The qualifying of the long-distance world championship (WEC) remains firmly in Cadillac-Hand: After the 24 hours of Le Mans, the two factory in Cadillac V-Series.r from Jota Sport also drove into the first series of the 6 hours by Sao Paulo. Again it was Alex Lynn and Sebastien Bourdais who steered the V8 cars in the first series of start. Mick Schumacher clearly missed the top 10.
Lynn marked the best time in Cadillac #12 (Lynn/NATO/Stevens) in 1: 22,570 minutes and thus undercut the pole time from the previous year (1: 23.140 minutes) by a whopping 0.570 seconds. This was made possible by a new asphalt of Autodromo Jose Carlos Pace just eleven years after the last last. Bourdais in Cadillac #38 (Bamber/Bourdais/Button; 2.) needed one more round, but also lined up confidently in the front row.
“We just had a really difficult weekend up to the hyperpole. It was a series of small mistakes that led to some false assessments, and I had the feeling that it somehow brought us to a dead end. After a few further adjustments to the vote, it went well in the FP3,” said the former Formula 1 pilot.
The second row divides Julien Andlauer in Porsche #5 (Andlauer/Christensen; 3.) and Malthe Jakobsen in Peugeot #94 (Duval/Jakobsen; 4.). The Peugeot 9×8 are the big surprise of the previous weekend – favored by a favorable classification in the Balance of Performance (BOP), but not as strong as it has since the race in Qatar 2024.
Paul di Resta put the second Peugeot, the #93 (Di Resta/Jensen), in sixth place. In between, Sheldon van der Linde placed in the BMW #20 (Rast/Wittmann/S. van der Linde; 5.).
The Porsche #6 (Estre/l. Vanthoor; 7.), followed by BMW #15 (D. Vanthoor/Magnussen/Marciello; 8.).
Only a ferrari in the hyperpole
Already in regular qualifying it became exciting in the fight for moving into the hyperpole. For a long time it looked like all three Ferrari 499p left. In the end, Le-Mans winner Robert Kubica saved himself in private AF-Corse-Ferrari #83 (Kubica/Ye/Hanson; 9.) as the only Ferrari in the top 10 shoot-the two factory cars stayed outside.
The Toyota #8 (Hartley/Hirakawa; 10.) made it into the hyperpole. In this, however, no advance was possible for both manufacturers. Both Ferrari and Toyota fight with clear disadvantages through their classifications in the range below 250 km/h.
The Aston Martin Valkyrie scored just past the hyperpole – a little disappointment after the strong appearances in the free training sessions. Alex Riberas missed the cut by only 0.078 seconds in Aston Martin #009 (Riberas/Sörensen; 11.).
Alpine remained completely without chance: Neither Mick Schumacher nor Paul-Loup Chatin came close to the top 10. In the end, only the eighth start series remained for both A424-framed by the two Ferrari factory cars, which have to fight into the race from completely unfamiliar positions.
The Toyota #7 (Conway/Kobayashi/de Vries; 18.) must start from last place. Kamui Kobayashi did not get over the last place – with more than three tenths of a second behind the penultimate, the Ferrari #51 (Pier Guidi/Calado/Giovinazzi; 17.), dangers of Antonio Giovinazzi.
Dream pole for Barrichello
Huge jubilee on the box of Racing Spirit of Leman: Eduardo “Dudu” Barrichello secured the RSL-Aston-Martin #10 (Mcintosh/Barrichello/Hasse-Clot; 1. LMGT3) the first pole position for the still young WEC program of the Geneva Sea-in front of a home scenery.
The son of the former Formula 1 driver Rubens Barrichello and in Sao Paulo at home, prevailed against Clemens Schmid in 1: 33,849 minutes. The ex-DTM pilot and his team-mate Finn Gehrorge placed the traditional Lexus RC F LMGT3 in qualifying in qualifying.
Iron Lynx was also allowed to cheer: Lin Hodenius put the Mercedes-AMG #61 (Berry/Hodenius/M. Martin) fourth. Both McLaren 720S LMGT3 from United carports followed. The “Iron Dames” made the leap into the hyperpole for the first time this season.
Surprisingly, the two Ferrari 296 LMGT3 from AF Corse missed the second qualifying phase. Even the two BMW M4 LMGT3 did not make the move -in – at WRT there is already a lack of speed all weekend. Also not there: the Thor-Aston-Martin #27 (James/Robichon/Drudi) and the Manthey-Porsche #92 (Hardwick/Pera/Lietz), who suffered from his success ballast.
The start for the race will take place on Sunday at 4:30 p.m. CEST.