The FIA World Endurance Championship’s Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo delivered a fascinating mix of strategy, pace, and endurance. We’ve crunched the numbers to bring you a full analysis of fastest laps, sector times, pit stop strategies, and top speeds from an action-packed race weekend.

Fastest Laps: Qualifying Still Reigns Supreme

As expected, all of the outright fastest laps of the weekend came during qualifying or practice sessions. The quickest racing lap was set by Ben Tuck in the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang LMGT3, but his time of 1:34.829 only ranked 28th overall across the weekend. Only two other drivers set their personal-best laps during the race: Richard Lietz in the #92 Manthey 1ST Phorm Porsche 911 (1:35.492, 34th overall) and Kelvin van der Linde in the #46 Team WRT BMW M4 (1:35.509, 35th overall).

Fastest Race Lap by Driver

In the Hypercar class, Will Stevens recorded the fastest race lap in the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R, stopping the clock at 1:24.498 with an average speed of 183.6 km/h. He edged out Julien Andlauer in the #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 by just 0.065 seconds. Cadillac dominated the top six fastest laps, with the #12 and #38 cars filling five of those slots. Notably, Sebastian Bourdais in the #38 Cadillac could only manage the 20th fastest lap, a 1:25.859 on lap 47.

In LMGT3, Eduardo Barrichello set the pace in the #10 Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin Vantage, posting a 1:34.463 on lap 67. The LMGT3 field was incredibly close: the top 10 drivers were covered by just 0.815 seconds, and the top 14 by a single second. The Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3 was particularly strong, appearing four times in the top 10, with José María López posting the team’s best at 1:34.725, second fastest in class.

Fastest laps in both classes mostly came early in the race when traffic was less of an issue. Interestingly, LMGT3 drivers saw a spike in lap times around laps 38–39, likely thanks to a rare window of clean air while Hypercars were elsewhere on track.

Ideal Sector Times

By combining each driver’s best sector times, we can calculate their “ideal” lap. Will Stevens in the #12 Cadillac came closest to perfection, with an ideal of 1:24.272 compared to his actual best of 1:24.498. Stevens topped sector 1, was second in sector 2, and third in sector 3. Julian Andlauer in the #5 Porsche took the best sector 2 time but fell short in sectors 1 and 3, claiming the seventh and fifth best times respectively. This was still sufficient however for him to claim the second best ideal lap with a time of 1:24.486 that was narrowly off his best lap of 1:24.563, a difference of just 0.077 seconds.

In LMGT3 the #10 Aston Martin claimed the best ideal time of 1:34 .452 seconds with Eduardo Barrichello claiming the third, first and fourth best laps in sector 1, 2 and 3, putting him 0.011 of a second short of his ideal time of 1:34.452 with a best lap of 1:34.463. The race winning #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus of Jose Maria Lopez managed a much more consistent run claiming the fastest time in sector 1 and 3 and the second best time in sector 2 yet counterintuitively, still had an ideal lap 0.021 seconds slower than Barrichello. At closer look at the data tells us that despite posting faster times in sectors 1 and 3, he lost .226 seconds to Barrichello in sector 2 which was enough for Barichello to claim the fastest ideal lap by 0.021 seconds.

Leaders and Strategy

The leader sequence shows the total dominance of the two Cadillacs which had the #38 take the lead on lap 79 and then traded the lead back and forth with the #12 which would eventually take the chequered flag. Clearly the #38 was acting as wingman for the #12 having never completed more than 6 laps at a time at the front whilst the #12 would complete at least a 36 lap stint each time.

The Akkodis ASP team were equally dominate in LMGT3 with the #87 having a near unbroken run at the front, only losing the lead at pit stops where anyone out of Proton Competition, Iron Lynx, TF Sport, Iron Dames and the sister #78 Lexus would get a few laps at the front before handing back to the #87.

Distance and Dominance

  • The #12 Cadillac completed 242 laps (1,042.38 km), leading 145 laps (59.9%).

  • The #87 Lexus completed 216 laps (930.29 km), leading 167 laps (77.3%).

Fastest Lap Sequence

The outright fastest race lap changed hands three times:

  • Julien Andlauer (#5 Porsche) first set it at 2h52m into the race (1:24.630).

  • He improved it slightly to 1:24.563 after 4 hours, before Will Stevens beat him a minute later with a 1:24.498.

Pit Stop Strategies

The winning #12 Cadillac chose a different strategy to all of it’s competitors including the #38 sister Cadillac. The #12 chose an early pit stop, some 15 minutes before nearly every other team, purely to take on fuel in a stop that lasted just 24.066 seconds. They then went on to complete 5 regular length stops in sequence with their competitors. This shows them completing 6 stops in a total time of 6 minutes and 50.081 seconds while the #5 Porsche  completed 5 stops in a time of 6 minutes 23.492 seconds.

The #87 Lexus completed 7 stops including a short 23 second stop midway through the race. They did this in a total time 8 minutes 1.060 seconds compared to the #10 Aston Martin that completed 6 stops in a time of 7 minutes 41.361 seconds.

  • #12 Cadillac: 6 stops, total 6m50.081s

  • #5 Porsche: 5 stops, total 6m23.492s

  • #87 Lexus: 7 stops (including a short stop), total 8m1.060s

  • #10 Aston Martin: 6 stops, total 7m41.361s

Top Speeds: Qualifying vs Race

Top speed isn’t everything in the FIA WEC, but it tells an interesting story. In LMGT3, the top six speeds were all set during the race, benefiting from clear air early on. Hypercar speeds, however, were mostly set in qualifying or practice.

Kevin Estre in the #6 Porsche 963 posted the weekend’s fastest speed: 294.8 km/h in Hyperpole. Julien Andlauer’s #5 Porsche was second at 292.4 km/h, also in Hyperpole. Surprisingly, the race-winning #12 Cadillac was the slowest Hypercar in terms of top speed, managing just 278.3 km/h — a clear indication of Cadillac’s focus on downforce over straight-line speed.

In LMGT3, Ben Keating’s TF Sport Corvette Z06 reached the highest top speed at 262.2 km/h during the race, while José María López’s winning #87 Lexus could only manage ninth fastest at 257.9 km/h. Again, consistent pace and strategy outshone outright speed. Keating hit his top speed on lap 3 along with Fran Rueda in the Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG who managed 260.3 km/h which showed that the leaders in the class benefitted from a clear race track in the early laps.

Conversely in the Hypercar class, the three fastest speeds that were set in the race were all late on, Raffaele Marciello in the #15 BMW on lap 164, Yifei Ye in the #83 Ferrari on lap 222 and Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 Ferrari on lap 199.

Final Thoughts

The Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo showcased Cadillac’s strategic mastery and LMGT3’s fierce competition. Hypercars balanced downforce and consistency to stay ahead, while the LMGT3 battle was decided by razor-thin margins. With more rounds of the FIA World Endurance Championship to come, these insights underline how endurance racing is as much about brains as it is about outright brawn.

Data provided by https://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com/