillating speed around the Autódromo José Carlos Pace. The Briton returned to the cockpit for the final two hours, going on to take the chequered flag less than seven seconds adrift of the winner in third, with the #38 right behind in fourth.
“It was a solid weekend overall,” reflected Nato, “with our first podium of the season ahead of the sister car, which was a good result. It was a strong team effort, but we can’t help but feel disappointed as we had the pace with both cars to get another one-two in Brazil. Unfortunately, the time loss in the pit-stop and small penalty for contact meant it didn’t go our way, but we will keep working and the win will come!”
Following Bamber and Sébastien Bourdais’ earlier stints, it was Jack Aitken who crossed the finish line in the #38 Cadillac, which saw its own hopes of a top three finish scuppered by a similar five-second penalty for contact that was applied post-race.
“A good job by the whole team,” reflected Bourdais. “It really looked like it was possible to achieve another one-two finish at times, but we still managed to recover to P4 and bring home some strong points. We know we have the car to win, so we will keep pushing and moving forwards.”
Its biggest score of the season to-date elevated Cadillac from fifth to fourth in the Manufacturers’ title table, and it is keen to build upon that momentum when the campaign resumes from its annual summer break on the US-based brand’s home turf at COTA in Texas on 4-6 September.
“It was a good result for the team, with some solid points for the championship,” summarised Cadillac Racing Chief Engineer, Jeremy Moore. “We had a very strong opening hour, showing good pace and performance. Unfortunately, with the pit-stops, we lost time and the race was green most of the way which made it very hard to make that back up again, but we have proven we have the speed, so we can go into the next race confident that we can fight for victory.”
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