The debut of the 499Ps at Interlagos in Brazil, the venue for this weekend’s 6 Hours of São Paulo, round five of the 2024 FIA WEC, concluded with 183 laps completed by the Ferrari – AF Corse team’s Hypercars. Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, and Nicklas Nielsen crewed the number 50, while Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, and Antonio Giovinazzi shared the number 51.
On the day of the first free practice sessions, the AF Corse team’s 499P number 83, driven by the Maranello manufacturer’s official drivers Yifei Ye and Robert Shwartzman, alongside Robert Kubica, racked up 101 laps.
Free Practice 1. The first practice session in the morning was cut short after 50 minutes of the scheduled 90 when the number 78 Lexus veered off the track. This incident led to a red flag being shown to restore safe track conditions. The drivers made up the lost time in the second session in the afternoon.
Both 499Ps of the official Ferrari – AF Corse team, on their debut at the “Carlos Pace” track, started the session on wet tyres while the air and asphalt temperatures at Interlagos were 17.5°C and 20.3°C, respectively. Later, as the sun broke through on the Brazilian circuit, the 499P number 50, crewed by Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina and the 51, with Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado, switched to slicks, using both Medium and Hard compounds.
The number 50 crew completed 24 laps, stopping the clock at 1’27”344, the seventh best time (1”003 off the Peugeot number 93, session leader). The number 51 crew completed 23 laps with the fifteenth fastest time of 1’31”498.
The third Ferrari in the Hypercar class, AF Corse’s number 83, driven by Robert Kubica and Prancing Horse official driver Yifei Ye, recorded a best time of 1’26”824, the fifth fastest of the session.
Free Practice 2. In the afternoon, on a dry track with air and asphalt temperatures ranging from 19.4°C to 16.8°C and 23.2°C to 21°C respectively, all the drivers of the 499P numbers 50 and 51 took turns at the wheel as they continued to fine-tune the cars. Pier Guidi posted the fastest time of 1’25”770 in the number 51 Hypercar, third at the end of the session (0.043 seconds behind the number 8 Toyota, which led Free Practice 2), one position ahead of the 499P number 50, which set a time of 1’25”776 with Fuoco.
The 499P number 83 finished eighth with a benchmark time of 1’26”131, set by Shwartzman.
The programme. On Saturday, 13 July, the schedule includes the third free practice session (60 minutes) starting at 10:30 a.m., followed by the qualifying session from 3:10 to 3:22 p.m. and the Hyperpole for the ten fastest cars at 3:30 p.m. The green flag for the 6 Hours of São Paulo will be raised on 14 July at 11:30 a.m. (local time).