#92 Manthey Purrxcing Porsche’s Klaus Bachler, Joel Sturm, and Alexander Malykhin took victory in the LMGT3 class at the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo, dominating proceedings after leading for 5 of the 6 hours.
Malykhin started the race second behind the #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini’s Sarah Bovy. However, he didn’t allow Bovy to pull away, instead sticking with her throughout the first hour and taking the lead midway into the second hour of the race, after closing a small gap.
The team then utterly dominated the class, steadily pulling out a gap that went from 5 seconds, to 10, to 15, to over 20 over the course of the next couple of hours.
Bovy and her teammates, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey, though, were still in the hunt and had maintained second from the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin and the two United Autosports McLarens, with a 30 second gap to a fluctuating third place.
However, after a season of misfortune and mad luck for the Dames, it struck again. When Frey pitted from second to hand over the car to Gatting, the car dramatically overheated, steam pouring from car on the pit apron and then dripping water off the bodywork as it condensed. The car was pushed back into the garage and duly retired, in another race of heartbreak for the team.
The Porsche continued unabated but the battle for second was now on. The #27 Aston, of Mancinelli, Ian James, who’d started the car, and Alex Riberas, who finished, looked odds on to take it as Mancinelli and Riberas gradually extended a gap over the two McLarens in third and fourth, with the gap between second and the third placed #95 United Autosports McLaren of Marino Sato, Nico Pino, and Josh Caygill standing at around 40 seconds with two hours to go.
This gradually extended to well over a minute, but then disaster: the Aston received a drive through penalty for a full course yellow infringement earlier in the race. However, with the pitlane taking around 40 seconds to drive through, the gap they’d created was well-used, and the car remained second, with Riberas crossing the line almost 50 seconds behind the winning Porsche of Bachler.
Third was Sato in the #95 McLaren, with fourth going to the teamcar of home hero Nicolas Costa in the sister #59 car, alongside his teammates James Cottingham and Gregoire Saucy.
And fifth was the #46 WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Maxime Martin, Valentino Rossi, and Ahmad Al Harthy. After a poor qualifying from Al Harthy meant a lowly starting position of 12th, the team used their race pace to move forwards, sixth after stopping in the first hour with a great stint from the Oman racer. Martin and Rossi then maintained that position for the rest of the race, and while they didn’t have the pace to win, they managed to take home good points.
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