MC Tubarão beats JLM Racing in Interlagos thriller

The late addition of Nelson Piquet Jr. to Tiel Andrade and Julio Martini to the No. 5 MC Tubarão AJR may have been the extra that gave the victory to the team at the 4 Hours of São Paulo, which opened the 2020 Império Endurance Brasil season at Interlagos in a close affair with the No. 113 JLM Racing AJR.

Piquet was a last minute sub for Paulo Sousa, which had to miss the round due to health issues, and was quite quick from the go despite having little mileage in the AJR prototype, which pretty much dominated the qualify, breaking records at the track and with five cars in the top five places.

The JLM Racing AJR extended its dominance in qualifying to the initial moments of the race, with the No. 113 JLM AJR commanding the way. A bit more than 10 minutes of racing and the first problems appeared as the No. 20 Ginetta already found its way to the garage and the No. 44 Motorcar MRX stopped on track, calling the first Safety Car visit, which was briefly solved.

Another caution period held the field for almost 20 minutes, and the No. 113 opened the gap to the No. 43 Motorcar AJR and to the No. 5 MC Tubarão AJR. After them, the GT3 class was led by the No. 9 Mattheis Mercedes, followed by the new No. 55 Stuttgart Porsche and the No. 8 AMG CAC Mercedes.

The end of the first hour meant no changes to the P1 class order, though the No. 55 Stuttgart Porsche took control of the GT3 class, thanks to the fact that the No. 9 Mattheis Mercedes got stuck into traffic, only to be caught up later by the same Mercedes . Also surprising was that Mottin Racing was dominating the P2 class with the No. 88 and No. 18 MCRs, which remained parked in recent years after some regional glories.

A series of breakdown brought the Safety Car again and eliminated the No. 34 Motorcar MRX and the No. 12 NAFTA Sigma, and basically this mess shuffled the field so much that the GT4 class leader, the No. 3 BoatM3 Mercedes, and the GT3 Light leader, the No. 63 Tech Force Aston Martin, were at the low side of the top-10 overall. This scenario along some pace loss from the No. 43 Motorcar AJR promoted the No. 175 JLM AJR to second overall, somewhat isolated as it was a lap behind the leading No. 113 JLM AJR.

The halfway mark showed that there was no threats to the No. 113 JLM AJR, and so it was for the No. 9 Mattheis Mercedes in the GT3 class. Pit window done, the No. 113 had a big time loss in its service, so the sister No. 175 JLM AJR took the lead, but another Safety Car intervention kept the cars close and the clashes hot. Pedro Queirolo compensated the lost time of the No. 113, and after imposing heavy pressure to Carlos Kray, he retook the lead of the race.

Near the final pit window the top-3 was crammed into a short distance, so Tiel Andrade had Carlos Kray within striking distance, so the pit window would be key for track position, and this was well used by the No. 5 MC Tubarão AJR, with clean air to let Nelson Piquet Jr. loose to chase the No. 113 JLM Racing AJR. Having the full power of the fastest driver was of benefit for the No. 55 Stuttgart Porsche, as the GT3 leader had a comfortable gap to the No. 9 Mattheis Mercedes.

The fight and pace of the No. 113 and the No. 5 was as close as possible, so ability to deal with traffic would be decisive, and having to take more risks, eventually David Muffato gave the opening that Piquet Jr. needed to push for the lead with the No. 5.

Once Piquet passed, he took a more comfortable approach but was also locked behind backmarkers, and to make matters worse, it was at full speed with DRS open, giving clear road to the No. 113 JLM Racing AJR to return to first place, but it didn’t take long to return the blow, as the No. 5 forced a way past with sheer pace, opening the gap as soon as possible. Piquet gave no chance to let Muffato take it back, and the No. 5 MC Tubarão went straight to the victory.

4 Hours of São Paulo - Race results

Barely missing the overall podium, the No. 55 Stuttgart Porsche won the GT3 class and the No. 3 BoatM3 Mercedes was dominant in the GT4 class, and dominance defined the race of the No. 155 DB Racing Ferrari in the GT3 Light class. Both the GT4 and GT3 Light winners also finished within the overall top-10.

The No. 7 GioCar MRX survived all sorts of abuse done to its rear wing and some oversteer to claim the P3 class win, and the No. 44 Motorcar MRX took the P2 class win while the No. 12 NAFTA Sigma let it slide in the final moments, bravely challenging start motor issues.

For MC Tubarão it was quite the emotional triumph, as it was the first with the new car since the passing of team founder and chief Carlinhos Andrade in 2019, especially that now the prototype focus is in the flagship No. 5. Stuttgart Motorsport also has a milestone to its name, winning in the Brazilian debut of the 991.2-spec Porsche 911 GT3R, which came in the first half of the year.

PHOTO - Endurance Brasil/MS2/Bruno Terena