{"id":1718,"date":"2026-07-11T19:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T19:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/?p=1718"},"modified":"2026-07-11T19:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T19:34:10","slug":"wec-sao-paulo-cadillac-locks-out-front-row-in-qualifying-as-stevens-claims-pole-ahead-of-aitken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wec-sao-paulo-cadillac-locks-out-front-row-in-qualifying-as-stevens-claims-pole-ahead-of-aitken\/","title":{"rendered":"WEC, S\u00e3o Paulo: Cadillac Locks Out Front Row in Qualifying as Stevens Claims Pole Ahead of Aitken"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

S\u00c3O PAULO<\/strong> \u2013 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA has once again proven to be the king of qualifying at Interlagos. For the second consecutive year, the American manufacturer secured pole position for the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) 6 Hours of S\u00e3o Paulo, locking out the front row with a spectacular 1-2 finish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brushing aside the disappointment of missing out on glory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans last month, Will Stevens starred in the crucial Hyperpole session. Behind the wheel of the No. 12 Cadillac V-Series.R, the British driver clocked a 1:23.041 to edge out teammate Jack Aitken in the sister No. 38 machine by a mere 0.048 seconds. Aitken looked well on course to secure pole before Stevens delivered the decisive flying lap in the final moments of the ten-minute shootout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Razor-Thin Margins at the Top<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The competitive order on the Brazilian track proved incredibly tight, with the top four cars separated by less than a tenth of a second. Third fastest was the No. 36 Alpine A424 driven by Victor Martins (1:23.108), finishing just a fraction off the front row. Sharing the second row with him will be the WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor, who posted a strong 1:23.135.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Row three opens with the second Alpine of Charles Milesi (fifth in 1:23.168), alongside the No. 19 Genesis GMR-001 of Mathieu Jaminet (1:23.341). Jaminet\u2019s lap matched Genesis\u2019 best-ever qualifying position to date, following a standout performance where they topped Free Practice 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ferrari Chases as Toyota Faces Shock Elimination<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Over at Ferrari, the historic struggles on the Interlagos circuit continued. The highest-placed 499P on the grid will be the No. 50 machine of Antonio Fuoco, who could manage no better than seventh (1:23.387). Behind him sits the Peugeot 9X8 of Malthe Jakobsen, eighth in 1:23.402. The top ten was rounded out by the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie (Harry Tincknell) and the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the biggest shock of the day came from Toyota. The Le Mans-winning squad endured a session to forget, with both cars sensationally failing to make the Hyperpole cut. The best of the GR010 Hybrids will line up way back in 14th thanks to Ryo Hirakawa (No. 8 machine), whose session was further compromised by running straight on at the first corner late in the running. Even further back is the championship-leading No. 7 Toyota, relegated to 16th. Also missing out on the top ten was local driver Pipo Derani, who qualified 12th in the second Genesis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LMGT3: Aston Martin Back on Pole with Pauwels<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The LMGT3 class saw a repeat of last year’s script, as the Heart of Racing Team\u2019s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo swept the top of the timesheets once again. This time it was thanks to Kobe Pauwels. Deputizing this weekend for local hero Eduardo Barrichello\u2014who is competing in the IMSA series\u2014Pauwels grabbed pole on only his second WEC appearance with a time of 1:33.350.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pauwels finished exactly two-tenths of a second ahead of the No. 79 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo of Lin Hodenius. Third fastest was Clemens Schmid in the Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3, closely followed by Parker Thompson\u2019s WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO by just two-thousandths of a second. Five different manufacturers occupied the top five positions, with Ben Tuck putting the Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 in fifth, just ahead of the second Iron Lynx Mercedes of Rui Andrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notable casualties in the opening session included the championship-leading TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, which was heavily penalized by success ballast following its Le Mans victory. Neither of the AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3s made the Hyperpole cut, and both Garage 59 McLarens were also eliminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The green flag for the 6 Hours of S\u00e3o Paulo will wave on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. local time (10:30 a.m. EST \/ 4:30 p.m. CET).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

S\u00c3O PAULO \u2013 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA has once again proven to be the king of qualifying at Interlagos. For the second consecutive year, the American manufacturer secured pole position for the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) 6 Hours of S\u00e3o Paulo, locking out the front row with a spectacular 1-2 finish. Brushing aside the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1720,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1718\/revisions\/1720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/giornalemotori.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}