At the halfway point of the FIA World Endurance Championship event in Sao Paulo, Raffaelo Marciello’s BMW M Hybrid V8 sat out front as the race began to expose the fragility of the Cadillacs that had secured the front row.
Will Stevens remained in the lead as the second hour commenced aboard the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R, which had started from pole, while Kevin Magnussen in the No. 20 WRT BMW surged ahead of Earl Bamber’s No. 38 Cadillac.
However, both Cadillacs soon endured prolonged 90-second pit-stops during the opening round, with Bamber brushing the box and forcing the crew to realign and delay the No. 38, followed by a stubborn wheel-nut hampering the No. 12 as well.
This left Magnussen with a ten-second cushion over Stevens once the out-of-sequence No. 35 Alpine A424, which had pitted early in the first hour, returned to the pits.
Bamber sat in fifth position after rejoining in traffic, having been forced off at Turn 5 by Brendon Hartley’s No. 8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid.
Stevens’ challenge worsened when he spun the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 at Turn 8 early in the third hour, earning a five-second penalty.
Further drama came as Norman Nato took the wheel of the No. 12 Cadillac and spun while duelling Phil Hanson’s No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P at Turn 7, all of which helped cement BMW’s advantage at the front.
Marciello held a 17.267-second lead over Nato as hour three ended, with Hanson climbing into third.
The No. 51 Ferrari, driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, occupied fourth just ahead of Sebastien Bourdais at the wheel of the No. 38 Cadillac.
Sixth and seventh were occupied by the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyries, while the two Genesis GMR-001s sandwiching the No. 35 Alpine occupied eighth and tenth.
This unfolded despite Dani Juncadella being spun in the No. 19 car by Thomas Flohr’s AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, and the No. 17 GMR-001 receiving two penalties for contact.
The tight Interlagos circuit bred a large number of penalties across a range of offences.
Both Peugeots slipped from the top ten, with the No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 receiving a drive-through for ignoring blue flags, while the sister No. 94 was handed a 30-second stop-and-hold for pit-lane speeding.
Both Toyotas were also troubled as Hartley’s No. 8 was struck heavily by Andre Lotterer’s No. 17 Genesis, bending the toe rod and costing the Japanese entry 12 laps in the pits for repair work.
Meanwhile, the No. 7 Toyota, which led the standings entering the Brazilian event, sat 15th after penalties for a start infringement and a full-course-yellow infringement during a brief debris retrieval.
The TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, campaigned by Peter Dempsey, held a lead in LMGT3 after three hours as teams employed contrasting strategies.
Most crews chose to pit toward the end of the second hour once the FIA Bronze-driver minimum time in the car had elapsed.
Two cars, however, stuck to a more traditional approach with Eric Powell remaining in the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 EVO, which had previously been running second, and Ian James continuing longer in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo.
When these two eventually stopped, the No. 34 Corvette assumed the lead, adopting a different strategy with Silver-graded Salih Yoluc starting the race before handing over to Bronze Dempsey.
Dempsey held a 12.601-second advantage at the race’s midpoint over Giammarco Levorato’s No. 88 Mustang, which had led at the end of the opening hour.
Third place was claimed by the second Mustang, now driven by Ben Tuck, while the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari driven by Simon Mann and Zacharie Robichon aboard the No. 27 Aston Martin completed the top five after three hours.
