Hertz Team JOTA continues its winning run in the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams after a close race with the FIA World Endurance Championship opposition in the first 6 Hours of São Paulo in a decade.
Returning to a standard length and format of a FIA WEC race, Hertz Team JOTA showed good pace early on in the weekend in their Porsche 963s, finishing top of the times in the third Free Practice session, and locking out the fourth row in the Hyperpole session after both cars #12, piloted by Callum Ilott (GBR), and #38, piloted by Jenson Button (GBR) qualified in seventh and eighth respectively.
Will Stevens (GBR) and Phil Hanson (GBR) took to the start of the six-hour race in cars #12 and #38 respectively and the battling throughout the Hypercar field was intense from the off. Will gained from that, by moving up to fifth from seventh.
As the opening few hours panned out, it became clear that there would be a close battle for fifth involving many manufacturers. During Will’s stint, there was contact with the #6 Porsche which meant he had a 30-second stop and go penalty which dropped car #12 well down the order and began a recovery drive with Norman Nato (FRA) behind the wheel.
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Meanwhile, car #38 worked its way into the mix for the top five positions as the race progressed. The positions ebbed and flowed between the top 10 for much of Oliver Rasmussen’s (DAN) stint, with some of the contenders dropping out with issues or through contact.
For the final two hours, Callum and Jenson took to the wheel and with the top five in reach for both cars. Jenson worked his way up into fourth, but Callum’s race came undone when a spin on cold tyres after the final pitstop damaged the rear of the car.
As the race reached its conclusion, Jenson was holding off the #51 Ferrari for the final laps, however, a late penalty ultimately dropped the crew down to seventh. Regardless, it’s the best result for the crew this season, and they took top place in the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams for the first time in 2024.
Car #12 came home in 18th after showing the pace to be in the mix for the top three, but crucially picked up a good haul of points to maintain the healthy advantage in the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams standings.
The team now looks ahead to another returning FIA WEC race – the Lone Star Le Mans held at Circuit of the Americas on 1 September.
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Quotes:Car #12
Will Stevens: "The #12 car easily had the pace to be second to the Toyota. I think we had very good pace at the start, made some good overtakes and was working our way through and then we had contact with the #6 Penske and the resulting penalty I think was harsh for the little contact that it was. But even with the penalty I think we showed great pace in the car all the way through the race and we should have been in the mix for fourth or fifth at the end. Callum’s accident was unfortunate, but these things happen on cold tyres on outlaps. We were obviously pushing as hard as we could to fight for that fourth place. I think it’s a race where we can be positive that we have the speed in the car that we have shown all year. I think that we were legitimately the fastest Porsche today. But it is on us to make sure that when we have the pace that we’re ultimately able to deliver the results that the team deserves."
Car #38Jenson Button: "It is always special to return to Interlagos, and it is good that we scored points, and our best finish of the season is great, but that we are disappointed with seventh means we did a very good job in the race. We were running in fourth, I am not sure if I could have held off the Toyota as it was too quick but I think we could have at least held off the Ferrari. It was not quicker anywhere and could not pose a threat but the penalty at the end was very unlucky. We could have had a top five finish but overall it was a positive weekend."
Sam Hignett, Co-Founder, Hertz Team JOTA: "It has been a frustrating race. It is great for the #38 to win the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams but we should have had more. The #12 was definitely the fastest Porsche so it should have been able to finish second behind the Toyota, but we had too many mistakes to allow for that. But the guys in the #38 car did a great job with brilliant pace. We had a late stop-go for a technical infringement, but it did not stop them from winning the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams."
Dieter Gass, Team Principal: "The race result today is difficult to swallow because we had A very good performance on the track. We just had too many things that did not go our way today, including too many penalties. Ultimately, this meant that our result today is not reflective of the performance we have shown. Now our focus turns analysing the data from this weekend and taking the key learnings ahead of our return to the track at COTA."
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