Will Stevens and Jack Aitken gave Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA the front row for the 6 Hours of São Paulo by taking the top two positions in Saturday's Hyperpole. The V‑Series.R number 12 set a 1m23.041s and left the sister car, the 38, 48 thousandths behind in a session where the top four qualifiers were covered by less than a tenth of a second. Victor Martins put the Alpine 36 67 thousandths off pole, Dries Vanthoor placed the BMW 15 94 thousandths behind, and the gap between Stevens and the tenth‑placed car was just over half a second.

Photo By DPPI

The extreme closeness at the top came after a phase that eliminated several contenders before the final session. Toyota, which arrived in Brazil as the manufacturers' championship leader, failed to place either of its GR010 Hybrids in the top ten for the second consecutive race. The number 7, with Nyck de Vries, will start 16th, and the 8 of Ryo Hirakawa will start from 14th place. At Le Mans a month ago, both Toyotas fell in Q1, and the 7 recovered to take the victory — a reminder that any conclusion drawn from the grid must be measured with caution, especially when the championship leader is starting from the back.

Also missing out on Hyperpole were the Ferrari 51 of champions James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi, in 11th, and the Genesis 17 of Pipo Derani, which missed the final session by just two tenths. The BMW 20 of Robin Frijns, René Rast and Sheldon van der Linde closed the Hypercar table in 17th position, a far cry from the fourth place of its sister car, the 15, suggesting that the tyre operating window was narrow or that traffic penalised several favourites in the first phase.

Photo By DPPI

In LMGT3, Kobe Pauwels gave Heart of Racing pole in the Aston Martin Vantage 23 by stopping the clock at 1m33.350s. Pauwels is racing this weekend in Brazil in place of Eduardo Barrichello, who is not at his home race because he has a commitment with his IMSA programme, competing in the Chevrolet Grand Prix at Mosport, Canada. The Belgian driver beat the Mercedes‑AMG 79 of Iron Lynx by almost two tenths. Clemens Schmid qualified the Lexus 87 of Akkodis ASP in third position, two thousandths ahead of Parker Thompson in the BMW 69 of WRT. Five different manufacturers occupied the top five positions, and the AF Corse Ferraris missed out on Hyperpole along with the TF Sport Corvette 33, the category leader, which will start 12th.

Photo By DPPI

Sunday's race at 11:30 local time starts with a grid that resembles Le Mans in several respects. Cadillac occupies the front row, Alpine and BMW showed they have the pace to fight, Genesis continued to progress with Jaminet sixth, and Toyota starts from the back needing a race management approach similar to the one that gave them victory in France. The Interlagos temperature, traffic with the GT cars and tyre degradation on a circuit that punishes compounds will add the variables that the mechanical closeness of Hyperpole could not resolve.

Qualification ROLEX 6 Hours of São Paulo 2026

Pos	class	#	drivers	team	car	Gap
1	HYPERCAR	#12	Will Stevens Norman Nato	Cadillac Hertz Team Jota	Cadillac V-Series.R	-
2	HYPERCAR	#38	Earl Bamber Sébastien Bourdais Jack Aitken	Cadillac Hertz Team Jota	Cadillac V-Series.R	+0.048
3	HYPERCAR	#36	Frédéric Makowiecki Jules Gounon Victor Martins	Alpine Endurance Team	Alpine A424	+0.067
4	HYPERCAR	#15	Kevin Magnussen Raffaele Marciello Dries Vanthoor	BMW M Team WRT	BMW M Hybrid V8	+0.094
5	HYPERCAR	#35	António Félix Da Costa Charles Milesi Ferdinand Habsburg	Alpine Endurance Team	Alpine A424	+0.127
6	HYPERCAR	#19	Mathieu Jaminet Paul-loup Chatin Daniel Juncadella	Genesis Magma Racing	Genesis GMR-001-Hypercar	+0.300
7	HYPERCAR	#50	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	+0.346
8	HYPERCAR	#94	Loïc Duval Malthe Jakobsen Théo Pourchaire	Peugeot Totalenergies	Peugeot 9X8	+0.361
9	HYPERCAR	#007	Harry Tincknell Tom Gamble	Aston Martin Thor Team	Aston Martin Valkyrie	+0.537
10	HYPERCAR	#83	Yifei Ye Robert Kubica Philip Hanson	AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	+0.584
11	HYPERCAR	#51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	+0.791
12	HYPERCAR	#17	André Lotterer Luis Felipe Derani Mathys Jaubert	Genesis Magma Racing	Genesis GMR-001-Hypercar	+0.943
13	HYPERCAR	#93	Paul Di Resta Stoffel Vandoorne Nick Cassidy	Peugeot Totalenergies	Peugeot 9X8	+0.969
14	HYPERCAR	#8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota Racing	Toyota TR010 Hybrid	+1.007
15	HYPERCAR	#009	Alex Riberas Marco Sørensen	Aston Martin Thor Team	Aston Martin Valkyrie	+1.110
16	HYPERCAR	#7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Nyck De Vries	Toyota Racing	Toyota TR010 Hybrid	+1.146
17	HYPERCAR	#20	Robin Frijns René Rast Sheldon Van Der Linde	BMW M Team WRT	BMW M Hybrid V8	+1.180
18	LMGT3	#23	Gray Newell Kobe Pauwels Jonny Adam	Heart of Racing Team	Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3	-
19	LMGT3	#79	Johannes Zelger Matteo Cressoni Lin Hodenius	Iron Lynx	Mercedes-AMG LMGT3	+0.199
20	LMGT3	#87	Petru Umbrärescu Clemens Schmid José María López	Akkodis ASP Team	Lexus RC F LMGT3	+0.414
21	LMGT3	#69	Anthony Mcintosh Parker Thompson Daniel Harper	Team WRT	BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo	+0.416
22	LMGT3	#77	Eric Powell Ben Tuck Sebastian Priaulx	Proton Competition	Ford Mustang LMGT3	+0.423
23	LMGT3	#61	Martin Berry Rui Andrade Maxime Martin	Iron Lynx	Mercedes-AMG LMGT3	+0.523
24	LMGT3	#92	Yasser Shahin Riccardo Pera Richard Lietz	The Bend Manthey	Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3	+0.719
25	LMGT3	#88	Stefano Gattuso Giammarco Levorato Logan Sargeant	Proton Competition	Ford Mustang LMGT3	+0.931
26	LMGT3	#32	Darren Leung Sean Gelael Augusto Farfus	Team WRT	BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo	+0.976
27	LMGT3	#34	Peter Dempsey Salih Yoluç Charlie Eastwood	Racing Team Turkey by TF	Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R	+1.262
28	LMGT3	#91	James Cottingham Timur Boguslavskiy Ayhancan Güven	Manthey DK Engineering	Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3	+1.563
29	LMGT3	#33	Ben Keating Jonny Edgar Nicolás Varrone	TF Sport	Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R	+1.653
30	LMGT3	#54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon	Vista AF Corse	Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo	+1.762
31	LMGT3	#10	Antares Au Thomas Fleming Marvin Kirchhöfer	Garage 59	McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo	+1.785
32	LMGT3	#27	Ian James Zacharie Robichon Mattia Drudi	Heart of Racing Team	Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3	+1.856
33	LMGT3	#78	Tom Van Rompuy Hadrien David Esteban Masson	Akkodis ASP Team	Lexus RC F LMGT3	+1.861
34	LMGT3	#21	François Hériau Simon Mann Alessio Rovera	Vista AF Corse	Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo	+1.881
35	LMGT3	#58	Alexander West Finn Gehrsitz Benjamin Goethe	Garage 59	McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo	+1.912