Nielsen Out Front at Halfway Despite Early Porsche Lead

Photo: Ferrari

Nicklas Nielsen led the 6 Hours of Fuji at the halfway mark, following a lengthy spell of the No. 6 Penske Porsche 963 being out front in the penultimate round of the FIA World Endurance Championship season.

Nielsen, in the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 499P, got out ahead of Andre Lotterer’s Porsche following the latest round of pit stops after being one of the many Hypercar entries to make use of a second-hour Virtual Safety Car for service.

Both the then-leading No. 6 Porsche nor the second-placed at-the-time No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R of Alex Lynn had pitted during the VSC, which turned into the race’s second safety car.

The Dane held a narrow 0.610-second lead over Lotterer, whose co-driver Laurens Vanthoor led the majority of the race after getting around the pole-sitting Cadillac through the first pit sequence.

Earl Bamber had been running fourth, and challenging the No. 15 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Raffaele Marciello for third until the two cars collided in the third hour, resulting in a right-front puncture for the Kiwi.

It promoted the No. 5 Porsche of Michael Christensen to fourth, in a come-from-behind drive after co-driver Fred Makowiecki was turned around by the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari of Robert Kubica on the second lap.

Makowiecki was forced to pit for a new nose and tail while under the safety car period, while Kubica was handed a 30-second stop-and-hold penalty for the incident, which also collected the No. 35 Alpine A424 of Ferdinand Habsburg and the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari of Antonio Giovinazzi.

The pair of Toyota GR010 Hybrids ran in fifth and sixth with three hours completed, having been unable to challenge the front-runners in terms of ultimate pace.

LMGT3 was led by the No. 59 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 of Gregoire Saucy, ahead of Rui Andrade’s No. 81 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R in second.

Saucy’s co-driver Nicolas Costa took over the class lead late in the second hour with a pass around Tom van Rompuy, who was then in the TF Corvette and had led early on.

It came after an unknown issue for the pole-sitting No. 55 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Francois Heriau, who pitted under the first safety car period and dropped down the running order.

The No. 46 WRT BMW M4 GT3 of Valentino Rossi completed the top-three in class at the halfway point.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John