Alpine in Command After Three Hours at Fuji

Alpine held a solid lead at the head of the field at the halfway point of the 6 Hours of Fuji round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, with the two A424s well established in first and second after three hours of racing.

Ferdinand Habsburg in the No. 35 Alpine had just passed the sister No. 36 car of Victor Martins for the lead just before the clock ticked past 2 p.m. local time, after an opening half punctuated by two safety car periods and the same number of full-course yellows.

Best of the rest was the No. 007 Aston Martin Valkyrie with Tom Gamble at the wheel, 10.5 seconds behind.

Polesitter Jules Gounon and Habsburg maintained Alpine’s formation at the head of the field at the start as Daniel Juncadella’s Genesis GMR-001 held off the two Heart of Racing Team Valkyries in the battle for third, that order holding after an early safety car period caused by LMGT3 chaos at Turn 1.

Once the race resumed, positions remained relatively static, although Nyck de Vries was a notable early stopper in the No. 7 Toyota TR010 Hybrid after a slow puncture and Andre Lotterer’s Medium tire-shod Genesis struggled against the Soft-shod majority.

After the first round of stops around the one-hour mark, the No. 35 Alpine temporarily gained the upper hand as Habsburg stayed aboard and Gounon handed over the No. 36 car to Martins — with an off-sequence de Vries promoted to second until he spun after contact with Habsburg at the final corner.

Moments later, a virtual safety car was called as Gray Newell’s Aston Martin LMGT3 car stopped after a spin at Turn 5, the result of a spin after the slightest of touches with Loic Duval’s No. 94 Peugeot 9X8.

That effectively put the No. 36 car back in the lead as the entire field took the chance to top up on energy, with Habsburg dropping back behind Tincknell — who gained the advantage over Juncadella’s Genesis in the first round of stops — to third.

However, Habsburg was able to wrest the position back to a restore the previous Alpine 1-2 before pulling away, albeit initially unable to keep up with Martins up ahead.

That was until Martins suffered a loss of pace on his double-stinted Softs, allowing Habsburg in front, with the two cars split by two tenths at the three-hour mark.

With Juncadella dropping positions just before the second stops, the No. 009 Aston Martin that Marco Sorensen handed over to Alex Riberas had established itself in fourth at halfway after an entertaining battle with the No. 8 Toyota.

After a number of failed attempts at Turn 1, Riberas managed to pass Brendon Hartley for fourth with a bold lunge up the inside at Turn 10 just before halfway, and was 33 seconds off the lead at the halfway mark.

Hartley held fifth ahead of Sebastien Bourdais in the No. 38 Cadillac V-Series.R, while Paul-Loup Chatin ran seventh in the lead Genesis ahead of Mike Conway’s No. 7 Toyota.

Best of the Ferrari 499Ps was the No. 50 machine of Miguel Molina in ninth, while Norman Nato made up the top ten in the No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA entry.

BMW’s points-leading No. 20 M Hybrid V8 made good early progress from 17th and last in the hands of Rene Rast, who went longer on fuel than any other driver in the opening stint, but that was undone when the German picked up a right-rear puncture after a touch from behind from the No. 51 Ferrari in a battle for position.

Sheldon van der Linde, taking over the car from Rast, ran 15th at halfway.

The No. 93 Peugeot became the first retirement in Hypercar when Paul di Resta suffered a terminal gearbox problem at the two-hour mark.

In LMGT3, the No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO of Sean Gelael led the class at halfway, as the second safety car period ruined the strategy of the Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo that had built up a significantly early lead.

Garage 59 elected for FIA Silver-rated Finn Gehrsitz to take the start in the No. 58 machine, and the German had pulled out a lead upwards of 50 seconds before it was effectively wiped out, leaving Bronze-rated Alexander West powerless to avoid slipping down the order when he took over the car.

TF Sport Corvette driver Jonny Edgar moved into the lead at this point, chased hard by the No. 91 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R Evo of Timur Boguslavskiy — which gained a cheap first pit stop under the virtual safety car period — and the No. 32 BMW of Gelael.

However, these three cars were running a contra-strategy with their fourth pit stops coming almost exactly on the halfway mark; Edgar pitted the No. 33 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R just before the three-hour mark to concede the lead to Gelael.

Esteban Masson was second in the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 ahead of Ben Tuck’s No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 EVO, the leading car on the more conventional strategy as Eric Powell stayed out longer than many of his fellow Bronzes.

Boguslavskiy was fourth, and still due a pit stop, having picked up a drive-through penalty for a yellow flag infringement.

A multi-car collision at Turn 1, triggered by Francois Heriau’s No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo arriving too hot on the inside, left multiple cars facing the wrong way and sent three entries into the garage almost immediately.

The No. 88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 EVO and No. 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo subsequently retired, while the No. 92 Manthey Porsche rejoined some six laps down after shedding its rear bodywork on the way into the pits.