Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA left wanting more at Interlagos

It is difficult to reconcile the genuine speed of the Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA machines at the Rolex 6 Hours of São Paulo with the frustration lingering in the paddock. The Anglo-American alliance returned to the podium for the first time in a year, and while a double top four finish is a result many would kill for, Norman Nato is right to feel disappointed. After locking out the front row in Hyperpole, the V-Series.R Hypercars looked untouchable at a circuit where starting anywhere but the front is effectively a death sentence. And yet, the race slipped away.

Disaster, as it often does, arrived in the pits. During the opening cycle, a stubborn wheel nut for Will Stevens and a lock-up on entry for Earl Bamber cost the team almost 20 seconds each. In a category this tight, that is an eternity; it dumped both cars outside the top ten. Seeing two machines that had been dominating the field suddenly fighting from the back of the pack was a bitter pill to swallow for the garage.

The recovery drive that followed was nothing short of brilliant. Stevens carved his way back through the order, dismantling the pace of Brendon Hartley in the Toyota, Ferrari’s Antonio Giovinazzi, Alpine ace Frédéric Makowiecki, and AF Corse’s Yifei Ye. However, the momentum was constantly stalled. A five-second penalty for contact with Clemens Schmid’s LMGT3 Lexus and a later incident involving Norman Nato and the Ferrari of Phil Hanson turned a potential one-two finish into a frantic damage-limitation exercise.

By the time Will Stevens took the chequered flag, he was less than seven seconds adrift of the winner, securing third place with the #38 entry of Jack Aitken—who had taken over from Earl Bamber and Sébastien Bourdais—finishing right behind in fourth. Post-race, the #38 was handed a five-second penalty for contact, further cementing the sense that this was a day defined by what could have been. As Nato rightly put it, they had the pace to claim the top two steps on the podium.