Porsche’s No. 6 Crew On Cusp of Title with Fuji Win

Porsche Penske Motorsport drivers Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Andre Lotterer took a major step towards the FIA World Endurance Championship crown with victory in the 6 Hours of Fuji, as Toyota’s main title contender retired after a crash with the other factory Porsche 963.

The No. 6 Porsche entry emerged from a chaotic race that featured three safety car periods and a further two full-course yellows with a second win of the season, becoming the first car to win multiple races so far this year.

With the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid failing to score points and the No. 50 Ferrari 499P only finishing ninth, it means Estre, Vanthoor and Lotterer head to the Bahrain season finale with a comfortable 35-point lead with 39 left to play for.

Shortly after the finish, the victory for the No. 6 Porsche was thrown into doubt by an investigation for a tire pressure infringement, but the crew was given only a reprimand.

Not long after the halfway mark, Lotterer eased ahead of Nicklas Nielsen’s Ferrari to retake the lead, having briefly been jumped at the previous round of pitstops.

At that stage, the main threat appeared to come from the No. 7 Toyota, as Nyck de Vries took fuel only during a stop in the middle of the fourth hour to leapfrog ahead of Lotterer.

But that strategic gambit failed to play out as the solo Lamborghini SC63 ground to a halt with a drivetrain issue in the fifth hour, necessitating a virtual safety car period in which almost the full Hypercar field elected to pit before a full safety car period.

That left the No. 7 Toyota, now in the hands of Kamui Kobayashi, down in eighth position for the restart, with Matt Campbell’s No. 5 Penske Porsche just behind.

A handful of laps later, both drivers were engaged in a fierce battle when Kobayashi appeared to make contact with Campbell heading into the fast Turn 3 left-hander, leaving both cars with terminal damage and all but ending Toyota’s title ambitions.

At the head of the field, Estre was able to ease away from the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid of Dries Vanthoor in the closing stages and ultimately secure the win by 16.601 seconds.

Vanthoor and his teammates in the No. 15 car, Marco Wittmann and Raffaele Marciello, delivered BMW its first-ever WEC podium with second place, while Alpine also took its maiden top-three finish with its new A424.

Charles Milesi looked on course to bring home the No. 35 entry he shares with Jules Gounon and Ferdinand Habsburg third in the closing stages after passing the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Ryo Hirakawa not long after the final restart.

That was until Milesi was handed a drive-through penalty for an earlier collision with the No. 81 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, promoting Hirakawa back to third.

Hirakawa was then given a drive-through penalty of his own for failing to respect blue flags when he was being lapped by Estre early in the final hour after his last pit stop.

That meant the final podium position was fought between the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche of Norman Nato and Mick Schumacher in the No. 36 Alpine, with JOTA having elected to not change tires at the final round of stops with both of its cars.

With a tire advantage, Schumacher was able to get ahead of Nato inside the final ten minutes and bring home third place in the car he shares with Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere.

Two laps later, Nato fell victim to a charging Mikkel Jensen, who delivered Peugeot its best finish with the revised 9X8 2024 in fourth place alongside Jean-Eric Vergne and Nico Mueller.

Fifth place for Nato, Will Stevens and Callum Ilott was still enough to make them the lead privateer car home, wrapping up the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams with a race to spare, while sixth went to the sister No. 38 JOTA Porsche.

Milesi recovered to seventh in the No. 35 Alpine, ahead of the No. 94 Peugeot, while the No. 50 Ferrari of Nielsen, Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco struggled to ninth, marking the Italian marque’s worst-ever WEC finish with the 499P.

Hirakawa claimed the final point in the No. 8 Toyota he shared with Brendon Hartley and Sebastien Buemi, completing a nightmare race on home turf.

The pole-sitting No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R, which dropped down the order following its puncture shortly before halfway, was eliminated from the race when Earl Bamber crashed at the long Turn 4 right-hander while battling one of the Alpines.

The New Zealander was able to drag the severely-damaged car back to the pits, but the car did not return to the track thereafter.

Also failing to finish was the No. 51 Ferrari, which was already down the order following the second-lap melee triggered by the third-string No. 83 Ferrari before finally retiring with an ERS electronic power control issue.

Manthey PureRxcing Clinches LMGT3 Title; AF Corse Wins

Victory in LMGT3 went to the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Davide Rigon, Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci, but second place for the No. 92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R was enough to make Alex Malykhin, Joel Sturm and Klaus Bachler champions with a round to spare.

The No. 92 crew completed a remarkable recovery from 14th on the grid, helped by being one a handful of teams to be able to complete its final driver change under yellow.

This catapulted Bachler into a three-way fight for victory together with Rigon’s Ferrari and the No. 59 United Autosports McLaren 720s GT3 Evo, which had taken advantage of an earlier caution period to force its way into victory contention.

Rigon passed Bachler for the lead just before the five-hour mark, albeit the Italian briefly dropped back to third place during the final round of stops.

The United car briefly regained the advantage as Nicolas Costa handed over to Gregoire Saucy at the final round of stops, but Saucy couldn’t hang on, surrendering the lead to Rigon at Turn 10.

Bachler soon found his way past a struggling Saucy to take second, which was enough to guarantee he, Malykhin and Sturm the LMGT3 title with the sister No. 91 Manthey EMA Porsche failing to score after a late puncture.

Maxime Martin then passed Saucy to grab third for the No. 31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 he shares with Valentino Rossi and Ahmad Al Harthy.

Completing the top five were the No. 81 TF Sport Corvette of Charlie Eastwood, Rui Andrade and Tom van Rompuy, having been delayed by the earlier contact with Milesi’s Alpine Hypercar, and the Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting.

On old tires, Saucy plummeted down the order in the closing stages, with he and teammates Costa and James Cottingham ending up eighth.

RESULTS: 6 Hours of Fuji