Hour 1: Toyota Makes Perfect Start to 6 Hours of Sao Paulo
Nicolas Lapierre made the perfect start in Interlagos to lead the 28 car grid into the first corner with the two Audi R18s snapping at his heels. The French driver then opened up a 3.6 second gap in the first 10 minutes of the race.
There was an incident on the opening lap that saw the nr49 Pecom Racing Oreca-Nissan of Pierre Kaffer and the nr24 Oak Racing Morgan-Nissan Matthieu Lahaye spinning at T4 and in a separate incident the nr29 Gulf Racing Middle East Lola-Nissan of Fabien Giroix was hit from behind by the nr61 AF Corse-Waltrip Ferrari of Enrique Bernoldi, with the front of the Ferrari being lifted off the track as it climbed over the engine cover of the LMP2 car, with the nr57 Krohn Racing Ferrari of Michele Rugolo also getting caught up in the incident. All cars recovered to the pits meaning the safety car, which had been placed on standby, wasn’t needed.
The leading Toyota maintained a comfortable gap to the two Audis in the first part of the hour and after 12 laps was 3.7 seconds ahead and he extended this advantage by another 4 seconds over the next 12 laps. The two Audis were having their own battle with Treluyer in the nr1 hybrid car getting ahead of McNish in the nr2 R18. Lapierre came in for his first scheduled stop after 47-minutes and 32 laps with a 10 second advantage over the nr1 Audi. The two Audis did four and five more laps before coming into the pitlane at the top of the hour.
The two Rebellion Racing Lola-Toyotas were soon well ahead of the Strakka Racing and JRM HPD-Hondas, with Neel Jani leading in the n12 Rebellion Lola by a comfortable 11 seconds in the LMP1 Privateer battle.
Stephane Sarrazin in the nr44 Starworks Motorsports took advantage of his LMP2 pole position to move ahead of his nearest rival, John Martin in the nr25 ADR-Delta Oreca. Martin’s charge came to an end on lap 14 when his front left wheel detached itself from the rest of the car and the Australian was forced to limp back to the pits on the remaining three wheels. This allowed Bertrand Baguette in the nr35 Oak Racing Morgan-Nissan to move up into second place.
It was all change in the LMGTE Pro class at the start as Pole Sitter Stefan Mucke in the nr97 AMR Aston Martin Vantage was passed by the nr51 AF Corse Ferrari of Gianmaria Bruni and the nr77 Team Felbermayr-Proton Porsche of Marc Lieb. The three cars then spent the first part of the hour in close formation vying for the class lead, with Mucke gaining a place on Lieb after 40-minutes of racing. However this allowed Bruni to open up a 9 second advantage.
The battle for the lead in LMGTE Am was just as fierce with local driver Fernando Rees in the nr50 Larbre Competition Chevrolet Corvette moving up the order to challenge the nr88 Team Felbermayr-Proton Porsche of Paolo Ruberti, who had inherited the class lead with the demise of Bernoldi’s Ferrari at the start of the race. Rees caught and passed the Porsche as the clock counted down to the first 30-minutes and proceeded to open up a gap.
The nr57 Krohn Racing Ferrari, which had started the race second in class, was an early casualty as it was pushed back into the garage after just one lap with a problem caused by the lap one incident.
Jeff Carter
Track Data
Air t° :26.4°C
Track t° :25.0°C
Wind :SE at 8.0 kph
Humidity :59%
Michelin Green X Challenge Top 3 at the end of Hour 1
2-1-21
RACE FACTS – HOUR 1
17:00:07 Green light - The race is on.
17:01:59 Incident on first lap - Safety car
17:05:49 #29 Gulf Racing Lola involved in incident with GT car
17:10:28 Toyota #7 pulling out a substantial lead on #2 Audi
17:13:11 Sarrazin in Starworks #44 HPD ARX 03a leads LMP2 from ADR-DELTA #25
17:15:29 McNish in #2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro is now nearly 4 seconds behind leading Toyota #7
17:18:49 Bruni in AF Corse #51 leads LM GTE Pro
17:20:22 Early incident between #24 and #49 is under investigation
17:23:19 McNish in #2 Audi lost 2nd to team-mate Treluyer in #1 and is losing ground
17:25:42 #25 ADR-DELTA Oreca Nissan - in pit garage
17:29:52Starworks #44 HPD still leads LMP2 but now from #23 Signatech
17:33:18#88 Felbermayr-Proton Porsche leads LMGTE Am
17:36:15 Close racing in LMGTE Pro battle for 2nd between Porsche #77 Lieb and Aston Martin #97 Mucke
17:39:38 In LMP2 the close battle is for 2rd place currently held by #35 Oak Morgan Nissan (Baguette) holding off #23 Signatech Nissan (Mailleux)
17:41:57 Expecting first stop for Toyota #7 quite soon
17:47:19 Toyota #7 into pitlane for 1st stop
17:48:54 Fuel only of #7 (lap 33) it now remains to be seen how much longer Audis can stay out.
17:49:56 Treluyer in #1 Audi inherits race lead after Toyota pit stop
17:51:12 Both Rebellion cars #12 & #13 came into pits at roughly the same time as Toyota
17:53:55 Audi #1 into pitlane - 5 laps after Toyota
17:54:43 51 second stop for Audi #1, only 1s faster than Toyota
17:55:42 Audi #2 into pitlane - Fuel only - 51 second stop
Photo : INTERLAGOS (SAO PAULO, BRAZIL), AUTODROMO JOSE CARLOS PACE, 6 HOURS OF SAO PAULO, SATURDAY, 15TH SEPTEMBER 2012. Start of the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo.