Will Stevens pipped Jack Aitken in the final moments of qualifying to lead a front-row lockout for Cadillac at the World Endurance Championship’s Six Hours of Brazil.
Aitken appeared on course to take pole position in the #38 Jota Cadillac V-Series.R after topping the opening segment of qualifying and finding another four tenths in Hyperpole.
But moments after the Briton pulled into the pits at the end of Q2, Stevens posted a time of 1m23.041s to put the #12 Cadillac by just 0.048s.
Aitken had to settle for second in what was an ultra-competitive session, with all 10 cars separated by less than six tenths of a second.
Alpine emerged as Cadillac’s closest rival in qualifying, with Victor Martins finishing third-fastest in the #36 A424 and Charles Miles ending up two spots behind in the sister car.
The two Alpines were separated by the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor, who could only manage the fourth fastest lap – albeit just 0.094s off pole – after setting the fastest time in the first sector.
Genesis’ strong run at Interlagos continued in qualifying, with Mathieu Jamient grabbing sixth place in the #19 GMR-001, beating the leading Ferrari 499P of Antonio Fuoco. However, Jaminet remains under investigation for impeding another car in Q1.
Malthe Jakobsen dragged the #94 Peugeot 9X8 to Hyperpole and eventually qualified eight, leading the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie of Harry Tincknell that led most of the session and the #83 AF Corse Ferrari driven by ex-Formula 1 driver Robert Kubica.
The #51 Ferrari was the first car to be knocked out in Q1, despite Antonio Giovinazzi setting a time that was only 0.350s down on Aitken’s pace-setting #38 Cadillac.
Pipo Derani suffered a big lock-up aboard the #17 Genesis in the final minutes of qualifying and ended up 12th, just ahead of Paul di Resta in the #93 Peugeot.
Both Toyotas were eliminated in Q1 less than a month after the Japanese manufacturer’s victory at Le Mans, with Ryo Hirakawa ending up 14th in the best of the two TR010 Hybrids after running wide at Turn 1. Kamui Kobayashi languishing in 16th place in the sister Toyota, behind the #009 Aston Martin of Marco Sorensen, while Sheldon van der Linde propped up the timesheets in the #17 BMW.
Only 0.739s separated the 17 Hypercar entries in a closely-fought opening leg of qualifying.
Aston claims LMGT3
#23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3: Gray Newell, Kobe Pauwells, Jonny Adam
Photo by: Jakob Ebrey
The Heart of Racing claimed its second consecutive LMGT3 pole of the season in Brazil, but it was the #23 crew that topped qualifying this time.
After Grew Newell propelled the #23 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 into Hyperpole, silver-rated Kobe Pauwels set two laps good enough for pole position, with his best effort putting him two tenths ahead of the chasing pack.
Lin Hodenius ended up as Pauwels’ closest challenger in the #79 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3, with Clemens Schmid ending up another two tenths adrift in the #87 ASP Lexus RC F GT3.
Parker Thompson qualified fourth in the #69 WRT BMW M4 GT3, while Ben Tuck made it five different manufacturers in the top five in the #77 Proton Ford Mustang GT3. While the top two drivers had a clear advantage over the rest of the field, Schmid, Thompson and Tuck were separated by just 0.009s in third, fourth and fifth positions.
Ford, BMW and Mercedes all managed to get both their cars into the final part of qualifying, while Porsche and Corvette each had one car progress to Hyperpole, with those entries finishing seventh and 10th respectively.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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