Fuji WEC: Toyota sees off Porsche challenge for victory

The #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez took the chequered flag 39 seconds clear of the sister #8 car shared by Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi, as the Japanese manufacturer celebrated its ninth WEC win at Fuji in 10 attempts.

Porsche's lead car, the #6 machine of Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer, led for just under four hours and eventually took the final spot on the podium, 47s behind the winning #7 Toyota.

Vanthoor seized the lead at the start of the race as he dived up the inside of the two Toyotas that locked out the front row into Turn 1 with Miguel Molina's #50 Ferrari making an equally impressive jump from seventh to grab second.

The polesitting #7 Toyota then driven by Conway dropped to third, while the #8 Toyota of Buemi slipped even further back to sixth behind the second Ferrari of James Calado and the sole Cadillac of Alex Lynn.

The safety car was deployed almost immediately afterwards, prompted by Luis Perez Companc stopping on track in the #83 Richard Mille Ferrari 488 GTE following a spin at Turn 1.

When the race resumed at the start of lap 4, Vanthoor led the way for Porsche, while Conway tried to grab second from Molina, only to run wide and allow the other Ferrari of Calado to get through.

However, Toyota duo Conway and Buemi were able to come back and repass the Ferrari duo before the end of the opening stint, assuming second and third positions behind the leading Porsche.

Vanthoor was able to gradually extend his lead to 16 seconds in the second hour and the gap had only come down to 11s by the time Estre took over the #6 car in the third hour.

Lopez was able to gradually chip away at Estre’s lead and reached the tail of the Porsche at the beginning of the fourth hour, but the Porsche driver appeared to have things under control. 

That was until the two Toyotas of Lopez and Hirakawa swapped positions shortly after a lock-up for the Argentine driver.

Now Estre's primary challenger for the lead, Hirakawa wasted little time after grabbing second and made a brilliant pass on Estre for the lead going into the Dunlop chicane just shy of the four-hour mark.

The #7 Toyota would also get ahead of the Porsche during the next pitstop cycle, with Hartley now leading from Kobayashi.

But what was a five-second gap between the pair quickly disappeared and Kobayashi made what turned out to be the race-winning move in the fifth hour, breezing past the Kiwi at Turn 1 to take the lead of the race.

Kobayashi then went on to build a massive lead out front, eventually taking the win comfortably to close the gap between the two Toyota crews in the drivers’ standings to 15 points heading into the Bahrain season finale.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez (Photo by: Motorsport.com / Japan)

Taking over from Estre for the final part of the race, Lotterer had no answer to the Toyotas up front, but brought home the #6 car to secure Porsche’s second podium of the season after Portimao.

Ferrari had a lacklustre outing at Fuji, with its two cars finishing more than a lap down in fourth and fifth respectively.

Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen led the team’s charge in the #50 Ferrari 499P, finishing 21s clear of the #51 entry shared by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi.

The #38 JOTA Porsche crew of Antonio Felix da Costa, Will Stevens and Yifei Ye managed to finish sixth despite an early collision for da Costa with the team’s LMP2 car for which it was hit with a drive-through penalty.

Peugeot never featured near the front of the pack after a difficult qualifying session on Saturday, with Gustavo Menezes, Loic Duval and substitute driver Stoffel Vandoorne only managing seventh in the best of the two Peugeot 9X8s.

The second Peugeot of Jean-Eric Vergne, Mikkel Jensen and Paul di Resta was classified eighth after a lengthy stop in the closing stages, while Proton team finished ninth with a brand new Porsche 963 chassis after losing time in multiple pitstops due to a seatbelt issue.

Cadillac endured a torrid race at Fuji, requiring extensive repair work after the front-left wheel came loose during the fourth hour. It had already dropped out of contention before Richard Westbrook picked up a drive-through penalty for exceeding track limits. 

Westbrook, Alex Lynn and Earl Bamber eventually finished 10th among 12 Hypercar entrants, only beating the Vanwall of Esteban Guerrieri, Joao Paulo de Oliveira and Tristan Vautier and the #5 Porsche of Frederic Makowiecki, Dane Cameron and Michael Christensen.

The #5 Porsche was involved in a first-lap tangle as Christensen was hit by Calado's Ferrari at the first corner, giving the Danish driver a right-rear puncture that forced him to pit at the end of the opening lap.

Further time was lost with a drive-through penalty for completing a full pitstop under the safety car and not pitting when the race went back to green, and two later trips to the garage for technical problems.

LMP2: WRT overcomes United to win

WRT trio Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Rui Andrade inched closer to winning the 2023 LMP2 title with their second class win of the season at Fuji in the team's #41 car.

 

The #41 WRT entry ran sixth at the beginning after Andrade was hit by the #23 United Autosports ORECA of Josh Pierson, an incident for which Pierson was hit with a 10s time penalty.

But the points-leading WRT crew was able to make up for the time loss, with Deletraz taking the lead in the fourth hour after passing the #22 United machine of Phil Hanson.

Robin Frijns made it a 1-2 for WRT when he cleared Hanson’s team-mate Albuquerque late in the race, but the two cars swapped positions with two laps to go, reinstating Albuquerque and Frederick Lubin to second.

The second United Autosports car of Pierson, Ben Hanley and Oliver Jarvis finished fourth behind the WRT of Frijns, Ferdinand Habsburg and Sean Gelael.

GTE Am: Ferrari 1-2 as #54 crew ends drought

In GTE Am, Davide Rigon, Francesco Castellacci and Thomas Flohr took the class win in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE, Flohr and Castellacci ending a six-year win drought in the process.

 

That was despite Flohr going off-track in the second hour after being hit by the Corvette of Ben Keating, who was hit with a 30-second stop/go penalty by the stewards for causing the contact.

Second place went to the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari following a charging late stint by Toyota junior and WEC debutant Ritomo Miyata, who was called in at the last-minute to replace an absent Daniel Serra.

Miyata, Takeshi Kimura and Scott Huffaker finished three seconds clear of the Corvette of Keating, Nicky Catsburg and Nicolas Varrone.

UPDATE: Kessel was handed a 10-second penalty for Miyata speeding during a late full-course yellow period, dropping the #57 Ferrari crew to third in GTE Am behind Corvette.

Fuji WEC - race results:

Main Information Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

       

Driver Info			Main Information Additional Data
Cla	Team	#	Drivers	Car	Laps	Time	Interval	Pits	Retirement	Points
1	Toyota Racing HYPERCAR	7	M. Conway K. Kobayashi J. Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	229	-		5
2	Toyota Racing HYPERCAR	8	S. Buemi B. Hartley R. Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	229	+39.119	39.119	5
3	PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR	6	K. Estre A. Lotterer L. Vanthoor	Porsche 963	229	+47.768	8.649	5
4	FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR	50	A. Fuoco M. Molina N. Nielsen	Ferrari 499P	228	+1 Lap	1 Lap	5
5	FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR	51	A. Pier Guidi J. Calado A. Giovinazzi	Ferrari 499P	228	+1 Lap	21.160	5
6	HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR	38	A. Felix da Costa W. Stevens Y. Yifei	Porsche 963	228	+1 Lap	22.078	6
7	PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR	94	L. Duval G. Menezes S. Vandoorne	Peugeot 9X8	228	+1 Lap	19.634	5
8	PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR	93	P. di Resta M. Jensen J. Vergne	Peugeot 9X8	226	3 laps		5
9	Proton Competition HYPERCAR	99	N. Jani G. Bruni H. Tincknell	Porsche 963	221	8 laps		6
10	CADILLAC RACING HYPERCAR	2	E. Bamber A. Lynn R. Westbrook	Cadillac V-Series.R	219	10 laps		8
11	TEAM WRT LMP2	41	R. Andrade R. Kubica L. Deletraz	Oreca 07	219	+10 Laps	1'27.885	7
12	United Autosports LMP2	22	F. Lubin P. Hanson F. Albuquerque	Oreca 07	218	11 laps		7
13	TEAM WRT LMP2	31	S. Gelael F. Habsburg R. Frijns	Oreca 07	218	+11 Laps	8.472	7
14	United Autosports LMP2	23	J. Pierson B. Hanley O. Jarvis	Oreca 07	218	+11 Laps	14.885	7
15	ALPINE ELF TEAM LMP2	36	M. Vaxiviere J. Canal C. Milesi	Oreca 07	218	+11 Laps	18.143	7
16	Jota Sport LMP2	28	D. Heinemeier Hansson P. Fittipaldi O. Rasmussen	Oreca 07	218	+11 Laps	26.211	8
17	VECTOR SPORT LMP2	10	R. Cullen M. Kaiser G. Aubry	Oreca 07	217	12 laps		7
18	PREMA RACING LMP2	9	F. Ugran B. Viscaal J. Correa	Oreca 07	217	+12 Laps	30.510	7
19	INTER EUROPOL COMPETITION LMP2	34	J. Smiechowski F. Scherer A. Costa	Oreca 07	217	+12 Laps	5.002	8
20	PREMA RACING LMP2	63	D. Pin A. Caldarelli D. Kvyat	Oreca 07	216	13 laps		8
21	ALPINE ELF TEAM LMP2	35	A. Negrao M. Rojas O. Caldwell	Oreca 07	216	+13 Laps	1'09.524	8
22	FLOYD VANWALL RACING TEAM HYPERCAR	4	E. Guerrieri T. Vautier J. De	Vanwall Vandervell 680	211	18 laps		6
23	AF Corse LMGTE AM	54	T. Flohr F. Castellacci D. Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	210	19 laps		5
24	Kessel Racing LMGTE AM	57	T. Kimura S. Huffaker R. Miyata	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	210	+19 Laps	33.756	5
25	Corvette Racing LMGTE AM	33	B. Keating N. Varrone N. Catsburg	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	210	+19 Laps	3.773	5
26	IRON DAMES LMGTE AM	85	S. Bovy M. Gatting R. Frey	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	210	+19 Laps	14.536	5
27	PROJECT 1 - AO LMGTE AM	56	P. Hyett G. Jeannette M. Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	210	+19 Laps	25.740	6
28	Proton Competition LMGTE AM	77	C. Ried M. Pedersen J. Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	210	+19 Laps	14.002	7
29	NORTHWEST AMR LMGTE AM	98	I. James D. Mancinelli A. Riberas	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	210	+19 Laps	3.742	5
30	GR RACING LMGTE AM	86	M. Wainwright R. Pera B. Barker	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	210	+19 Laps	2.524	5
31	RICHARD MILLE AF CORSE LMGTE AM	83	L. Perez Companc L. Wadoux A. Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	209	20 laps		5
32	D'Station Racing LMGTE AM	777	S. Hoshino C. Stevenson T. Fujii	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	209	+20 Laps	43.383	5
33	IRON LYNX LMGTE AM	60	C. Schiavoni M. Cressoni A. Picariello	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	209	+20 Laps	49.476	7
34	AF Corse LMGTE AM	21	H. Koizumi S. Mann K. Cozzolino	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	208	21 laps		7
35	ORT BY TF LMGTE AM	25	A. Al Harthy M. Dinan C. Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	206	23 laps		10
36	PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR	5	D. Cameron M. Christensen F. Makowiecki	Porsche 963	185	44 laps		6
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