The No.6 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi, Stephane Sarrazin and Mike Conway held off the No.8 Audi to claim a dramatic 6 Hours of Fuji victory.
It was the manufacturer’s first win in the FIA World Endurance Championship since the 6 Hours of Bahrain in 2014, with Toyota finishing at the front of the field on home soil.
All three LMP1 manufacturers had turns in the lead at Fuji, with the No.6 Toyota being in the hunt from the very beginning.
But the team gained an advantage by short-fuelling the No.6 car at its penultimate stop to move into second, before not changing tyres at the final trip to the pits.
This gave Kobayashi a decent-sized lead for the run to the flag and despite Loic Duval’s best efforts in his Audi, the Toyota crossed the line 1.4 seconds ahead at the flag after 244 laps.
Duval’s No.8 car, shared with Lucas di Grassi and Oliver Jarvis, finished in second place. Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber – who retires from racing at the end of 2016 – and Brendon Hartley’s No.1 Porsche in third.
The No.5 Toyota was 36 seconds down in the leaders in fourth, ahead of the No.2 Porsche and the No.13 Rebellion LMP1 privateer.
The LMP2 win was closely fought and saw the No.26 G-Drive Racing car of Will Stevens, Roman Rusinov and Alex Brundle claimed the team’s first victory in the class.
The RGR Sport car of Bruno Senna, Filipe Albuquerque and Ricardo Gonzalez finished just behind in second place, having held the lead after the final stops.
Ford dominated in GTE Pro to win with the No.67 of Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx finishing 15 seconds clear of the No.66 of Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke.
The GTE Am victory went to the No.98 Aston Martin of Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda for the fourth time this year.
