Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and an unwell Dries Vanthoor powered BMW M Team WRT to victory in FIA World Endurance Championship‘s 6 Hours of Sao Paulo.
The No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 recovered from a late error after leading much of the race to win by just 2.254 seconds over the No. 51 Ferrari 499P, with the No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota V-Series.R completing the podium in third place.
This marked BMW’s second Hypercar class victory of the 2026 season, following their earlier success at Spa-Francorchamps, and represented the first-ever overall WEC win for the No. 15 crew.
Cadillac appeared poised to control the race from the front with Will Stevens leading the field away from pole in the No. 12, and quickly built a four-second lead over the sister No. 38 Cadillac of Earl Bamber in second.
Magnussen started on a rampage from fourth in the No. 15 BMW, easily passing the No. 36 Alpine A424 of Frederic Makowiecki at the first corner, before overcoming the No. 38 Cadillac at Ferradura later in the first hour to slot into second.
However, disaster struck the No. 12 car when Stevens boxed for his first stop and encountered a jammed front-right wheel nut, losing approximately 15 seconds in the pit lane which effectively handed Magnussen the lead.
Cadillac woes did not end there as the sister No. 38 driven by Bamber overshot its pit box on the following lap, and had to be maneuvered back into position.
As the race progressed into its middle phase, the narrative shifted from Cadillac’s misfortune to a complex tactical battle involving BMW, Ferrari and Alpine, each employing different strategies to gain an advantage.
Alpine’s decision to run both of their A424s off-sequence on fuel from the opening hour initially paid dividends, with the No. 35 car repeatedly cycling through to the front of the field whenever the lead cars pitted for fuel.
More woes compounded Cadillacs after Stevens was handed a time penalty for contact with the No. 87 Lexus RC F GT3, while Norman Nato spun at Turn 7 when battling with the privateer No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari driven by Robert Kubica.
Full WEC 2026 Sao Paulo 6 Hours Race Results
WEC 2027 calendar: Full nine-round schedule, Silverstone returns
Meanwhile, the No. 51 Ferrari 499P, which had qualified a disappointing 11th, began to come alive in the hands of Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi who benefited off the ensuing chaos to take third by Hour 3.
James Calado took over with fresh rubber and managed to get ahead of the No. 15 BMW during the stops with two hours remaining.
However, Calado clipped the barriers on the downhill section of the pit lane exit, losing perhaps a couple of seconds and emerging with a strip of advertising hoarding lodged across the left-hand side of the Ferrari’s nose.
Remarkably, the debris had no discernible effect on the Ferrari’s performance and the British driver managed to gap the No. 15 BMW now with Dries Vanthoor at the wheel by as much as four seconds at one point.
However, Calado was forced to pit for more fuel with just over an hour remaining, effectively dropping him back behind Vanthoor’s BMW.
Vanthoor was experiencing significant physical discomfort as the threat of rain loomed, but that did little to bar him from holding off Calado’s relentless pressure to claim WEC Sao Paulo 6H win for BMW M Team WRT.
Meanwhile, the sister No. 20 BMW of Robin Frijns spun the No. 50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco as the former attempted a pass at the iconic Senna S, dropping Fuoco to eighth place.
Frijns initially finished sixth, but was slapped with a five-second time penalty for the clash which dropped him to eighth, promoting the No. 50 Ferrari to seventh.
