Toyota Overcomes Porsche to Win 6H Fuji

Photo: James Moy/Toyota

Toyota Gazoo Racing has come out on top of Sunday’s 6 Hours of Fuji in a hard-fought battle with Porsche Penske Motorsport, which led for nearly two-thirds of the race with its No. 6 Porsche 963.

The No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez kept their title hopes alive with the trio’s fourth victory of the FIA World Endurance Championship season.

Kobayashi crossed the line 31.119 seconds ahead of the sister No. 8 Toyota of Brendon Hartley, in a 1-2 result for the Japanese manufacturer on home soil, while also clinching the manufacturers’ world championship with one race still to spare.

It came despite the No. 6 Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer having led for the first 3 hours and 58 minutes of the race until the No. 8 car of Ryo Hirakawa took over the top spot moments before Estre’s pit stop with just over two hours to go.

A position swap between the two Toyotas with 1 hour and 38 minutes left on the clock put Kobayashi out front and en route to Toyota’s sixth consecutive win in the event.

Hartley struggled in the No. 8 Toyota’s closing double stint, with Lotterer coming within nine seconds of the Kiwi to complete the podium in the Penske Porsche, which made an early first pit stop due to a fuel issue and also had a reported upshifting issue in the second hour during Estre’s stanza.

The pair of AF Corse-run Ferrari 499Ps finished fourth and fifth, keeping the drivers’ world championship alive heading into November’s season finale in Bahrain.

Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen were fourth, with the No. 51 Ferrari of Antonio Giovinazzi, Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado completing the top-five and provisionally sit 31 points behind leaders Toyota’s Hartley, Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi.

Sunday’s winning trio, meanwhile, are 15 points from the No. 8 Toyota crew.

The No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 was sixth, bouncing back from a drive-through penalty for Antonio Felix da Costa making contact with the sister LMP2 car of David Heinemeier Hansson at the end of the opening hour.

The privateer Porsche squad finished ahead of both factory Peugeot 9X8s, including the No. 93 machine that faced hydraulic issues in the final hour.

Proton Competition’s No. 99 Porsche was ninth after multiple delays due to a faulty seat belt, while the No. 2 Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R also spent time in the garage after losing its left-front wheel while in the hands of Earl Bamber, among other setbacks.

While the Gibson-powered Vanwall was wheeled into the garage in the final hour with a fluid leak, the No. 5 Penske Porsche finished more than 40 laps behind due to a power steering and other technical issue after an opening lap tire puncture from contact with another Hypercar entry.

WRT, AF Corse Come Claim Class Honors

Team WRT inched closer to securing the LMP2 title with the No. 41 Oreca 07 Gibson of Louis Deletraz, Robert Kubica and Rui Andrade taking their second class victory of the season.

Kubica finished 1 minute and 7 seconds clear of the No. 22 United Autosports entry of Filipe Albuquerque, who got by the No. 31 WRT Oreca of Robin Frijns with two laps to go after the two collided while battling for position with ten minutes remaining.

No further action was made by the stewards for the incident, which saw side-to-side contact between the two cars.

United’s No. 23 Oreca was classified fourth in class, ahead of the best of the Signatech-run Alpine entries, which completed the top-five.

Inter Europol Competition, which entered the weekend as the No. 41 WRT car’s closest challenger, was classified ninth in class.

GTE-Am class honors, meanwhile, went to the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of Davide Rigon, Francesco Castellacci and Thomas Flohr after multiple setbacks and penalties for champions-elect Corvette Racing.

Rigon finished 19.020 seconds ahead of WEC debutant Ritomo Miyata in the No. 57 Kessel Racing Ferrari to give Castellacci and Flohr their first championship victory since Fuji 2017.

The class pole-sitting Corvette came home third after receiving a 30-second stop-and-hold penalty for avoidable contact between Ben Keating and Flohr in the third hour, which also led to the Pratt Miller-run team being forced to replace the car’s right-side door due to a broken leader light system.

It was coupled with a ten-second penalty added to the car’s final stop due to contact with the No. 86 GR Racing Porsche in the fifth hour. Keating, Nico Varrone and Nicky Catsburg completed the race by making one less full regularly scheduled stop than their competition.

RESULTS: 6 Hours of Fuji

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