He has had to wait 10 years since last clinching pole position in the FIA World Endurance Championship, but Will Stevens returned to the top of the timesheets at Interlagos today (11 July) as the British star spearheaded a commanding Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA front row lockout for Sunday’s Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo.
Stevens left it late in the 10-minute Hyperpole shootout to usurp stablemate and countryman Jack Aitken, vaulting to the head of the Hypercar order on his final lap as he outpaced the sister Cadillac by the slender margin of just 0.048 seconds to make it four different pole-winning cars in as many races this season in the series’ top-tier.
The result marked the second year in succession that the Anglo-American outfit has posted the fastest two times around the legendary Autódromo José Carlos Pace, although 12 months ago, the #38 car was relegated to third on the grid by a penalty for blocking.
It also represents the third consecutive front row start in 2026 for the V-Series.R – and fifth pole in FIA WEC, the first secured by Stevens. Despite its palpable pace, Cadillac has not ascended the podium since achieving its breakthrough victory in Brazil, but the 35-year-old – sharing the #12 entry with Norman Nato this weekend – is hopeful that trophy-free run is about to end.
“It was obviously a great qualifying for us,” acknowledged Stevens. “It wasn’t easy, but we made it happen! Big thanks to the team for giving us the package to go out there and perform. This is a really tricky track to piece everything together, but the feeling got better with each lap, so I knew the last one would be the time to go for it. We didn’t have massively clean practice sessions to prepare, so I was super-happy to pull it out of the bag at the end.
“I think it’s going to be a great race. Honestly, I really believe it’s very close in Hypercar between a lot of manufacturers, which is great, and it’s super-cool to be in such a close fight. Kudos to the whole team – we’ve worked really well and I’m very proud to be part of this project. We’ve still got far to go, but hopefully tomorrow we can get another win here.”
Alpine Endurance Team ran the Cadillac duo closest, with impressive Hypercar rookie Victor Martins winding up a mere 0.067 seconds shy of pole, and the sister A424 piloted by compatriot Charles Milesi a further six hundredths-of-a-second back in fifth. The pair of striking blue prototypes sandwiched the 24 Hours of Le Mans pole-sitting #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor.
On another encouraging weekend for the South Korean marque in its maiden campaign of competition, Genesis Magma Racing claimed sixth courtesy of Mathieu Jaminet in the #19 GMR-001, although home hero ‘Pipo’ Derani was able to manage no better than 12th in the sister car.
The best-placed Ferrari was the #50 499P of Antonio Fuoco in seventh – three spots ahead of Robert Kubica in the #83 AF Corse entry, as defending world champion Antonio Giovinazzi narrowly failed to make the Hyperpole cut in the #51 scarlet machine.
Championship leader Toyota was the only manufacturer to see both of its cars exit proceedings at the end of the first part of qualifying – with the two TR010 Hybrids set to start the race from down in 14th and 16th positions – while BMW’s Spa-winning #20 entry brought up the tail-end of the order in the 17-strong field.
Check out the full Qualifying and Hyperpole results.
The Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo will get underway at 11:30 local time (GMT-3) on Sunday, 12 July.
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