BMW victory in 6 Hours of São Paulo gives Kevin Magnussen first World Endurance Win

BMW victory in 6 Hours of São Paulo gives Kevin Magnussen first World Endurance Win

Economy World


BMW won a close and strategically-varied 6 Hours of São Paulo, to score a second victory in four races of the 2026 World Endurance Championship.

The narrow 2.2-second victory for the No 15 Team WRT-run BMW gave a first WEC victory to ex-Haas Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen, along with his crewmates Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor.

The No 51 Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi and James Calado finished second, with the No 12 Cadillac that started the race on pole and was driven by Will Stevens and Norman Nato coming home third.

The lingering results of a pre-start rain shower were visible in off-line puddles around much of the short Interlagos lap during the race’s early stages, where Cadillac initially preserved its 1-2 from qualifying.

But Magnussen quickly set about disrupting things for the American squad, as he grabbed third place at the start having started the No 15 BMW in fourth. Magnussen then muscled his way by the No 38 Cadillac to take second on Lap 11 of what would be a 243-lap race distance.

Magnussen chased Stevens until the first stops, where the first of a series of unfortunate events struck the early leader.

But Magnussen only emerged in net third place, which soon became second, as Alpine had pitted its cars early and only partially filled their fuel tanks, which put them out of sync on strategy and needing a long race neutralization to preserve such high places.

This set up the main theme of the race, Magnussen and then Marciello used their pace to close on the slower Alpine, which regularly pitted early and then got back ahead through the following two rounds of stops. Behind, the No 12 Cadillac showed strong pace but kept getting involved in incidents.

In the race’s second half, while the regular swaps between the lead BMW and Alpine continued, the No 51 Ferrari entered the picture thanks to several shorter fuel stops with Pier Guidi aboard.

The weather rolling in around Interlagos also changed the race’s appearance as it went on, with low cloud cover dropping the temperature and making life harder for the drivers as they took on cold new tires at pit stops.

When Vanthoor took over the lead BMW from Marciello, he had a very slow out lap struggling with cold tires, which meant Calado got the No 51 Ferrari ahead, after he had swiped the barriers at the pit exit just after he took over from Pier Guidi and was lucky to get up to speed without major damage.

The leaders kicked off a fifth and final round of pitstops with around one hour remaining, where the No 15 BMW’s fuel strategy paid off. Vanthoor pitted from the lead once Charles Milesi in the lead Alpine and Calado had come in ahead a few laps earlier, retaining the lead and holding the Ferrari off to the finish.

This run featured the track being declared wet as rain did arrive in the final 30 minutes, but only light drizzle falling meant the leaders stayed out to the flag.

BMW’s strategy and fuel efficiency provide key edge

Although there was a very long way to go, and the potential for plenty of incidents to shake things up, the No 15 BMW did all its key work in the race’s opening third.

Magnussen made a great start, with his pass on Bamber’s Cadillac on the run out of Interlagos’ Turn 4 particularly feisty, with the Dane later saying he was “just very fired up to try and fight for victory” after his first WEC year in 2025 ended without a win.

The No 15 did need the No 12 Cadillac to have its problems to get and then stay ahead, but it quickly became clear that the BMW had an advantage in terms of fuel efficiency and that the Alpine strategy needed a big race neutralization to pay off.

When this never came, as there was only one short full course yellow period (the equivalent of an virtual safety car activation in F1), BMW was in prime position to back up its victory at Spa earlier this year.

It did things differently this time, with Magnussen starting the Brazil race in the No 15 compared to ending it at Spa, and with the sister No 20 car not a victory threat here, but it worked out again.

Vanthoor’s struggles with cold tires through his time in the car in the final two hours raised the tension for his crew, but his short final stop thanks to that race-long efficient fuel usage, meant he was able to see off Ferrari’s late threat. He battled illness during his stint, declaring over his team radio after he had crossed the line he had, “never felt so bad driving a car.”

Cadillac chances chopped by early problems

During the race’s first stint, Stevens looked nicely in control, after he and Earl Bamber in the sister No 38 Cadillac stopped any rivals launching an attack from behind at the rolling start, which took place after an extra formation lap on the damp track.

But things unraveled for Cadillac at the first pitstops, where both its cars had issues.

The right-front tire on Stevens’ car would not come off for an age, despite his mechanic repeatedly trying to unscrew the nut with his pneumatic wheelgun, which dropped him down the Hypercar order. At the same time, the No 38 having to be repositioned when Bamber pulled into its pit box meant it too lost a heap of time before its tires could be changed.

This all meant that although the No 12 matched the leading BMW on fuel strategy, it was trapped in the pack and unable to unleash its better pace — particularly in the higher temperatures of the race’s first half.

Then, as Stevens climbed the order before handing over to Nato just past the one-third distance mark, he clattered the No 87 Lexus GT3 car and picked up damage, plus a five-second penalty Nato served at a later stop.

Nato also had a scrappy time — spinning while battling the No 83 AF Corse customer Ferrari that won Le Mans in 2025 just after taking over from Stevens. Nato got revenge before swapping over to Stevens again for the run to the end.

Stevens did close to finish just 6.7-seconds behind Vanthoor himself, with a narrow 4.4-second gap to Calado as well, highlighting how those early delays proved costly.

The No 38 ended up fourth even with a five-second penalty being applied to its finishing for contact while racing in traffic just past half-distance, with Jack Aitken showing strong late pace to trail Stevens in the final laps. Aitken was briefly waved by to use his fresher tires to attack Calado, but he swapped back behind before the finish.

Toyota back down to earth after Le Mans victory high

Although it won this race when it returned to the WEC calendar in 2024, Interlagos has become something of a bogey track for Toyota. It scored its worst combined finishing result in the five year’s of the Hypercar class’ history here last year, and the Le Mans-winning squad of a month ago was then nowhere this weekend.

After neither the No 7 car (which was victorious at Le Mans with its crew of Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries and Mike Conway) nor the No 8 progressed to Hyperpole on Saturday, things quickly went wrong for Toyota on Sunday.

Conway crashed the No 8 Toyota in the pit lane exit going to the grid, in a similar manner to Calado’s shunt much later, where it was hurriedly repaired. And neither Toyota car showed good pace in the race’s early stages.

The No 8 then had more misfortune, as a clash with the No 17 Genesis Magma Racing Hypercar effectively put it out after just one hour and 40 minutes had been completed. Genesis driver Andre Lotterer clattered the Brendon Hartley’s right-hand side in a botched passing move at Turn 10 and the Toyota was soon in the pits with broken steering.

It returned to the track after 15 minutes of repairs, but ultimately lost 12 laps and finished 17th overall.

The No 7 faired little better, dropping even further down the order from its lowly grid spot after a drive-through penalty for an early full course yellow infringement, eventually coming home a lap down and 12th in the Hypercar classification.

Corvette comes away with GT3 honors

The race’s GT3 class was won by the No 34 Corvette car of Peter Dempsey, Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluç, to give the TF Sport team its second victory in two races this season, after its No 33 Corvette won the GT3 battle at Le Mans.

The No 34, which is run under the Racing Team Turkey by TF banner, rose up the GT3 order around a very strong middle stint from Dempsey, while the pole-sitting 27 Aston Martin Vantage quickly lost ground at the start and the early class leaders of Proton Competition’s Ford Mustangs hit trouble.

Second place in GT3 went to the No 69 WRT BMW of Dan Harper, Anthony McIntosh and Parker Thompson, while in third was the No 92 Porsche 911 GT3 R of The Bend Manthey team, with its drivers Richard Lietz, Riccardo Pera and Yasser Shahin.



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