Hartley in Front for Toyota at Halfway Mark

Toyota Gazoo Racing held a commanding lead at the halfway mark in the 6 Hours of Fuji, with the Japanese manufacturer’s No. 8 car running ahead of the sister No. 7 machine.

The Toyotas performed their third scheduled pit stops of the race just as the midway point approached, although Brendon Hartley was about nine seconds clear of Jose Maria Lopez shortly beforehand.

Hartley’s co-driver Sebastien Buemi started the penultimate round of the FIA World Endurance Championship from second on the grid, but took the lead one hour and 40 minutes in when he went past Kamui Kobayashi in a coordinated move at Turn 10.

The gap between the two Toyota GR010 Hybrids increased to around six seconds at the end of the second hour, when Buemi handed over to Hartley and pole-sitter Kobayashi stepped out of the No. 7 car for Lopez.

Toyota held a firm grip on the opening half, with the main battle in Hypercar looking set to be fought between Alpine Elf Team and the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 for third.

However, that was spoiled when the Peugeot encountered a mechanical issue in the third hour that forced Loic Duval to pit for the garage with smoke billowing from the rear of the car.

That solidified the Alpine in third, with Nicolas Lapierre running approximately one minute behind the second-placed Toyota.

Peugeot’s No. 93 machine was almost the same distance back in fourth, while the No. 94 returned to the track at a loss of 13 laps.

Team WRT led the LMP2 class at the halfway point with its No. 31 Oreca 07 Gibson driven by Robin Frijns.

The Dutchman’s co-driver Sean Gelael controlled the opening stint but was overtaken by JOTA’s Jonathan Aberdein right at the start of the second hour.

After the ensuing pit stops, Aberdein’s driving partner Ed Jones did well to keep Frijns at bay, however WRT gained three seconds on JOTA at the next pit visit which thrust the No. 31 car back ahead.

In GTE-Pro, Ferrari emerged as the dominant manufacturer after fighting with Porsche in the early stages.

Alessandro Pier Guidi led at the three-hour mark in the No. 51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo but was being closed down by Antonio Fuoco in the No. 52 car.

The closest Porsche 911 RSR-19 was the No. 92 vehicle driven by Michael Christensen, who sat 17 seconds adrift of the leading pair.

After serving an early drive-through penalty for abusing track limits, Porsche’s No. 91 entry lost more time when Richard Lietz incurred a five-second hold in the pits for spinning Patrick Lindsey’s No. 88 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche at Turn 6.

Still, the Austrian kept ahead of the No. 64 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R which stood a distant fifth.

Henrique Chaves held a 31-second advantage over Rahel Frey in GTE-Am, with the No. 33 TF Sport Aston Martin leading from the Iron Dames Ferrari.

Frey and her pursuer Nicki Thiim, from NorthWest AMR, got past D’station Racing Aston driver Satoshi Hoshino late in the third hour.

Hoshino moved D’station into the lead by overtaking Dalla Lana, who later received a drive-through for track limits.

Bronze driver Hoshino kept ahead of TF Sport’s Ben Keating in the second hour, but the No. 33 car stretched its legs when the D’station owner went up against Silver-rated Chaves in the next stint.