Toyota drivers Kazuki Nakajima, Sebastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson won the Fuji round of the World Endurance Championship after the race was cut short by adverse weather conditions.
Heavy fog caused by rain earlier in the day made the 2.8-mile circuit unsafe for racing, prompting officials to bring out the red flags with an hour and a half left on the clock.
An earlier red flag period was established during the second hour for the same reason.
The #7 TS050 shared by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez was ahead until the end of the fourth hour, when the team elected to bring its leading car into the pits.
Nakajima was instructed to stay out in the #8 machine, but the worsening conditions meant the Japanese driver never had the chance to make his own scheduled stop.
That allowed Nakajima, Buemi and Davidson (who didn't race because of the red flags) to claim their third win of the season and Toyota's first since the 6 Hours of Spa in May.
Conway brought the #7 car home second to complete the one-two, and was classified 1.4s behind the #8.
Porsche's #1 car driven by Neel Jani, Andre Lotterer and Nick Tandy finished third after recovering from an incident with the winning Toyota at the start.
Lotterer lost pieces of front bodywork when he touched the rear of Buemi's car, but the crew managed to recover through a string of safety car interventions.
Each of those stoppages were called on the grounds of poor visibility, bar the fourth which came out when Mathias Beche's Rebellion ORECA LMP2 hit the wall at turn six after tangling with Jean-Eric Vergne's Manor ORECA during hour four.
Porsche's sister car completed the LMP1 order, but lost a lap when the team got caught by the first red flag period.
After leading early on from pole, Earl Bamber was the only driver in the top class not to pit during the break in play, so when the race returned to green the New Zealander was forced to come in for a service.
Timo Bernhard took over the controls, but was lapped shortly after by a hard-charging Nakajima.
Bamber, Bernhard and recently announced Toro Rosso F1 stand-in Brendon Hartley never recovered the lost ground, and subsequently saw their four-race win streak come to a halt.
The result closes the gap between the #8 Toyota and #2 Porsche crews in the drivers' championship to 39 points with two six-hour events remaining.
In LMP2, Vaillante Rebellion drivers Bruno Senna, Nicolas Prost and Julien Canal picked up their second win of the year.
The #31 ORECA 07-Gibson commanded much of the contest after assuming the lead from the team's pole-sitting car, which spun at the start before Beche's incident.
The Rebellion finished ahead of the Nicolas Lapierre/Gustavo Menezes/Andre Negrao Signatech Alpine entry, while the championship-leading Oliver Jarvis/Thomas Laurent/Ho-Pin Tung ORECA run by Jackie Chan DC Racing took third.
GTE-Pro honours went to the AF Corse Ferrari squad for the third time this season.
James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi assumed the lead of the GT drivers' world championship with their second win, after problems befell the Ford GT driven by Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell.
A penalty for a pit infringment during the opening half bumped the Ford off the lead lap, before Priaulx made contact with the barriers at turn one.
The three-time World Touring Car champion lost control after picking up damage one lap earlier through contact with Kevin Estre's Porsche 911 RSR.
Both Porsches looked strong at the front during the first three hours, but that incident allowed the winning Ferrari to split the pair.
Pier Guidi took the lead during the final safety car period that developed into the red flag, leaving Porsche's Richard Leitz and Frederic Makowiecki to take second.
The sister 911 recovered to finish third, while Ford's sister car claimed fourth place.
Victory in GTE-Am went to the Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 shared by Miguel Molina, Francesco Castellacci and Thomas Flohr, marking the Swiss outfit's first win of the campaign.
Discussion about this post