There’s nothing unusual in Toyota winning a World Endurance Championship round at Fuji. Victory for Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa last weekend was the eighth in nine attempts since the rebirth of the series in 2012. What was atypical on Sunday was that they pretty much destroyed their team-mates in the sister GR010 HYBRID on the way to one-minute winning margin at the head of a Toyota 1-2.
The #8 car looked pretty much unbeatable from late in the second hour when Buemi took over the lead from pole winner Kamui Kobayashi in #7 shared with Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez. The Swiss more or less disappeared after his team principal ceded position into Turn 10 at the start of the twiddly third sector of the 2.84-mile Fuji Speedway on lap 64.
