Davide Rigon and his #54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 team emerged victorious in the LMGT3 category at the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Fuji.
Rigon, along with his teammates Thomas Flohr and Andrea Castellacci, made a late-timed and subtle arrival into the lead after the same protagonists fought for the win since the start, with Ferrari having not finished on the podium at any point in the season before this race.
The historic Fuji Speedway lent itself towards a series of exciting, interesting ongoing battles within the 18-strong LMGT3 category.
In contrast to the previous round at the Circuit of the Americas, where Heart of Racing dominated from start to finish, the seventh and penultimate round of the 2024 schedule delivered many ongoing lead fights.
As it has been throughout the weekend, temperatures were warm to provide teams and drivers with a challenge. The track temperature was at 43 degrees Celsius, the air at 28, and the humidity at 70%.
As the lights went out, TF Sport’s #81 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R of Tom Van Rompuy charged into the lead from second place, with both United Autosports McLaren 720S LMGT3 EVOs of Josh Caygill (#59) and James Cottingham (#95) jumping into the podium places.
Meanwhile Francois Heriau was unable to retain his first ever LMGT3 pole position in the #55 AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 and was soon forced to make an emergency service – when the safety car was deployed for the action and drama in the Hypercar class.
His unfortunate start, possibly hampered by side-to-side contact with a competitor, put him out of the fighting group at the front after emerging into the midfield.
Within the lead fight, headed by Van Rompuy’s #81 Corvette, Sarah Bovy kept her pink #85 Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 EVO2 behind in P4.
At the restart, the #81 Corvette continued at the front as both McLarens fought with one another which eventually resulted in contact between the pair as Caygill’s #95 McLaren spun which put him down into P14, promoting Bovy into third.
Bovy continued her charge after she chased down Cottingham, making her move on him for second place.
Into the second hour, Ian James of the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 turned up the pace as he overtook Cottingham for third place, having started the race in eighth position.
This was before Nico Costa took over the #59 McLaren, thus asserting significantly better pace than the Heart of Racing team principal to claim third again.
TF Sport ran a bitter sweet race, as the #81 controlled the front of the field whilst the #82 Corvette suffered a starter motor issue.
A virtual safety car (VSC) was declared due to a series of debris was across different points of the circuit, including loose advertising boards in which race control were not satisfied with.
Van Rompuy, Bovy, Costa and James all pitted under the VSC, especially enabling James to jump Costa’s #59 McLaren in the pit lane before the Bronze-graded driver was overtaken once again at the restart.
In fact, Costa overtook James, Bovy and even Van Rompuy to set the #59 into the LMGT3 class lead.
Rahel Frey took over the driving duties in the #85 Lamborghini in pursuit of their first LMGT3 win after previous reliability-related woes prevented such chances in races earlier in the season.
Amidst the professionals taking over from the Bronze-graded drivers, this included MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi who got into the #46 WRT BMW M4 LGMT3 after Ahmed Al Harthy drove the opening stints.
Rossi was putting down strong lap times, gaining five positions in two laps – including two at one corner.
In the lead was Gregoire Saucy in the #59 McLaren but he was hounded by Frey, who kept on his tail before passing at the final corner.
Nevertheless, Saucy kept within range of Frey down the 1.5 km start-finish straight before she pitted before the end of the halfway point.
Daniel Mancinelli in the #27 Aston Martin closed down the gap to Rui Andrade, the driver of the #81 Corvette residing in third.
After two seperate full-course-yellow periods were deployed to retrieve pieces of debris, Andrade turned up the pace to catch and overtake Frey for the class lead, before the #85 Lamborghini pitted which saw Michelle Gatting take over for her first racing laps behind the wheel.
With alternate strategies at play, the #92 Manthey PureRxing Porsche 911 LMGT3.R which started in P13 climbed their way towards an impressive lead with Joel Sturm driving.
The virtual safety car for Daniil Kvyat’s stranded #63 Lamborghini SC63 gave an opportunity for Klaus Bachler to take over the wheel from Sturm in a pit stop.
On the restart, a battle ensued between Gatting and the #31 WRT BMW driver of Sean Gelael for fitfh place whilst the #91 Manthey EMA Porsche was running well before encountering a puncture for driver Richard Lietz.
Into the final hour, the top-three cars were covered by just one second.
Saucy and Bachler battled for the lead with the latter driver turned up the pressure on the McLaren.
Their fight continued nose-to-tail, with Saucy narrowly keeping himself ahead before Bachler took the lead off him.
Saucy continued before he could no longer hold P1, soon falling back to third in the grasp of #46 BMW driver Maxime Martin.
The two cars went side-by-side on the start-finish straight, as the #46 BMW on the right braked late and utilised the inside line at T1 to take third from Saucy.
Most dramatically for the #81 Corvette which held a strong performance since the start, was tapped into a spin and fell back to P11 by the #35 Alpine A424 Hypercar of Charles Milesi, who consequently received a drive-through penalty for incident responsibility.
Charlie Eastwood redeemed the #81’s chances, after chased and took P4 off Gatting with a straightforward move on the right-hand side after the Dunlop Chicane.
After six-hours and 194 laps, the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 trio claimed their first victory of the season since they won last year’s running in the 488 GTE EVO package.
Second place was taken 3.7 seconds behind by the #92 Manthey PureRxing Porsche 911 LMGT3.R crew of Alex Malykhin, Joel Sturm and Klaus Bachler – who have now considerably increased their championship lead.
Team WRT took third place in their #46 BMW M4 LMGT3 for their crew Ahmed Al Harthy, Valentino Rossi and Maxime Martin.
TF Sport’s #81 Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R finished in fourth with Tom Van Rompuy, Rui Andrade and Charlie Eastwood.
Fifth place was claimed by the all-female Iron Dames trio, Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting, in the #85 Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 EVO2.
The pole-sitting #55 AF Corse Ferrari finished in sixth, followed by the #777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 and the #59 United Autosports McLaren 720S LMGT3 EVO.
Heart of Racing’s #27 Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 resided in ninth place, rounded off by the #31 WRT BMW in 10th.
