Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor claimed victory early Sunday morning (Sept. 15) in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Fuji. It is their second win of the year and puts them very close to the Hypercar championship.
“We had a good car in the race, for sure,” Laurens Vanthoor stated after the race. “We spoke about, actually, before the race, a bit of a conservative [stretch in Austin and Interlagos, because we’re leading the championship. So, we thought this might be a good weekend for us, so we capitalize on it and let’s try and move forward. Luckily, I could get past the two Toyotas quickly, which were quite important for our championship battle. Then we just had a good car and a good strategy and could get up to the to the lead.
“It’s even a little bit emotional [to be on the podium with his brother Dries] because it’s a world championship and I’m not sure that happens very often,” Laurens continued. It’s a career dream and I guess at home, my father, mother, sister and so on, they are all happy, and I saw some with a tear in their eyes. So, it’s definitely a special moment, which I think both of us will remember for a long time.”
The margin of victory was 16.601 seconds over BMW M Team WRT’s No. 15 with the aforementioned Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello and Marco Wittmann in the best WEC finish for the BMW M Hybrid V8. Signatech Alpine’s Nicolas Lapierre, Mick Schumacher and Matthieu Vaxiviere were third, followed by Peugeot TotalEnergies’ Mikkel Jensen, Nico Mueller and Jean-Eric Vergne. Hertz Team JOTA’s Callum Ilott, Norman Nato and Will Stevens were fifth in their customer Porsche 963.
Chip Ganassi Racing’s Earl Bamber started from pole in his Cadillac. Meanwhile, the pack was right him and nipping at his heels.
Chaos broke out at the beginning of the second lap. AF Corse’s Robert Kubica locked up and plowed into the back of Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Frederic Makowiecki in the first turn. That spun out Makowiecki and forced him into the back of the No. 51 Ferrari of Antonio Giovinazzi. Giovinazzi hit Signatech Alpine’s Ferdinand Habsburg, spinning him out.
The entire rear bodywork off of Makowiecki’s Porsche 963 came off in the crash. That drew a safety car. Everyone was able to continue, but Makowiecki was forced to pit for repairs. Kubica was judged to be responsible for the mess and was given a stop and 30-second hold in the pits.
Bamber was able to lead until the first round of pit stops. Here, Bamber switched over to Alex Lynn. However, Laurens Vanthoor was able to beat Lynn out of the pits to take the overall lead.
Unfortunately for the Cadillac fans, that was the end of their challenge for the overall win. A puncture put them far down the order. In the final hour, Bamber was fighting with Schumacher when Bamber was forced off-line to avoid a GT car. The result was a spin into the tires.
While Bamber was able to drive back to the pits, repairs could not be made and the day was over.
Fuji Speedway is Toyota’s home track and naturally, they would want to do well at home. The No. 7 Toyota was the better of the two and was in position for a decent finish until the final quarter of the race. The No. 5 Porsche of Matt Campbell was fighting with Kamui Kobayashi for position when Campbell went over the curb at turn 3 and spun, hitting Kobayashi in the process.
The No. 5 Porsche, which was already damaged earlier in the race, ended up retiring on the spot due to the crash. Kobayashi limped his car back to the pits, but was unable to continue.
Porsche Penske Motorsport’s No. 6 dominated much of the race, aside from a period in the middle of the race where there were multiple different pit sequences in play. Once the pit strategies harmonized, Estre, Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor were unbeatable.
The victory gives them a 35-point lead in the Hypercar standings over Ferrari AF Corse’s Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen. They will only need to finish ninth or better (10th or better if they win the pole) in Bahrain to guarantee the title.
In LMGT3, Vista AF Corse’s Francois Heriau started from pole in his Ferrari, but he dropped like a stone at the start. By the time the safety car came out towards the end of the second lap, he was already down to 11th in class.
TF Sport’s Tom van Rompuy took the class lead in his Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R and dominated the early portions of the race. However, United Autosports’ Nicolas Costa ran him down and took the lead in the second hour.
The middle section of the race saw United Autosports swap the lead with Manthey PureRxcing’s Porsche. However, once the final driver changes were made, Vista AF Corse’s Davide Rigon entered the conversation.
With 19 laps to go, Rigon ran down United Autosports’ Gregoire Saucy and took the lead away. From there, he pulled away to take the class victory with teammates Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci. A far better result for the team as compared to Circuit of the Americas, where they started the race more than 35 minutes late due to a mechanical issue.
Vista AF Corse’s margin of victory was 3.775 seconds over Manthey PureRxcing’s Klaus Bachler, Alex Malykhin and Joel Sturm. Team WRT’s Ahmad Al Harthy, Maxime Martin and Valentino Rossi were third, then van Rompuy, Rui Andrade and Charlie Eastwood. The Iron Dames Lamborghini of Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting were fifth.
The second-place finish for Manthey PureRxcing, plus trouble for the second Manthey-run team means that Bachler, Malykhin and Sturm have clinched the LMGT3 championship. They have a 46-point lead in the standings and a maximum can be earned in an eight-hour race.
FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Fuji Unofficial Results
The WEC season will conclude at Bahrain International Circuit for the Bapco Energy 8 Hours of Bahrain. That race will be Nov. 2 and will be seen on a combination of Motor Trend and Max’s B/R Sports Add-on.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the site's FREE e-mail newsletter that publishes Monday-Friday and occasionally on weekends. He keeps TV broadcasters honest with weekly editions of Couch Potato Tuesday and serves as the site's Sports Car racing editor.
Outside of Frontstretch, Phil is the press officer for Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. He covers all the action on the high-banked dirt track from regular DIRTcar Modified racing to occasional visits from touring series such as the Super DIRTcar Series.