Gerson Campos secures the victory in race 1 of the Porsche Cup Sprint Challenge at Interlagos. In this Saturday afternoon’s race (28), the driver made an overtake at the start, controlled the pace, and became the first winner of the 2026 season.
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In the Sport class, Cecilia Rabelo secured first place, while Raphael Bernandes climbed to the top step of the podium in the Rookie class.
Start authorized at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace and, unlike the Carrera Cup race, the weather began to cloud over and rain seemed to be approaching the circuit. Still in the first corners, Gerson Campos beat pole-sitter Daniel Neumann to take the lead.
Further back, Cecilia Rabelo took the lead in the Sport class. The competitor took advantage of a good pace on the first lap to take the lead of the class pack.
After the end of the first lap, the order on the track had Campos leading all drivers, with Neumann, Sadak Leite pressing, Caio Castro, and Will Cesar completing the top five positions. At that moment, the leader already had a slightly larger gap of 0s4.
In the Sport class, Rabelo, who is in her second year in the Challenge category, was leading, while in Rookie, Claudio Simão was in first place.
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With 19 minutes to the checkered flag, an incident involving three cars occurred: Marcelo Bentivoglio, Dilson Peres, and Eldo Umbelino. The trio spun and went off track, triggering a safety car – additionally, an investigation involving Neto Heil and Nicholas Garfinkel.
With just over 14 minutes remaining, the green flag waved and the race restarted. Campos managed to maintain first place, with Neumann, Leite, Castro, and Cesar staying in the top five positions – Sadak was pressing Daniel, while Caio was pushing Leite.
Approaching the end of the race, Caio Castro and Sadak Leite were engaged in a very exciting battle. The pair were looking for space on the track until, with 6 minutes to go, Castro managed to make the decisive move to take third place.
Now, another safety car was necessary, this time due to a heavy crash of a car that was quite destroyed at the Curva do Sol. At that point, it was very likely that the race would not be restarted at Interlagos.
Until the end, then, the drivers stayed behind the safety car and the checkered flag. Campos was the overall winner, while Rabelo triumphed in Sport and Raphael Bernandes climbed to the top step of the podium in Rookie.
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