\n S\u00e3o Paulo. Second win of the season, championship lead, and a
\n podium in the LMGT3 class: the fourth round of the FIA World
\n Endurance Championship (FIA WEC) in S\u00e3o Paulo (BRA) was a triumph
\n for BMW M Motorsport and BMW M Team WRT. In the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8,
\n Kevin Magnussen (DEN), Raffaele Marciello (SUI), and Dries Vanthoor
\n (BEL) celebrated their first victory in the FIA WEC. For BMW M Team
\n WRT, it was its second triumph of the season following its one-two
\n finish at Spa-Francorchamps (BEL). The #20 Shell BMW M Hybrid V8
\n finished sixth after a strong comeback, allowing Robin Frijns (NED)
\n and Ren\u00e9 Rast (GER) to reclaim the lead in the drivers\u2019
\n championship. In the LMGT3 class, Dan Harper (GBR), Parker Thompson
\n (CAN), and Anthony McIntosh (USA) returned to the LMGT3 podium for
\n the first time since their season-opening win at Imola (ITA),
\n finishing second
\n .\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
The #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 started the six-hour race from fourth on the
\n grid. However, starting driver Magnussen quickly moved up to second
\n place, putting the crew in a promising position in the fight for
\n victory. After the final round of pit stops, closing driver Vanthoor
\n was in the lead, which he defended all the way to the finish. After a
\n disappointing qualifying, the Spa-Francorchamps winners and Le Mans
\n (FRA) runners-up \u2013 Robin Frijns, Ren\u00e9 Rast, and Sheldon van der Linde
\n (RSA) \u2013 started from only 16th place. Thanks to flawless performances
\n and a strong strategy, however, the trio fought their way up to sixth
\n position. This result was enough for Frijns and Rast to reclaim the
\n lead in the drivers\u2019 standings with 75 points. In the manufacturers\u2019
\n standings, BMW M Motorsport is now second with 127 points, just five
\n points behind Toyota.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the LMGT3 class, Team WRT was able to celebrate again after two
\n disappointing races. In the #69 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, Harper, Thompson, and
\n McIntosh moved up from fourth on the grid to finish second, securing
\n their second podium of the season after their triumph at Imola. In the
\n #32 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, Augusto Farfus (BRA), together with Sean Gelael
\n (INA) and Darren Leung (GBR), finished twelfth at his home race.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Comments after the 6 Hours of S\u00e3o Paulo:\n<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Andreas Roos (Head of BMW M Motorsport): \u201cAn
\n incredible weekend here in Brazil. Congratulations to the #15 crew on
\n a well-deserved victory. Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello, and
\n Dries Vanthoor did a perfect job \u2013 as did the team. A big compliment
\n also goes to the #20 crew, who made up ten places in this tight field
\n after a difficult qualifying. Many thanks to everyone who made this
\n triumph possible. The icing on the cake is the podium for the #69 BMW
\n M4 GT3 EVO crew. Congratulations to them as well! After this great
\n weekend, we look forward to the second half of the season with great anticipation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Vincent Vosse (Team Principal BMW M Team WRT): \u201cWe
\n had a great weekend and a great race. Here in Brazil, we achieved our
\n second FIA WEC victory of the year. It was a flawless race from the
\n drivers and the pit crew, and the car was strong. I think things are
\n looking very good now for both the manufacturers\u2019 and drivers\u2019
\n championships, and taking second place in LMGT3 was a big success for
\n the GT department. I\u2019m very happy about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Kevin Magnussen (BMW M Team WRT, #15 BMW M Hybrid V8, 1st
\n place): \u201cI\u2019m incredibly happy for everyone. The car was
\n simply fantastic. Today, the BMW M Hybrid V8 was one of the fastest
\n cars and a pleasure to drive. The strategy was perfect, the pit stops
\n too \u2013 everything just worked today. My two teammates did an excellent
\n job. That\u2019s why I\u2019m overjoyed to have finally achieved this victory.
\n It took a long time, but now we\u2019ve finally done it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Raffaele Marciello (BMW M Team WRT, #15 BMW M Hybrid V8, 1st
\n place): \u201cIt\u2019s an incredible feeling. Three years ago, we
\n started from the bottom, and now this year things are going very well
\n for us with car #15, car #20, and for BMW M Motorsport so we can be
\n very satisfied. We have to keep working hard, but I think we have a
\n great team. We work very well together. We\u2019ll keep giving it our all.
\n Today is a great day.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Dries Vanthoor (BMW M Team WRT, #15 BMW M Hybrid V8, 1st
\n place): \u201cI\u2019ve never experienced a situation like at the start
\n of my stint. I just got in and didn\u2019t feel comfortable at all. I
\n wasn\u2019t feeling particularly well and had to take a deep breath to
\n somehow make it to the end. But I\u2019m super happy. BMW M Team WRT did a
\n great job today. The strategy was fantastic and the car was phenomenal
\n during the race. It took a long time, we worked really hard, and to
\n achieve this now is just so, so nice. A big thank you to everyone
\n working behind the scenes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Ren\u00e9 Rast (BMW M Team WRT, #20 Shell BMW M Hybrid V8, 6th
\n place): \u201cFirst of all, congratulations to the #15 crew on
\n their victory! That\u2019s a great success for all of us. Those of us with
\n car #20 can also be satisfied with sixth place after starting from the
\n very back. They are valuable points in both championships, and Robin
\n and I are back at the top of the drivers\u2019 standings. Nevertheless, we
\n need to look at why we couldn\u2019t match the pace of our sister car. We
\n made up a lot of places in the race, but even then we didn\u2019t have the
\n same performance as car #15.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n Dan Harper (Team WRT, #69 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, 2nd place
\n LMGT3): \u201cSecond place here in Brazil is a fantastic result.
\n We didn\u2019t expect that, as the circuit didn\u2019t really suit the BMW M4
\n GT3 EVO. I think the cooler conditions on race day played into our
\n hands. The longer the race went on, the better our car became. Hats
\n off to my teammates who put us in a great position with their
\n qualifying laps and stints. The team did a perfect job and found the
\n optimal strategy for us. Everyone deserved this podium.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n \u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Augusto Farfus (Team WRT, #32 BMW M4 GT3 EVO, 12th place
\n LMGT3): \u201cCongratulations to our sister car on second place.
\n We improved the car a lot over the weekend, and car #69 rewarded the
\n team with the podium. It\u2019s frustrating that we lost a minute to them
\n during the race. We need to analyse exactly why that was. We\u2019ve had
\n some disappointing races recently, but we\u2019re determined to achieve
\n better results in the second half of the season. Congratulations to
\n the Hypercar crew on the overall victory!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"S\u00e3o Paulo. Second win of the season, championship lead, and a podium in the LMGT3 class: the fourth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20955],"tags":[6213,21879,21881,32123,25040,27531],"class_list":["post-53384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bmw","tag-bmw","tag-bmw-m-motorsport","tag-customer-racing","tag-fia-wec","tag-gt-racing","tag-lmdh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}