Allan McNish looks to extend his FIA World Endurance Championship lead when the Scotsman contests the São Paulo Six Hours on Sunday (1 Sep).
McNish competes for the first time since winning the Le Mans 24 Hours in June along with co-drivers Tom Kristensen (Denmark) and Loïc Duval (France) and starts the Brazil race with a 30-point championship lead.
Triple Le Mans race winner McNish, the most successful British driver in the French twice-around-the-clock race for the past 15 years and the most successful Scot in the history of the race, finished third in the corresponding race last year at the wheel of a non-hybrid Audi R18 ultra.
“It’ll be good to get back racing, it’s been quite a gap since Le Mans,” remarked Allan. “Tom and I drove with Lucas [di Grassi] last year and pulling out of the last corner on to the start-finish line, we really missed the extra power delivered by the hybrid.
“Toyota won the race with the hybrid Audi second. I think we’ll have a different picture than what we’ve seen so far this season. The Silverstone, Spa and Le Mans tracks are very fast and flowing whereas Interlagos features a number of slow corners.”
McNish races a hybrid-diesel Audi R18 e-tron quattro in all eight rounds of this year’s WEC having already scored two wins (Silverstone and Le Mans) plus a second place (Spa).
The six hour race is staged on the 2.676-mile Autódromo de Interlagos track also known as the Autódromo José Carlos Pace located 13-miles from São Paulo and is run, unusually, in a counter-clockwise direction.
Allan added: “The circuit is pretty physical. It is mainly left-handers and there is a need to be clean and tidy in traffic especially in the middle section. I don’t see the ambient temperature being an issue and really, I can’t wait to get back to racing.”
A second Audi Sport Team Joest R18 e-tron quattro is piloted by defending WEC champions Marcel Fässler (CH)/André Lotterer (D)/Benoît Tréluyer (F) who lie second in this year’s standings. A grid of almost 30-cars is expected to race.
Source : Allan McNish