The two Toyotas led the way in second free practice for Sunday’s Interlagos World Endurance Championship round as the top four cars were separated by five-hundredths of a second.
Sebastien Buemi sealed the top spot with a 1m26.727s aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar early in the extended session on Friday afternoon.
Kamui Kobayashi then vaulted the sister #7 entry up from seventh in the closing minutes with a 1m26.760s that left him just three hundredths behind.
The two Ferrari 499P LMHs took third and fourth, a late run from Alessandro Pier Guidi yielding a 1m25.770s to knock team-mate Antonio Fuoco down to fourth.
Fuoco had earlier jumped to second with a 1m25.776s before the improvements from Kobayashi and Pier Guidi bumped him down to fourth, though still only 0.049s off the pace.
Cadillac driver Alex Lynn moved up to second in the American manufacturer’s solo V-Series.R LMDh at the beginning of a flurry of quick times in the final hour of a session that had been extended as a result of the early curtailment of opening free practice.
The British driver’s 1m25.869s was only good enough for fifth in the final classification as the second Toyota and the two Ferraris improved.
The two Jota customer entries led the way for Porsche in sixth and seventh positions, Callum Ilott edging out Jenson Button as the two Hertz-liveried 963 LMDhs traded times.
#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P Hypercar of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Ilott’s 1m25.931s gave him a margin of just four hundredths over his team-mate, who ended up on 1m25.979s.
The customer Ferrari run by AF Corse took eighth in Robert Shwartzman’s hands, while Julien Andlauer was ninth in Proton Competition’s privateer Porsche.
Robin Frijns rounded out the top 10 in the best of the WRT BMW M Hybrid V8s with a 1m26.693s, which was still within a second of the pace.
Top Peugeot driver was Jean-Eric Vergne in 11th place aboard the #93 9X8 2024 LMH with a time just over a second down on Buemi’s best for Toyota.
Charles Milesi took 12th for Alpine, while the championship-leading Porsche Penske Motorsport entry was 12th in Laurens Vanthoor’s hands.
The Auto Sport Promotion LMGT3 class Lexus squad bounced back from the accident that resulted in the early stoppage of FP1.
Jose Maria Lopez led the way in class with a 1m35.725s aboard the #87 Lexus RC F GT3.
The Argentinian driver, back in the ASP Lexus after returning to Toyota’s Hypercar line-up at Le Mans, ended up three tenths up on late improver Franck Perera in the best of the Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2s.
Perera posted a 1m36.060s to edge out Alessio Rovera’s AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.
Daniel Juncadella, who had topped the class leaderboard for much of the session, ended up fourth in the best of the TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs.
The second ASP Lexus that was crashed at Turn 4 by Arnold Robin in FP1 has been withdrawn from the meeting. Frenchman Robin was given a clean bill of health after a check-over at a local hospital after the big accident.
Third free practice for Sunday’s Sao Paolo 6 Hours begins at 10:30 local time, with qualifying kicking off at 14:30.