Victory for BMW in Brazil
BMW followed up its win at Spa-Francorchamps and second place at Le Mans with victory at the 6 Hours of São Paulo where the #15 M Hybrid V8 (Magnussen/Marciello/Vanthoor) finished clear of the #51 Ferrari 499P and #12 Cadillac V-Series.R. Michelin's medium Pilot Sport Endurance slick was the only compound run by the Hypercar teams.
As in 2025, Cadillac locked out the grid's front row, with the #12 car on pole after Will Stevens topped the previous day's Hyperpole shootout. In contrast to last year, though, the race failed to unfold in the American team's favor when its pole-sitting prototype lost time with a wheel-fixation issue during its first pit-stop and its #38 car was handed a penalty.
Victory at Interlagos ended up going to the #15 BMW, but the outcome remained uncertain until to the last hour.
After the #35 Alpine's somewhat chaotic start, the French team chose to run an offset refueling strategy which meant the car was seen running at top of the virtual order for much of the distance. However, a late splash-and-dash stop relegated it to tenth at the flag.
Meanwhile, BMW's flawless performance and strategy was rewarded by its first success with the car of Kevin Magnussen/Rafaele Marciello/Dries Vanthoor who finished clear of Pier Guidi/Calado/Giovinazzi (#51 Ferrari) and Stevens/Nato (#12 Cadillac).
The day's top-five was rounded out by the #38 Cadillac and #83 Ferrari, but Toyota was unable to build on its triumph at Le Mans when its #8 car was involved in a collision before dropping 10 laps in its garage. The team's #7 sister-prototype was 12th.
It was a challenging weekend, too, for Peugeot whose 9X8s had to settle for 14th and 16th places, while the Genesis prototypes came 13th and 15th.
“The conditions were tough for our new-generation Pilot Sport Endurance slicks which contain 50 percent renewable or recycled materials,” reported Pierre Alves, manager of Michelin Motorsport's endurance racing programs. “Interlagos is famously hard on tires, especially those fitted to the car's right-hand wheels. That said, the weather was relatively mild for the race after the predominantly hot weather we had during practice, but grip was low after overnight rain. Even so, the Hypercar teams were able to successfully double-stint their left-hand tires.”
FIA World Endurance Championship action will resume after the summer-break with early-September's trip to Austin, Texas, USA.