Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Interlagos WEC: Toyota defeats Audi in only its third race

Toyota claimed its first FIA World Endurance Championship victory at only the third time of asking with an emphatic performance at the Sao Paulo 6 Hours

The solo Toyota TS030 Hybrid driven by Nicolas Lapierre and Alex Wurz held the upper hand over the two Audi R18s throughout the race on the way to a one-minute victory.

Second place went to the R18 e-tron quattro shared by Benoit Treluyer, Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer.

Lapierre led from the start at Interlagos and was just over 10 seconds clear of Treluyer when the Toyota pitted for the first time. He was over half a minute to the good when Treluyer, struggling with tyre wear, ended his stint early after 90 minutes of racing.

That gap was halved after the Toyota lost time at its first tyre stop, but Wurz was able to reassert the Toyota's advantage over the second half of his double stint.

The Toyota benefited from a safety-car period during the third hour and then went a lap clear in the fifth hour. Only a late splash-and-dash allowed the second-place Audi back onto the lead lap in the closing minutes.

Lapierre said: "We had a faultless race that brought us this victory in our only third race with this new hybrid technology, which is wonderful."

The non-hybrid Audi R18 ultra finished 13s behind the hybrid version. Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and sportscar debutant Lucas di Grassi were in the hunt for second throughout the race, but lost time when Kristensen spun at the Senna S early in his first stint.

The top privateer in LMP1 was the Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyota B12/60 shared by Neel Jani and Nicolas Prost. It had the measure of its rivals throughout the race, ending up two laps clear of its sister car driven by Andrea Belicchi and Harold Primat.

LMP2 honours went to the Starworks HPD ARX-03b driven by Stephane Sarrazin, Enzo Potolicchio and Ryan Dalziel. Apart from a short period early in the second hour, the car was in control of the class throughout.

Gianmaria Bruni and Giancarlo Fisichella claimed GTE Pro honours for the AF Corse team.

Their Ferrari 458 Italia fell behind the Aston Martin Vantage GTE during the second stint, but Bruni came back at Darren Turner in the British car during the third stint to retake the advantage that he and Fisicella were always likely to convert into race victory because the Aston, in which Stefan Mucke joined Turner, would have to make an extra fuel stop.

Results - 247 laps:

Pos  Cl     Drivers                         Team/Car                    Time/Gap
 1.  P1     Wurz/Lapierre                   Toyota                  6h01m08.356s
 2.  P1     Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer       Audi e-tron              + 1m00.778s
 3.  P1     Kristensen/McNish/di Grassi     Audi ultra               + 1m14.679s
 4.  P1     Prost/Jani                      Rebellion Lola-Toyota       + 5 laps
 5.  P1     Leventis/Watts/Kane             Strakka HPD                 + 7 laps
 6.  P1     Belicchi/Primat                 Rebellion Lola-Toyota       + 7 laps
 7.  P2     Potolicchio/Dalziel/Sarrazin    Starworks HPD              + 13 laps
 8.  P2     Perez Companc/Minassian/Kaffer  Pecom ORECA-Nissan         + 16 laps
 9.  P1     Brabham/Chandhok/Dumbreck       JRM HPD                    + 17 laps
10.  P2     Nicolet/Lahaye/Pla              OAK Morgan-Nissan          + 17 laps
11.  P2     Zugel/Gonzalez/Julian           Greaves Zytek-Nissan       + 18 laps
12.  P2     Martin/Charouz/Graves           ADR-Delta ORECA-Nissan     + 19 laps
13.  P2     Liuzzi/Rossiter/Weeda           Lotus Lola-Lotus           + 19 laps
14.  P2     Panciatici/Ragues/Rusinov       Signatech ORECA-Nissan     + 20 laps
15.  P2     Holzer/Schultis/Moro            Lotus Lola-Lotus           + 21 laps
16.  GTE P  Fisichella/Bruni                AF Ferrari                 + 26 laps
17.  GTE P  Mucke/Turner                    Aston Martin               + 27 laps
18.  GTE P  Lieb/Lietz                      Felbermayr Porsche         + 27 laps
19.  GTE P  Bertolini/Beretta               AF Ferrari                 + 28 laps
20.  GTE A  Bornhauser/Canal/Rees           Larbre Corvette            + 31 laps
21.  GTE A  Ried/Roda/Ruberti               Felbermayr Porsche         + 34 laps
22.  GTE A  Belloc/Bourret/Gibon            Larbre Corvette            + 36 laps
23.  GTE A  Longo/Negrao/Bernoldi           AF-Waltrip Ferrari         + 37 laps
24.  GTE A  Camathias/Palttala/Daniels      JWA Porsche                + 52 laps
25.  P2     Giroix/Ihara/Deletraz           Gulf Lola-Nissan           + 53 laps

Retirements:

     P2     Baguette/Kraihamer/Brundle      OAK Morgan-Nissan           164 laps
     P2     Mailleux/Lombard/Tresson        Signtech ORECA-Nissan        96 laps
     GTE A  Krohn/Jonsson/Rugolo            Krohn Ferrari                  1 lap

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article VIR ALMS: Klaus Graf and Lucas Luhr put Pickett HPD back on top
Next article DeltaWing cleared to race in American Le Mans Series from 2013

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe