BMW Crash Mixes Up Order After Two Hours at Fuji

A heavy crash for Raffaele Marciello’s BMW caused the order at the head of the 6 Hours of Fuji to be shuffled after two hours of racing, with the No. 99 Proton Competition Porsche taking an unexpected lead under caution.

The opening part of the 100th-ever FIA World Endurance Championship race was controlled by the pole-winning No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R of Will Stevens, who raced to an early lead ahead of Sebastien Bourdais’s sister No. 38 car.

That was the case until the first safety car period, caused by debris on track, after which Bourdais was passed by both the No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 of Paul di Resta and the No. 51 Ferrari 499P of Antonio Giovinazzi, dropping to fourth.

Having led by 8.4 seconds prior to the first safety car period, Stevens was unable to get away from di Resta as quickly, albeit he had three seconds in hand when he made his second pit stop under green flag conditions on lap 69.

One lap earlier, the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 that had been started by Kevin Magnussen came into the pits to hand over to Marciello, who then suffered a high-speed off going through Turns 8 and 9, crashing into an unprotected guardrail.

It came as Marciello ran behind the Proton Porsche of Nico Pino, whose brake lights appeared to be illuminated at the time the BMW lost control.

Marciello was unhurt, exiting his stricken BMW unaided.

The incident immediately brought out the virtual safety car, which took effect while di Resta, Bourdais and the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Nyck de Vries were in the pits.

All three cars gained significant ground, but not as much as the Proton Porsche, which emerged in front when Pino stopped on lap 71 to hand over to Nico Varrone.

Varrone led from Jean-Eric Vergne, newly-installed in the No. 93 Peugeot, de Vries’ Toyota and Jenson Button in the No. 38 Cadillac, with the pole-winning No. 12 Cadillac, now with Norman Nato at the wheel, relegated to fifth.

Alessandro Pier Guidi ran sixth in the points-leading No. 51 Ferrari.

In LMGT3, Sebastien Baud’s No. 59 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo led the way after a commanding opening two stints by James Cottingham, who passed the sister No. 95 McLaren of Darren Leung in the early stages for the lead.

Cottingham had opened a 13-second advantage over the field by the time of the first safety car, and was more than 20 seconds to the good when he pitted to hand over to Baud just before the second safety car.

Running second was Rahel Frey in the Iron Dames Porsche 911 GT3 R that jumped up the field by undercutting many of its rivals, as Frey took over from Celia Martin.

Valentino Rossi was third in the No. 46 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO started by Ahmad Al Harthy, followed by Giammarco Levorato’s No. 88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 and the points-leading Manthey Porsche of Riccardo Pera.