The 2025 Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo

The 2025 WEC season is in full swing, and the fifth race of the calendar took place in Brazil on July 13, 2025. The race track could not be any other than the iconic Interlagos, in the city of São Paulo, the place which we Brazilians call “our sacred temple of speed.”

The race will be weeks in the books as I write these lines. I am not writing to spread the news, but mainly as a historic record. No, historic record sounds too fancy; maybe I am writing this for a personal record.

The WEC (World Endurance Championship) has never been so coveted. I believe we are witnessing the peak of its popularity. But its path wasn’t always easy. From the glory days of the 1960s to the incredible lows of the 1980s, when it was hard to find a major brand willing to enroll a couple of cars in the class, the sports-prototype universe has seen its fair share of ups and downs.

The year started with 9 major brands competing in the top prototype class Hipercar, Alpine, Aston Martin, BMW, Cadillac, Ferrari, Peugeot, Porsche, and Toyota. There are rumors that Ford will be joining the party in 2027, so it will be “Ford vs. Ferrari” all over again. Yes, I am excited.

The 6 Hours of Sao Paulo coincided with the Formula E race in Berlin, and a few drivers who do double shifts, racing for both classes, decided to go to Germany instead, opening positions for drivers who were waiting for this opportunity.

Celebrating Brazil

The Bend Team WRT honoured the host country and their Brazilian driver, Augusto Farfus, with a striking yellow, green, and blue livery for its LMGT3 BMW.

Qualifying

But the star of the weekend, at least in the eyes of the 84,741 fans that packed the stands, was Eduardo Barrichello, the son of national hero Rubens Barrichello.

He has been hired for the 2025 season by the Racing Spirit of Le Mans to drive the team’s #10 Aston Martin Vantage LMGT3. Eduardo started the race leading the LMGT3 pack as he scored the best time during qualifying.

In the top-tier WEC Hypercar class, Toyota Gazoo still is the team to beat. The Japanese clinched seven manufacturers’ world titles—2014, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024—but as the grid becomes flooded with more factory-backed teams, Toyota no longer holds the absolute dominance of the years past.

As the Toyota Gazoo seems to be losing traction, other teams are consistently improving their performance. Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA qualified their two cars in P1 and P2, repeating the same achievement in Le Mans.

But the team’s happiness didn’t last long. The #38 Cadillac, driven by Sébastien Bourdais, received a one-position grid penalty for impeding the #93 Peugeot during qualifying. This penalty demoted the #38 Cadillac from second to third place on the starting grid, while the #5 Penske Porsche moved up to the front row. The incident occurred at Turn 12 when the #38 Cadillac was deemed to have impeded the #93 Peugeot during a fast lap.

The race.

According to the WEC standards, every 6-hour race is classified as a “short race,” allowing the Hipercar teams to designate only 2 drivers per car if they wish to do so. But their job this year wouldn’t be so easy. Interlagos recently received a new coat of asphalt. The resurfaced track led to significant tire wear, forcing the teams to replace tires more often.

Since the first lap, it was clear the race would be a battle between Porsche vs. Cadillac.

The Porsche Penske #5 (Andlauer/ Christensen) jumped in P1 on the first lap and bravely kept the position for the first 2 hours of the race, when they gave up the lead position to the #38 Cadillac JOTA (Bamber / Bourdais / Button). Meanwhile, Ferrari and Toyota were struggling even to stay among the top 10.

In the GT3 class, the fight was among the #10 Aston Martin (Macintosh / Barrichello / Hasse), the #85 Iron Dames Porsche (Martin / Frey / Gatting) (pictured above), and the two Lexus Akkodis ASP.

Results Hipercar

In the end, the #12 Cadillac (Lynn / Nato / Stevens) received the checkered flag, followed by the sister #38 car, scoring a historic 1-2 victory, the first for the American brand at WEC.

The two Porsche Penske cars finished in third and fourth place, followed by the #20 BMW. The #94 and #93 Peugeot secured sixth and seventh positions, respectively, highlighting the strong performance of the French Lion team.

The only Ferrari in the top 10 was the privateer #83 AF Corse, which finished the race in 8th place.

For the first time in their history in the WEC, the Toyota Gazoo team failed to score a single point.

Results LMGT3

The WEC fans witnessed another breakthrough that day. Like Cadillac, Lexus has been poised to make a significant impact all year. At Interlagos, the Japanese brand did just that, as José María López, Clemens Schmid, and Petru Umbrărescu secured the first victory in Akkodis ASP Team’s #87 Lexus LMGT3.

The #81 TF Sport Corvette scored second place.

Perhaps one of the most thrilling moments of the race was when, at the final lap, the home hero Eduardo Barrichello battled his way past the Iron Dames Porsche almost within sight of the chequered flag (picture above). Clintching a hugely popular podium finish in third place for Racing Spirit of Léman.

No doubt it was heartbreaking for the all-female team Iron Dames to miss a podium finish in the final minutes of the race, but their fourth-place result at the 6 Hours of São Paulo marked their most competitive performance of the season. This near-podium result at Interlagos might be a turning point in their campaign.

The Rolex – 6 Hours of São Paulo is the second most important race in Brazil, only behind the Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix. This year’s race will forever be remembered for the surprise results and for bringing the Barrichello name once again to the podium in an international race.

Following the traditional summer break, the 2025 FIA WEC campaign will continue with round six – the Lone Star Le Mans at Texas’ Circuit of The Americas – on 5-7 September.