The first day of on-track action for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Sao Paulo event marked another milestone for Genesis Magma Racing in its debut season, as Mathieu Jaminet steered the No. 19 Genesis GMR-001 to the session’s quickest time.
Jaminet noted afterward that his lap served as a full qualifying simulation, and he wasn’t sure how many rivals were attempting a similar run without being hindered by traffic. The lap of 1:24.271 was about 1.2 seconds faster than Harry Tincknell’s FP1 tempo aboard the Aston Martin Valkyrie, yet it trailed the pace recorded in the corresponding session a year ago.
Looking back to 2025, FP2 had been led by Kevin Estre for Porsche Penske Motorsport, a squad that has since exited the championship; his pace was more than seven-tenths quicker than Jaminet’s best in this session. Meanwhile, the quickest time in the Hypercar era around the Interlagos circuit remains a 1:22.570, set last year by Alex Lynn in a Cadillac V-Series.R.
The LMGT3 field also tipped its hand with close competitiveness, as Clemens Schmid set a 1:34.498 in the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3, just five thousandths off Eduardo Barrichello’s benchmark from FP2 last season aboard an Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.
Although the two Lexus entries led FP2, Jose Maria Lopez of the same squad warned that the shift to the Medium compound Goodyear tires for this year’s race would pose somewhat more difficulty for his team than last year’s Hard tires that carried the car to victory in Brazil.
Despite the Heart of Racing Valkyries finishing FP2 in the second and third spots, Tincknell explained that Interlagos’ layout is not ideally suited to the Valkyrie’s strengths. Speaking to Sportscar365, he said: “There are a lot of slow-speed corners, it’s quite undulating and has camber changes, and the Valkyrie performs best at higher speeds. If we can rack up more points and push toward the top five, that would be fantastic. Fuji and COTA should suit us more than here.”
The No. 007 Valkyrie ended Le Mans in eighth place last time out and has yet to be a front-runner in the WEC’s race for glory; Tincknell hopes for a more competitive showing in Brazil. “Honestly, it felt like we had squeezed every possible ounce of performance from the package, but overall the speed just wasn’t there,” he admitted. “I’m hopeful we can be back in the mix here.”
Heart of Racing has returned to a two-driver arrangement for Interlagos, with Tincknell sharing with Tom Gamble. Likewise, the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac continues with Alex Lynn sidelined by neck surgery, and the team decided against pairing Louis Deletraz with Will Stevens and Norman Nato as it did at the prior two WEC rounds.
Sam Hignett, co-founder of JOTA, indicated that no final lineup decisions for the remainder of the season have been made. “We’re still quite far from needing to decide,” he told Sportscar365, adding that a two-driver setup appears to be the better option for Brazil in particular.
Stevens echoed that sentiment, noting, “It’s easier to control practice sessions with two drivers; with three it becomes harder to manage tires and to achieve the right balance for everyone.”
Hignett arrived in the Interlagos paddock on Friday morning after attending the Goodwood Festival of Speed’s Thursday activities, where Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA was also represented as part of a celebration of American motorsport. Deletraz is scheduled to pilot the V-Series.R up the famous hill later in the event.
The tight and twisty 2.677-mile Interlagos track offers a stark contrast to the much longer Circuit de la Sarthe that opened the WEC schedule, yet several drivers relish the challenge it provides. Alpine’s Ferdinand Habsburg described the experience as “a rollercoaster of sorts, with the banking adding to the thrill. Sometimes rollercoasters are great fun, other times a bit scary—the car was unpredictable at times today, and I didn’t quite know what to expect. You just have to close your eyes and go for it. We weren’t as fast as some others, but I love racing here.”
Another fan of the track is Rene Rast, who pilots the BMW M Hybrid V8. He told Sportscar365 that his affection for the circuit runs deep: “As a kid I spent hours on PlayStation racing this circuit. I watched Formula 1 on television countless times, so it ranks among my favorites. Senna’s influence is obvious, but so is the track layout—Turns 1 through 3 dip down, and you could see drivers locking wheels and diving for the air. It’s a strong balance between high-speed and low-speed corners.”
The MissionH24 project will showcase a scale model of its H24EVO prototype during this weekend, with a Saturday press conference featuring ACO President Pierre Fillon, WEC CEO Frederic Lequien, MissionH24 technical director Bassel Aslan, and others to discuss how hydrogen might decarbonize motorsport and the potential of the technology.
It was announced last month that hydrogen propulsion will be permitted within the 2030 top-class prototype regulations, with eligible cars able to compete through an Equivalence of Technology process akin to the arrangements that once applied to LMP1’s petrol versus diesel powerplants.
Saturday’s track activity at Interlagos opens with a final hour-long free practice at 10:10 a.m. local time (9:10 a.m. EST) before the focus shifts to qualifying, scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. local time (1:30 p.m. EST).
John Dagys contributed to this report
