The new Aston Martin Valkyrie hypercar enters the second half of its trailblazing maiden season in the FIA World Endurance Championship when it races on South American soil for the first time at Interlagos, for the Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo, this weekend.

Following an encouraging 24 Hours of Le Mans last month where both Valkyrie hypercars completed their maiden twice-around-the-clock event without issue, finishing 12th and 14th, the works Aston Martin Heart of Racing Team registered the cars’, and Aston Martin’s first Manufacturer’s World Championship points in the Hypercar Class. The British brand now seeks to build on this positive momentum with a breakthrough top ten finish on WEC’s return to the six-hour race format, as the championship moves into the ‘flyaway’ event phase of the calendar that shapes the second half of the season.

The first ‘Le Mans Hypercar’ to be produced by Aston Martin, and raced by the Aston Martin THOR Team, Valkyrie is the only car in the WEC’s premier category derived from a road-legal hypercar. Valkyrie is also the only LMH to compete in both the FIA WEC and in North America’s IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and has scored top-10 finishes in every race it has contested in the USA.

Valkyrie made its global debut in the Qatar 1812km in February. The British machine has subsequently demonstrated outstanding reliability, having finished 11 times from 12 starts in all competitions and has solid progression in terms of competitiveness. It has been a consistent points-scorer in all five IMSA races.

The Aston Martin THOR Team will return to its two regular WEC Valkyrie line-ups for the 6 Hours of São Paulo, with the #007 driven by Tom Gamble and Harry Tincknell and the #009 of Alex Riberas and Marco Sørensen.

Aston Martin’s Vantage GT3 returns to the frontline of the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GT class action this weekend with race victory very much in the crosshairs.

The FIA World Endurance Championship visits Interlagos for only the fifth time in its history, having been reintroduced to the calendar last year. In that period, Vantage has recorded three class wins and four runner-up finishes – including in 2024. The Heart of Racing team and the Racing Spirit of Léman squad aims to add to that tally with the latest iteration – the Vantage GT3 – in the LMGT3 class of the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo on 13 July.

Regular class frontrunners, THOR team principal Ian James, Zach Robichon and Mattia Drudi are looking to at least repeat the performance of the #27 Vantage from last year when it finished second in class. Indeed, so far in 2025, the team has recorded a sixth, a fifth and a fourth from four races and based on its pace, a podium is overdue.

THOR will be joined by Racing Spirit of Léman, which introduces a new driver, Anthony McIntosh to its regular line-up of Eduardo Barrichello and Aston Martin works driver Valentin Hasse-Clot in the #10 Aston Martin Vantage GT3. McIntosh comes fresh off the back of a Pro-Am Class podium in the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa with Beechdean AMR, while he also races a Vantage with van der Steur Racing in selected IMSA races in the GTD class. McIntosh steps in for his compatriot Derek De Boer, who is otherwise engaged with external commitments, but will return to the car for the next round – the Lone Star Le Mans at the Circuit of the Americas on 5-7 September.

THOR is also in action in the IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship with the latest version of the Vantage GT3 in the all-GT round of the series at Mosport, in Canada. Fresh off a brilliant, last-gasp win at Watkins Glen last month, the team’s fulltime #27 driver Casper Stevenson is currently second in the standings, just 60 points off the GTD class championship lead. His regular teammate Gamble is otherwise engaged with Valkyrie at Interlagos, so THOR has drafted in IMSA Aston Martin Valkyrie GTP driver and 2022 IMSA GTD champion Roman De Angelis; a two-time GTD class winner of the event.

“The Vantage GT3 continues to go from strength to strength,” said Aston Martin Head of Endurance Motorsport Adam Carter. “It proved to be an outstanding choice for our partner teams in the recent 24 Hours of Spa, where it achieved two class win and another class podium. In IMSA it was victorious in the previous round at Watkins Glen. In WEC, the pace has been there, if not the results. Aston Martin has a strong record at Interlagos, and there is every reason for us to head to São Paulo in an optimistic frame of mind, with a podium finish a very clear target for both of our partner teams.”

Source material - AMR

For the only GTP entry within the field being non-Hybrid, this circuit in theory should have been the worst of all situations for the V12 normally aspirated Aston Martin powered car but in fact, it was the reverse with the car being more than capable of maintaining position with their hybrid-based peers in race form.

Roman De Angelis qualified the #23 car earlier on Friday where at the halfway stage he was running as high as midway within the eleven-car entry before inevitably being pushed back to the bottom by the end of session.

Also starting the hundred-minute sprint race, De Angelis made up early ground before the first of what was only to be two FCY periods during the race (both for debris on track) slowed the proceedings.

Like any street circuit, catching is one thing whilst passing is something completely different and whilst a few others in both GTP and GTD Pro elected to risk significant damage with a last-minute muscle their way through approach, De Angelis ran his short stint before pitting for full service and driver change to Ross Gunn after just thirty minutes on the clock.

Getting up to P9 in class, the race was then interrupted with its second but surprisingly quick FCY despite the class split leaving just under half an hour top the end. Pushing the #40 Wayne Taylor Racing GTP hard, Gunn’s reward finally came after they missed their braking point and had to take to the escape road allowing the #23 car to move up to eighth in class.

Then circulating thirteen seconds behind P7 but over thirty seconds in front of P9, Gunn comfortably brought the #23 car home for its best finish of the IMSA season to date as he and the team now move across to Watkins Glen for some more testing before flying back to France for the Le Mans 24hour Test Day this Sunday.

Photo credits – Team / AMR / social media / Michelin Tyre

Casting our minds back to the action at the Circuit de La Sarthe – that was not really one to remember in the end as the #777 D’Station Racing AMR Vantage LMGT3 of Satoshi Hoshino, Erwan Bastard and Marco Sorenson eventually finished P9 in class after the #27 Heart of Racing AMR Vantage GT3 of Ian James, Alex Riberas and Daniel Mancinelli exited the race in the early hours of Sunday morning with that scary image of the car rolling onto its roof after a heavy contact with the tyre wall at Indianapolis.

Thankfully, Mancinelli was otherwise OK as he picked himself out of the wreckage of what was left of his car, and we understand that that chassis has now been replaced and rebuilt (alongside the D’Station Racing car) at the Prodrive facility in time to be flown to Sao Paulo for this weekend’s events.

The crews are already at the circuit preparing both their garages and their cars for the track action that begins on Friday morning with the first of three Free Practice sessions.

The only change so far is the expected swap back from Hoshino within the #777 to that of Clement Mateu as the Frenchman’s deal with the Japanese team was to step aside to allow what later became Hoshino’s final racing visit to the event.

Championship wise, that DNF at Le Mans and a poor finish the round before at Spa Francorchamps has seen their early pace falter as they drop to seventh within the LMGT3 Driver table on half the points of the leader whilst the usual two D’Station drivers (Bastard and Sorenson) now sit in fourth thanks to the double points on offer at Le Mans. They are thirty-three points behind the leading crew.

The Six Hours of Sao Paula starts at 11:30 hours local on Sunday.

Photo credits – Teams / Kelvin Pope Firecracker Media

That enforced a delay with the Prologue until early next week and an early morning arrival of their missing shipping containers at the circuit has led to an early start for both teams.

Whilst the Heart of Racing will have run the new 2024 Vantage GT3 (in its IMSA GTD format) at the Rolex 24 earlier this year, this will be the first public running of the ACO LMGT3 variant of the new car and so (especially within the Japanese D’Station Racing team) there will be a whole new lot of ‘new’ going into this year’s WEC operation what with a new car, new drivers, fresh engineering support at what is for the WEC – a new venue!!

The #27 Heart of Racing team head the eighteen strong LMGT3 class by numerical entry number only with the American team returning with their 2023 driver crew again in Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli and Alex Riberas.

The #777 D’Station Racing team, however, see a complete change as Frenchmen Clement Mateu, Erwan Bastard and Marco Sorensen now make up the driver crew of that entry as team boss Satoshi Hoshino reserves himself for the Le Mans 24 entry and Tomonobu Fujii moves back to in team management role at the circuit.

New cars – new class format means for a new Balance of Performance process within the WEC and whilst that data has already been confirmed by the series, we will just have to wait to see just how that pans out in race format.

Due to these enforced delays, the Prologue timetable will now run to a format of scrutineering and other mandatory safety procedures today (Sunday) before moving into two available track sessions tomorrow (ranging between 210 and 180 minutes in length) before concluding with a final 240-minute session tomorrow. After that – the teams will be preparing themselves for the opening 1812km race next weekend.

Photo credits – Teams / social media

Today’s news sees both the Heart of Racing and D’Station Racing teams confirmed for 2024 with the customary singular drivers name against each entry.

Last year the #98 car (by virtue of taking over the Paul Dalla Lana Northwest Racing entry) sees the American team race under their more familiar #27 number with just Team Manager Ian James listed within their allotted trio of drivers. The D’Station Racing team will again compete under the #777 with AMR factory driver Marco Sorenson the only driver listed within that entry.

That means the amount of change will be quite significant. TF Sport have of course moved over to the Corvette programme for season 12 so the #777 team will be out looking for a new service provider. With the Heart car being serviced by the AMR works crew last season, it’s not inconceivable that the #777 will just join the #27 within the same garage next year.

D’Station Racing have also disclosed that Tomonobu Fujii will concentrate next season on the management of the team and with no Satoshi Hoshino listed as the bronze driver at this stage – maybe the #777 will complete with a whole new driver line up as the new class also competes on Goodyear rubber as opposed to Michelin for the venerable GTE class of previous years.

These two Aston Martin Racing crews will compete within a field of sixteen other LMGT3 cars amongst a combined Hypercar/LMGT3 only field of thirty-seven full season entries.

The start of the 2024 season kicks off at the new venue of Qatar in early March with seven further rounds including the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June.

Last seen out in an Aston Martin at the 2015 AMR Festival at Le Mans and the formerly named VLN Series before that, Talbot has never competed within the WEC before so this decision marks itself as a pivotable point within his own career path as he looks for racing opportunities outside that of an Audi R8 (his present race platform) as that manufacturer will be cease supporting customer activity at the end of this year.

The final appearance of the GTE class will take place over the weekend of the 2-4th November.

Photo credits – social media

Under the intense heat of this afternoon, Arnold started the race for the team from the front row but soon passed the #63 car for the class lead as the race quickly went under caution for multiple incidences going into turn 1. That position was maintained throughout his minimum drivetime of 45 minutes as the race bounced back and forth between race pace and Full Course Yellows as the (mainly) LMP3 class ahead hindered the flow of the race.

Pitting whilst the race was again under FCY, the #10 cars entry into its pit box was slightly compromised with cars front and rear, but importantly not much time was lost by the time the class and finished its compulsory stop.

All was looking rosy for Hasse-Clot with a five second lead and with just ten minutes to go as (yet another) LMP3 car stopped on track after a spin that eventually forced Race Control to throw another FCY. Without knowing what exactly happened, the next scene was of the #10 slowing and stopping before moving off again at pace but having lost the lead to the #19 Liepert Motorsport Lamborghini as that car was allowed to pass an already stopped Aston Martin.

Going back to green, that was not enough time even for the AMR factory driver to restore the balance going into the final laps and the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman crew had to settle for a P2 finishing position in class, just 3.2 seconds back.

The next round of the series takes them to Motorland Aragon in Spain at the end of August.

Photo credits – Team / Series

This weekend’s entry list obviously drops down again to the mainly the full season entries featuring just thirty-six entries across the board but with one conspicuously fewer GTE Am entries.

Having taken over the Northwest AMR entry following the retirement of Paul Dalla Lana to the class and the sport after the second round of the season at Portimao, the Heart of Racing team eagerly snapped up the opportunity of getting their foot within the WEC/ACO door with the #98 car entry having somewhat tentatively knocked at those very doors just the season before.

Competing within their rebranded #98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE for the first time at Spa, their new driver line up of Ian James, Alex Riberas and Daniel Mancinelli quickly got to grips with their new package to finish mid-table in P7 at the first time of asking. To move onto the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first-time last month, that application and reward continued as the same crew finished just four laps down to the eventual class winner in P6.

This weekend, the #98 Heart of Racing car will not be in attendance as the team will be competing within the latest round of the IMSA Weathertech Sportscar Championship from the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park Circuit in eastern Canada. That we find a little strange as although their IMSA commitment started before their WEC opportunity, next year’s restriction to just two entries per OEM manufacturer within the new LMGT3 Class might see their preference to be absent in Italy count against them (and Aston Martin Racing) in the long run as only Riberas is doubled booked for driving duties this weekend. We hope not!

That leaves the two TF Sport prepared AMR Vantage GTE entries of the #25 ORT with TF car of Ahmad Al Harthy, Michael Dinan and Charlie Eastwood as well as the #777 D’Station Racing AMR of Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Casper Stevenson.

Whilst the #25 finished upon the podium at Le Mans for an incredible P2 finish, the #777 car again found their car being ruled out during the night with technical issues after the chassis issues of last year. For the Japanese based team, Monza has been good to them historically within the Championship with Hoshino/Fujii and back then Andrew Watson finishing third in the 2021 season.

After the results of Le Mans, the domineering #33 Corvette of reigning WEC GTE Am Drivers Champion Ben Keating sails high above the rest of the class – some seventy-four points ahead of the #25 ORT with TF Aston Martin in second. The D’Station Racing crew need a decent points haul this weekend if only to overhaul their new American based stablemates who already sit nineteen points above them but with Stevenson having resampled the taste of champagne after last weekend’s 24 Hours of Spa, that young Englishman will be out to impress again!

Fresh Balance of Performance data released by the WEC earlier this week sees no major tweaks being made other than the usual success weight penalties being applied to the previous round’s podium winners so that now sees the #33 Corvette running 45kg heavier than the #25 ORT car.

Track action will begin on Friday with the first Free Practice session before Qualifying to end of Saturday with the start of Sundays six-hour race being waved off at 11:30Hrs local.

While Riberas and Mancinelli look forward to making their first-ever 24 Hours of Le Mans, the start of the race will mark the third outing in the French classic for James. The HOR team principal first raced in the event in 2005, returning to score an LMP2 podium in 2006.

Photo credit - D Gibson

The continuing high ambient temperatures had obviously increased the brain fog within some helmets as action happened soon enough with the LMP3 mid pack tripping over themselves going into the first chicane on only the opening lap, with multiple cars involved and that brought out the Safety Car.

Losing a further three laps to that clear up, Arnold’s next job would be to pit from his P18 position to hope that his countryman and AMR factory driver Hasse-Clot could pull their Aston Martin back up the order. That he did, with steady progress up the leader board as the laps and minutes of the lap and time restricted race ticked by. A further big shunt for another LMP3 along the start straight again slowed the tempo of the race down and allowed the #10 car quick pickings of the #51 Ferrari to position itself fourth in class and firmly upon the rear of the car in third.

With a further hefty impact for one of the Porsches behind, the race would eventually finish behind the Safety Car with the #10 crew taking third in class for their efforts after a post-race time penalty for an incorrect pit stop time was later applied to the car ahead of them on track.

Friday’s second race would at least start a lot better with Arnold again chosen to start the start from their Qualifying position of second in class.

Unfortunately, the storyline of this race firmly resembled the opening lap of race one with repeated incident and accident amongst the LMP3 field that saw two extensive Slow Zones being applied to much of the track and for a significant time part of the race.

Despite initially losing ground, a great run from Arnold saw him robustly standing his ground coming through the Ford chicane with the #63 Lamborghini equally determined to muscle their way past. Despite being recorded by Race Control as an incident, their later finding would pass that as a racing incident as both cars bumped and bashed into each other and both lost ground as a consequence.

Further LMP3 incidents saw the Safety Car finally called for just ahead of the pit stop window with the #10 car back up to third in class by the time that Hasse-Clot regained control of the #10 car.

He, however, would suffer a scare through the Forest Esses and into Tetre Rouge as Hasse-Clot was pushed wide and onto the grass, but the factory driver kept his foot in to recover the situation and position to live to fight another day!

All was looking good for the #10 car until the race entered its final lap when a tap from behind, again through the Ford Chicane this time spun the #10 car out of podium contentions and down to P14 where they would eventually finish.

Despite being elevated up to P13 after further post-race time penalties being applied, that ended their event on something of a downer as they would also slip down to second within the GT3 Drivers Championship as a consequence but still with four races remaining.

Photo credit - LMC