6h Sao Paulo: Genesis and Aston Martin lead in free practice

The fourth race weekend of the 2026 FIA WEC season has begun. The venue is the Interlagos circuit in São Paulo, Brazil. Two sessions have taken place so far on the 4.309-kilometre circuit – and Genesis set the fastest time. Mathieu Jaminet, who is sharing a GMR-001 hypercar with Paul-Loup Chatin and Daniel Juncadella, clocked a time of 1:24.271 minutes.

“It’s actually quite a difficult circuit. So far, the main focus has been on the tyres in preparation for qualifying and the race. There hasn’t been much grip on the track yet. Overall, though, things are going quite well. There are also still plenty of things we can improve on,” said Jaminet. “Finishing first is obviously brilliant and gives a bit of an indication of the performance we’re capable of here. It’s my first time here and I’m really enjoying it.”

Trailing by 0.060 seconds, second place in the day’s standings went to the Aston Martin Valkyrie driven by Alex Riberas and Marco Soerensen, with Soerensen setting the fastest lap of 1:24.331 minutes. Third place went to their team-mates Tom Gamble and Harry Tincknell, 0.216 seconds behind.

Cadillac was the third marque at the front of the field. The V-Series.R driven by Earl Bamber, Sébastien Bourdais and Jack Aitken finished fourth, 0.414 seconds behind. Right behind them were Norman Nato and Will Stevens, who were 0.442 seconds behind Jaminet in the second V-Series.R. Cadillac is known to cope quite well with the Interlagos circuit. Last year, the Americans celebrated a one-two finish.

Overall, however, the times recorded so far should be viewed with caution. The absolute Hypercar best time stands at 1:22.570 minutes, set by Alex Lynn (Cadillac) in 2025. Consequently, there are sure to be further improvements to the lap times as the race weekend progresses. The fastest lap in the LMGT3 class so far in 2026 was set by the Lexus RC F LMGT3 driven by Petru Umbrarescu, José María López and Clemens Schmid, clocking 1:34.498 minutes. The third free practice session and qualifying/Hyperpole are due to take place at Interlagos on Saturday. The race is scheduled for tomorrow, Sunday (12 July 2026). Details on how to watch the action on television and via live stream are listed below.