What's happening this week in São Paulo
The 6 Hours of SãoPaulo, fifth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship will take place on Saturday, 15th September but the week’s work has already started for all those involved at the Autodromo José Carlos Pace, better known as Interlagos.
Administrative checks for the teams began from 0900 hours yesterday (all timings are local) and from 1400 hours for the drivers, whilst the cars started moving through Technical Scrutineering from 0930 hours.
Track action will start today, Thursday, at 1100 hours for a 90-minute free practice session, but that will be preceded by briefings for drivers at 0900 hours and team managers at 0930 hrs. These briefings are all the more important here as many drivers and teams don’t know the circuit.
After the lunch break, competitors will be back on track at 1530 hours for a second free practice session of one and a half hours before taking a well-earned break ahead of the third and final free practice which will run on Friday morning, 14th September, from 0945-1045 hours. During the morning break spectators will be able to freely observe the length and breadth of the pit lane during the pit-walk which is from 1100-1130 hours.
While all the classes are brought together during free practice, this isn’t the case for qualifying. In fact, the LMGTE Pro and Am class cars will lead the way from 1400-1420 hours, while the LMP1 and LMP2 cars will follow on from 1430-1450 hours.
The day will then be far from over for spectators as the first race of the Brazilian Porsche GT3 Cup will run from 1510-1545 hours, the second being timetabled for Saturday from 0925-1000 hours. Competitors from the DTCC (Driver Touring Car Cup), a one-make Audi A3 series, will follow from 1605-1630 hours for their second race of the day, the first being scheduled for 1145-1210 hours.
Saturday will be the big day for all competitors with warm up from 0800-0820 hours, followed by all the pre-grid activities. Spectators who missed the first pit-walk will be able to make up for that on Saturday morning from 1010-1050 hours, whilst the drivers will be available for photos and autographs from 1015-1045 hours.
Preparation time for the race follows, and the drivers will be on the grid for the 6 Hours of SãoPaulo which begins at 12 noon. It’s a race which should be just as exciting as the 6 Hours of Silverstone, which took place at the end of August, with battles in every category for which daggers will be drawn.
Fiona Miller
Photo: AUTODROMO JOSE CARLOS PACE (INTERLAGOS, SAO PAULO, BRAZIL), 6 HOURS OF SAO PAULO, WEDNESDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER 2012, TECHNICAL SCRUTINEERING. The AF Corse Ferraris pass through technical scrutineering, just as every other car does, before the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo.