Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor have won the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo at Interlagos, third round of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship for BMW, with a gap of just a few seconds to the #51 Ferrari after 6 hours of racing.
James Calado brought the second-placed Ferrari home, and while he pushed hard in the final stint to catch Vanthoor, he couldn’t quite manage it. Third was
Magnussen started the winning #15 BMW from fourth behind the two Cadillacs, #12’s Will Stevens and Earl #38’s Bamber, who had locked out the front row in qualifying the previous day, and Fred Makowiecki in the #36 Alpine.
Magnussen made short work of Makowiecki in the opening laps, then took second off Bamber. Stevens stayed just out of reach though, until the first round of pit stops, when both Cadillacs were delayed by separate issues. The #12 lost precious seconds with a wheel nut being dropped, while Bamber didn’t align the car correctly in its box meaning the mechanics had to move it before servicing it with fuel.
The order after the stops had Alpine leading, as they’d tried an offset fuel strategy for the #35 car, which had Ferdinand Habsburg at the wheel, jumping others but needing to stop more and banking on a safety car. Magnussen sat second, and inherited the lead when Habsburg stopped earlier on account of the fuel strategy.
When Magnussen, on the conventional strategy, stopped on schedule, Antonio Felix da Costa, who’d replaced Habsburg at the wheel of the #35 Alpine, took the lead back, with Marciello in the #15 taking back second as the pit stop cycle shook itself out.
The lead changed hands like this regularly for the next few hours, with the #15 BMW and #35 Alpine regularly swapping lead positions.
Cadillac work way back up field
The Cadillacs, meanwhile, were making time back up again after their slow first round of stops. They’d rejoined after those stops well down the field in the lower reaches of the top 10, but were making their way through. Their other problem was tyre wear at the notoriously high degradation circuit, especially on the right hand side, which saw the two American-built, British-run cars changing right-hand side tyres most stops, such as the high rate of wear on the rubber.
Others were able to preserve tyres longer, so while the two Cadillacs had newer, fresher rubber, it couldn’t fully offset the time lost through the tyre changes.
Such was their pace, though, that they were able to advance back up the field. By the half way mark 3 hours in, the #12, now with Nato on board, was back in second. But the temperatures in the race were dropping fast, which brought a certain Italian manufacturer into play.
The Ferraris had struggled in qualifying but in the race it was a different matter. Starting in ninth, by the third hour through methodical lappery from Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi, they’d advanced up to third and were in the hunt for the win.
With the #35 Alpine needing a safety car to make the fuel strategy work, it was anyone’s game: Alpine, BMW, Ferrari, or Cadillac.
Alpine and BMW battle for lead
With Da Costa leading into the fourth hour, Marciello had caught him in the #15 BMW. A spectacular duel developed between the two, with Marciello initially getting by at the turn 4 left hander, but went off track at the exit and needed to give it back. From then on the Italian couldn’t find a way through, until da Costa pitted on his offset strategy and the BMW inherited the lead.
The #35 Alpine and #15 BMW continued to swap the lead, but as the race continued into the final hour and a half. it became clear that, without that safety car the #35 Alpine of Habsburg, Da Costa and Charles Milesi would need that splash in the final hour.
The fight, then, was increasingly between the #15 BMW, still with Marciello at the wheel, and #51 Ferrari, with Pier Guidi shortly handing over to James Calado for the final stint.
At the final round of stop, Milesi in the #5 Alpine stopped first, on the offset strategy, with Dries Vanthoor, now in the #15 BMW, second and Calado third.
Calado pushes in attempt to take win for Ferrari
Calado stopped a few laps after Milesi, rejoining just a second or so ahead of Milesi. On warmer tyres the Frenchman made short work of Calado, but would need to stop again, giving the position back to the Briton.
Vanthoor stopped last of the three, beating Calado out of the pits and taking the lead from Milesi on track. Milesi then pitted earlier than expected, confirmed by Alpine as the result of the slow puncture, promoting Calado to second.
Calado pushed hard but he couldn’t beat Vanthoor, who crossed the line 2.254 seconds ahead of the Ferrari after 6 hours of hard racing.
Will Stevens brought the #12 car home, alongside his teammate Norman Nato, after the delay in the first pit stop, just 6.6 seconds adrift of Vanthoor. Fourth was the sister #38 Cadillac of Jack Aitken, alongside Sebastien Bourdais and Earl Bamber, while fifth was the #83 AF Corse ferrari of Robert Kubica, who drove the final stint, with his teammates Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson also in the car through the race.
#34 Racing Team Turkey win LMGT3
In LMGT3, the race featured a titanic battle between multiple manufacturers. Charlie Eastwood, Salih Yoluc and Peter Dempsey took the victory honours in the #34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Sport Corvette, 8 seconds ahead of Daniel Harper in the 69 WRT BMW, alongside his teammates Antony Macintosh and Peter Dempsey. Third was Ahyancan Guven, James Cottingham and Timur Boguslavskiy in the #91 Manthey Porsche.
Yoluc started the #34 Corvette from 10th, but was able to move up through the field during his stint, initially taking the lead shortly before his stint ended on lap 68. Dempsey continued to lead after the pitstop cycle had shaken out, before Eastwood got in and brought the car home, with Harper 8 seconds back at the flag and pushing hard in the last hour to close the gap. Lietz was a further 3 or so seconds off, making both classes extremely tight finishes after 6 hours of racing.
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