Will Stevens booked pole for the Cadillacs at Interlagos, shaving 1:23.041 off Jack Aitken’s time by a razor‑thin 0.048 seconds.
Cadillac’s Front‑Row Lock‑Out
The qualification session was a clanger of precision, with ten cars separated by less than six tenths of a second. Aitken had led the first segment and added a lap in Hyperpole before departing the pits at the end of Q2, only to be trumped minutes later by Stevens.
Hyper‑Competitive Grid
Alpine stayed close, with Victor Martins and Charles Miles posting the third‑fastest and fourth‑fastest laps, while Dries Vanthoor’s BMW M Hybrid V8 slipped to fourth, a mere 0.094 seconds off pole.
Alpine, BMW, & Genesis Contenders
Genesis’s performance continued its strong run, as Mathieu Jamient captured sixth for the #19 GMR‑001 and edged out Antonio Fuoco’s Ferrari 499P, but Jaminet’s session remains under investigation for a potential impeding incident. The Peugeot team shuffled Malthe Jakobsen into Hyperpole, with the Aston Martin Valkyrie, helmed by Harry Tincknell, dominating alongside ex‑F1 driver Robert Kubica in the #83 AF Corsë Ferrari.
Other Teams & Incidents
Ferrari’s #51 fell early from Q1 after Antonio Giovinazzi’s lap lagged 0.350 seconds behind Aitken’s pace‑setting Cadillacs. Inaccuracies rattled the final minutes of the session: Pipo Derani’s lock‑up at the end of the #17 Genesis saw him finish 12th, just ahead of Paul di Resta’s #93 Peugeot. Both Toyotas were cut from the front half of the field—Ryo Hirakawa 14th and Kamui Kobayashi 16th—after wide exits, while Sheldon van der Linde’s #17 BMW added turbulence. Overall, 0.739 seconds separated all seventeen Hypercars in the opening leg.
LMGT3 Pole Dominance
Heart of Racing locked the LMGT3 pole again with the #23 Aston Martin Vantage, driven by Gray Newell, Kobe Pauwels, and Jonny Adam. Pauwels’ fastest lap put him a full two‑tenths clear of the rest of the field, with Lin Hodenius in the #79 Iron Lynx Mercedes‑AMG GT3, and Clemens Schmid in the #87 ASP Lexus RC F GT3 closing the gap. Parker Thompson claimed fourth for the #69 WRT BMW M4 GT3, and Ben Tuck secured fifth with the #77 Proton Ford Mustang GT3, the trio of Schmid, Thompson, and Tuck separated by a mere 0.009 seconds. Both Ford, BMW and Mercedes managed dual entries to the final part, while a single Porsche and Corvette car made their way into Hyperpole, finishing seventh and tenth respectively.
That razor‑thin grid leaves Interlagos primed for a battle where speed and strategy will ultimately decide the victor.
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