Porsche’s Laurens Vanthoor, Andre Lotterer and Kevin Estre have won the 6 Hours of Fuji after an almost faultless run for the trio in the #6 Porsche 963 in Japan.
The #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 finished second, with drivers Dries Vanthoor, Marco Wittmann and Raffaele Marciello having pace and, at times, looking like they could take an inaugural overall FIA World Endurance Championship win for both BMW and Team WRT.
In third was the #36 Alpine A424 of Mick Schumacher, Nicolas Lapierre, and Matthieu Vaxiviere.
The race started with with the polesitting #2 Cadillac V-Series.R of Earl Bamber retaining the lead at the start. Wittmann, who started third in the #15 BMW, took second off Sebastien Buemi in the #8 Toyota GR010.
However, the race would be neutralised by a multi-car incident at turn 1 on the second lap. Robert Kubica, in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P, outbraked himself and went into the back of Fred Makowiecki, onboard the #5 Porsche. Makowiecki then got pushed into Antonio Giovinazzi in the #51 Ferrari, who subsequently made contact with the #35 Alpine A424 of Ferdinand Habsburg.
This brought out an immediate safety car, with debris strewn over the track, especially from the red #51 Ferrari and the #5 Porsche. Makowiecki pitted the Porsche to replace the rear bodywork, but as he’d pitted under safety car, according to regulations he’d have to make another stop when the pit lane was open. The two Ferraris pitted when the pitlane opened to also replace bodywork, and Kubica later got a 30-second stop/go penalty for starting the chain reaction incident.
When the race went green again, L. Vanthoor in the #6 Porsche quickly got by Mike Conway in the #7 Toyota, who had been running fourth. In the lead, meanwhile, Bamber continued to lead from Wittmann and Buemi, with the Kiwi creating a gap of six seconds by the end of the first hour.
However, as Bamber’s tyres started to wear, plus bad luck in traffic, Wittmann started to catch, bringing the gap down to two seconds.
The first round of pitstops then started, with Bamber and Wittmann pitting from the lead, promoting L. Vanthoor in third to the front of the field.
When the Belgian in the Porsche did pit a lap later, the overcut strategy, plus fast work in the pits from the Porsche Penske crew, enabled him to leapfrog both Alex Lynn, who had replaced Earl Bamber in the #2 Cadillac, and Wittmann in the #15 BMW.
However, there was another race neutralisation, this time to recover debris on track and also to fix a dangerous advertising hoarding. Almost every Hypercar pitted apart from L. Vanthoor and Lynn in the lead.
Behind the safety car, the order stood at L. Vanthoor, Lynn, Raffaele Marcello, who had replaced Wittmann in the #15 BMW, Conway, Buemi — who had swapped positions during the pitstops — Makowiecki in sixth, and Nicklas Nielsen in the #50 Ferrari in seventh.
When the race went green, Nicklas Nielsen, in the #50 Ferrari, with brand new medium tyres on his 499P, made short work of Makowiecki, Buemi and Conway, moving up into fourth in a matter of laps.
However, try as he might, the Dane could not find a way past Marciello. At the second round of stops, Ferrari, having learnt from Porsche at the first pitstops, used the overcut to enable Nielsen to take the lead, rejoining right ahead of Lotterer, who had replaced L. Vanthoor in the #6 Porsche.
The inevitable soon happened, though, with Lotterer using the Porsche’s superior pace to take the lead off Nielsen. The German then proceeded to pull away, cementing his lead over the Ferrari and marciello in third.
Behind, now in the second half of the race, the Toyoitas began to unleash the pace in the GR010 Hybrid. De Vries made quick work on Marciello to take third, and after a brief full course yellow for on-track debris, he took second off Nielsen as well.
Toyota, having short-fueled de Vries’s #7 Toyota to avoid having to make a stop for fuel at the end of the race, leapfrogged past Lotterer and into the lead.
The Dutchman subsequently built a lead of 13 seconds to Lotterer, but having short fueled the car, he had to come back into the pits for more fuel, and was replaced at the wheel by Kamui Kobayashi.
The race now looked as if it was between the #7 Toyota and #6 Porsche. However, when the virtual safety car was deployed for the stricken #63 Lamborghini SC63, the Porsche pitted, enabling them to take the lead. Most other cars in the top 10 also pitted, meaning Kobayashi was seventh while Kevin Estre, who had replaced Lotterer, led.
Kobayashi, then, had work to do — even if he had to make one less stop than the Porsche.
But, his eagerness got the better of him. Fighting with the #5 Porsche of Matt Campbell, he tried to overtake at the tight turn 1 but couldn’t get the move done as Campbell defended the inside, forcing the Japanese driver to the outside.
Kobayashi switched back to the inside for T3, but was too ambitious into the left hander and got into the side of Campbell, spinning both cars and causing significant rear end damage to both cars, with both retiring after they returned to the pits.
After this, Estre wasn’t threatened again for the win, crossing the line with a 16.601 second gap to D. Vanthoor in the #15 BMW.
The #36 Alpine of Mick Schumacher, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere was third, Alpine’s first podium with the A424.
Going into the final hour, it seemed as though the other Alpine, the #35, with Jules Gounon, Ferdinand Habsburg, and Charles Milesi at the wheel, would take the final podium spot. However, Milesi got a drive through penalty for his role in an incident which caused the #2 Cadillac to retire from the race, plus spinning one of the LMGT3 Corvettes. This demoted the car down into the lower reaches of the top 10, promoting the #8 Toyota of Ryo Hirakawa into third.
At this point, Schumacher was running 10th and would bring home a sole point. But, he’d gain one place when Milesi took his drive through. He then went on a tear, overtaking multiple cars to climb up the top 10.
Then, disaster for Toyota: Hirakawa received a penalty for previous driver Sebastien Buemi ignoring blue flags earlier in the race. He duly took this, dropping him down to 10th, where he’d finish.
Schumacher duly fought with and got by both Peugeots, and both JOTA Porsches, to take the podium position.
Fourth was the #93 Peugeot 9X8 of Mikkel Jensen, Nico Muller, and Jean-Eric Vergne. The car, which the team have struggled to unlock pace from this year, finally came good at Fuji, with the French squad making up multiple positions from the carnage at the start and then staying out of trouble and advancing through the field, strategically taking tyres at the final stop to enable Jensen to move from 13th as the final hour began, to fourth at the flag, overtaking the #12 JOTA Porsche of Norman Nato in the final minutes.
The two JOTA Porsches were fifth and sixth, Nato in the #12 JOTA Porsche 963 followed by Oliver Rasmussen in the sister #38 car. They both qualified well outside the top 10, but the Porsche’s race pace, plus impeccable JOTA strategy, helped them move up the field.
Seventh was the delayed Milesi, while the #94 Peugeot of Stoffel Vandoorne, Loic Duval, and Paul di Resta was eighth, with just a 0.008 gap between the Alpine and the Peugeot at the flag.
Ninth was the #50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco. The car had looked so strong earlier in the race with Nielsen at the wheel, but they dropped through the field in the final hour on old tyres, being passed by both Peugeots, both Alpines — after Milesi’s penalty — and both JOTA Porsches. Finally, in 10th was the #8 Toyota of Ryo Hirakawa, in a poor day for the Japanese manufacturer at its home race.
