On a tricky weekend at Interlagos, the two women who made their debut in 2023 – Kaká Magno and Bruna Tomaselli – started their second season in the main feeder series to Brazil's premier championship. Tomaselli took a podium among the rookies and Magno collected important points, having made a good progress.
The Stock Series Brazil kicked off its 2024 season at the Interlagos Circuit, with the confirmed presence of the two women who made their debut in 2023 on the grid of the Stock Car Pro access series - Kaká Magno and Bruna Tomaselli. This will be an opportunity for both to continue their personal development in touring car racing, working towards their goal of reaching Brazil's premier championship.
Magno will continue aboard car #25 of the RTR Sport Team and Tomaselli in car #97 of Garra Racing. The former W Series driver will also continue to be supported by the KTF Sports drivers development program.
The 13 drivers involved in the opening round of the 2024 season took to the track for the first time on Friday for the free practice sessions; Enzo Bedani led both sessions and Bruna Tomaselli impressed with a top three in FP1.
The following day had a full schedule at Interlagos - with FP3 and qualifying for races 1 and 2, held in the morning. Enzo Bedani and Arthur Gama took their respective pole positions, Bruna Tomaselli reached a double P8 and Kaká Magno was 12th fastest and would thus start from the sixth row of the grid in both races.
Race 1
On the afternoon of the same day, the first race of the season took place: at the start, Arthur Gama took the lead from Enzo Bedani. Bruna Tomaselli moved to seventh and then P6 on lap 3, after overtaking Felipe Barrichello Bartz in turn 1, the famous S do Senna. Kaká Magno had a good start, overtook Akyu Myasava on the first lap, as well as Hugo Cibien and Erick Shotten soon after.
In the following laps, Myasava fought back and exchanged positions with Magno, while Tomaselli - who was dueling with Barrichello for P6 - suffered a suspension failure that sent her off at turn 4. The safety car had to be deployed and unfortunately her first contest ended early.
After the restart, Gama held the lead until the end, while the rest of the field fought for positions. Kaká Magno - who was in 9th when the green flags were waved, was caught by Cibien and Shotten, but secured herself a the top 10 and collected her first points of the season, after the then-third placed Mathias de Valle spun at turn 4.
Race 2
On Sunday morning, the other two races of the opening round of the Stock Series were held. Race 2 started with pole-sitter Arthur Gama remaining ahead of the pack, until the first incident of the race occurred on the opposite straight, with rookie Akyu Myasava hitting the guardrail after a duel with Hugo Cibien. The safety car took to the track and the race was neutralized until lap 4, when both cars were retrieved.
At the restart, Bruna Tomaselli - who was in eighth place - overtook Erick Shotten; a little further back, Kaká Magno kept eleventh place. In the following laps, the two gained a position after Guto Rotta had to serve a drive-through penalty, received for a jump start. So Tomaselli was up to sixth place and Magno reached again the top 10.
Arthur Gama opened a comfortable gap over second place and remained in the lead until the end of the race, securing his second victory of the weekend. Bruna Tomaselli crossed the finish line in seventh, but received a 20-second time penalty due to improper use of the 'push-to-pass' button and fell to tenth - therefore swapping positions with Kaká Magno, who took a very promising P9.
Race 3
The starting grid for the last race of the weekend had Vinicius Paparelli in pole position, Kaká Magno in 6th and Bruna Tomaselli in 8th; Arthur Gama had in fact to start from the pits due to mechanical problems. On the first lap, Paparelli held the lead, while Felipe Barrichello Bartz overtook Alfredo Ibiapina and Erick Shotten to take second. On the first corner, Kaká Magno and Enzo Bedani had contact, but Magno rejoined in ninth place.
Further ahead, Tomaselli and Mathias de Valle fought for P7. In the following laps Barrichello Bartz took the lead and Tomaselli had reached the top 5 after overtaking Ibiapina and Schotten. However, on lap five, while she was trying to snatch fourth from Gustavo Frigotto, race control deployed a red flag due to failures in the timing system.
The race was halted for almost 15 minutes and it was announced that it would end with 75% of the scheduled duration, due to the technical problems that occurred. During this period, two drive-through penalties were announced - for pole-sitter Vinicius Paparelli for driving at low speed during the starting procedure - and for Kaká Magno, for the incident with Enzo Bedani.
During the restart procedure the drivers' positions were reordered and Bruna Tomaselli returned to P7 and Kaká Magno to P10. Thus, Tomaselli had to charge back to recover the lost positions. In the first laps under green, though, she fell to ninth but managed to recover. Between laps 7 and 8, Tomaselli had to duel with Alfredo Ibiapina and eventually grabbed P8.
Afterwards, Bruna then overtook Erick Schotten and Enzo Bedani on the last lap, crossing the finish line in 6th position overall - P2 among the rookies. With the penalty, Kaká Magno had lost precious time and lost touch with the cars ahead, but still remained in the top 10 for most of the final part of the race, until she was overtaken by Paparelli and finished 11th. Felipe Barrichello Bartz took victory in the hectic third race.
Bruna Tomaselli spoke about the first weekend of the 2024 season: "After the crash in yesterday's race [Saturday], we had an intense Sunday at Interlagos, including a podium!", she said.
"Both race 2 and race 3 were very competitive, with several overtakes. My car was great and I managed to show my work, setting a good pace and climbing the field. But I made a mistake and pressed the 'push' button before the allowed period - which caused me a penalty and made me start at the bottom in race 3."
She continued: "In Race 3, I maintained a consistent pace and we performed well again. When I was already P1 among the rookies and P4 overall, the race direction gave a red flag. Upon returning to the track, they organized the race grid in a way that I lost some positions."
"There was still time to do some overtaking again and secured P2 among the rookies and P6 overall", she summed up. "I left Interlagos with the feeling that we could have fought up front, but happy with the podium, given the setbacks."
Kaká Magno also shared her impressions of the opening round of the Stock Series: "It was a weekend of a lot of learning and evolution, both for me and for the team", she said.
"We had everything we needed to get a podium here in Interlagos, our car was very quick, but unfortunately the penalty took away our chance to fight and get on the podium."
She continued: "The connection with the team has improved a lot. We made great progress and had a good pace throughout the race weekend. Now we're going to focus on Cascavel to win that podium that didn't come at Interlagos."
With the results obtained, Arthur Gama - who won 2 of the 3 races, now leads the drivers' standings, with 80 points. Kaká Magno sits in 9th, with 31 points collected - followed by Bruna Tomaselli, who closes the top 10, with 28 points.
The Stock Series will return to the track on May 19th, at the Zilmar Beux Circuit in Cascavel, which will host the second round of the 2024 season.