Saturday afternoon at Interlagos gave a great thrill to the Cadillac team, which after finishing 4th in the last edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, made its mark as a true protagonist in the qualifying of the 6 Hours of São Paulo. The American manufacturer, in fact, not only secured the pole position with Will Stevens, but also achieved a one-two finish with another British driver of the caliber of Jack Aitken, who until just moments before the checkered flag seemed actually close to achieving the goal of starting ahead of everyone in the Brazilian race.
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Hypercar Qualifying
The Hypercar qualifying reserved twists for Toyota, starting with the winners of the last 24 Hours of Le Mans. Kobayashi, at the wheel of car #7, did not obtain the pass to place among the top ten and access the Hyperpole, finishing even at 16th and second to last place. The other Toyota, driven by Ryo Hirakawa, was 14th, in a negative session also for Ferrari. Giovinazzi, 11th, missed the top 10 by only 59 thousandths of a second, in a qualifying that saw the best time by Jack Aitken with the Cadillac.
Hyperpole Hypercar
Aitken himself gave his best also in the Hyperpole, holding the provisional pole position for a long time. When everything seemed to conclude in favor of the British driver, in the last minute came the cold shower: by only 48 thousandths of a second, the best overall time was instead set by Will Stevens with the Cadillac #12. The American manufacturer nevertheless secured the entire front row of the Interlagos circuit ahead of Alpine’s Victor Martins (also less than a tenth behind the poleman) and BMW’s Dries Vanthoor. Positive, in general, was the performance of the French team, in the top 5 with Charles Milesi. Further behind were the two Ferraris. While Antonio Fuoco will start from 7th place, Robert Kubica finished 10th and last among the drivers present in the Hyperpole, half a second behind Stevens.
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LMGT3 Qualifying and Hyperpole
The qualifying for the 6 Hours of São Paulo in the LMGT3 category saw total dominance by Peter Dempsey, with the Chevrolet driver leading the standings from the beginning to the end of the session. With the best time of 1:33.808, the Irishman finished with a margin of almost 4 tenths over McIntosh’s McLaren and a full 6 over Powell’s Ford. To forget, on the contrary, was the performance of Ferrari, outside the top 10 and therefore eliminated from the Hyperpole: while Flohr finished 13th (behind the world championship leaders, with Keating finishing 12th), Heriau ended in 17th and second to last position.
A similar story, but with different protagonists, for the Heart of Racing #23 team in the Hyperpole. Occupying first position for much of the session was this time the Belgian Kobe Pauwels, who in 1:33.350 created a gap of two tenths over the Mercedes Iron Lynx #79 of Lin Hodenius, thus giving the first pole position to his team.
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