Signatech Alpine’s Charles Milesi used a two-tire pit stop to get past Peugeot TotalEnergies’ Mikkel Jensen with 57 minutes to go early Sunday morning (Sept. 28). From there, he was able to hold to win the 6 Hours of Fuji with teammates Paul-Loup Chatin and Ferdinand Habsburg. It is the first win for the Alpine A424 and the first win for the team since 2022 at Monza.
“[I have] no words. It’s still unbelievable in a way,” Milesi said after the race. “It’s like a dream in a way since our first stints were looking quite bad; we were nearly a lap down. The strategy was the focus here. It [helped] us gain a lot of positions. The last stint was the longest of my life.”
The margin of victory was 7.682 seconds over Jensen, Paul di Resta and Jean-Eric Vergne. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor were third, then teammates Julien Andlauer and Mathieu Jaminet. The No. 94 Peugeot of Loic Duval, Malthe Jakobsen and Stoffel Vandoorne was fifth.
Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA swept the front row with Alex Lynn taking the pole Saturday. It was Will Stevens that led the field to green over Sebastien Bourdais.
Further back, there was some trouble to be hand. The Heart of Racing’s Harry Tincknell went too hot into the Dunlop complex and hit BMW M Team WRT’s Kevin Magnussen, spinning both cars out. A lap later, Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Sebastien Buemi was hit by Habsburg, cutting Buemi’s left rear tire, putting debris on track and causing a full course yellow.
Stevens led through the first couple hours of the race until Raffaele Marciello crashed on lap 69. The impact put the No. 15 BMW out.
Barrier repairs resulted in a 40-minute safety car period. Pit strategy ultimately put Proton Competition’s Nico Varrone in the lead after Stevens pitted right before the yellow. Additional drivers stopping during the virtual safety car period before the full safety car meant that the No. 12 Cadillac dropped back to fifth. They would never get back to the lead.
Varrone ended up with a decent advantage over the pack. Over the next 20 minutes, Vergne was able to cut into it. Just after the halfway point, Vergne made the move at the Dunlop chicane to take the lead.
With 2.5 hours to go, The Heart of Racing’s Tom Gamble lost control of his Valkyrie just after a pit stop and spun into the team’s LMGT3 entry for the team driven by Zacharie Robichon. That contact ended Gamble’s day.
Gamble was unable to drive back to the pits, eventually resulting in a safety car period right at the pit window. Vergne was able to pit before this happened, but a number of top runners, including Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Nyck de Vries, were caught out. They were forced to stop for emergency service, then make an additional stop for full service that dropped them way back.
The caution brought Milesi up to second. This was quite a change as the No. 35 Alpine had been running 13th prior to the safety car. However, that was short-lived as Estre dispatched him and took second.
The final round of stops that started with a little more than an hour to go. Signatech Alpine made the decision to go with two tires on the final stop. That allowed Milesi to jump over Vanthoor and Jensen to take the overall lead.
From there, everyone had to conserve energy to make it to the finish. Milesi ended up with a seven-second lead over Jensen. A full course yellow a few minutes after the stops helped everyone out, likely preventing a series of splash-and-go stops.
He was able to maintain that all the way to the finish.
The Heart of Racing’s Alex Riberas and Marco Sorensen finished sixth, scoring the first-ever WEC points for the Aston Martin Valkyrie. The duo had the fastest car at the end of the race and were able to make up positions late.
In the points, Ferrari AF Corse’s No. 51 with James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi finished 15th and did not score points. They have a 13-point lead over the customer AF Corse No. 83 for Phil Hanson, Robert Kubica and Yifei Ye. Four teams are still mathematically in contention for the Hypercar title.
In LMGT3, Racing Spirit of Leman’s Anthony McIntosh started from pole in his Aston Martin, but his time at the front was brief. In the opening laps, United Autosports’ Darren Leung was able to take the lead in his McLaren with teammate James Cottingham giving chase.
A couple of laps later, Cottingham was able to overtake his teammate to put himself in the class lead. Meanwhile, McIntosh slipped back to fifth in the opening 15 minutes.
Following the first FCY, Proton Competition’s Stefano Gattuso got an excellent start that allowed him to move up to second. A couple of laps later, he got past Cottingham for the lead, getting there from ninth on the grid in 28 minutes.
Gattuso’s time at the front was relatively brief as Cottingham was able to get the lead back. Cottingham and Sebastien Baud were able to hold onto the lead until after the halfway.
Right as Vergne was taking the overall lead from Varrone, the Iron Dames’ Rahel Frey was able to run down Baud and slip past to take the class lead.
The safety car shuffled things up and put Manthey 1st Phorm’s Riccardo Pera into the lead. A penalty for full course yellow procedure violations ultimately put the Iron Dames out of the hunt.
After the Manthey Porsche pitted, the race came down to a battle between the Proton Mustang of Dennis Olsen, Vista AF Corse’s No. 21 for Alessio RoveraAfter the Manthey Porsche pitted, the race came down to a battle between the Proton Mustang of Dennis Olsen, Vista AF Corse’s No. 21 for Alessio Rovera and TF Sport’s Charlie Eastwood.
Olsen’s day came to an end late in the fifth hour when during a battle for position, he had contact with Eastwood under braking for the first turn. That wheel-to-wheel contact broke a suspension part. Olsen ultimately pulled off-course, never retired the car, but was not classified as a finisher.
Rovera was able to win the battle with Eastwood and pulled out to a comfortable lead. However, the final laps saw nearly everyone have to stop for a splash of fuel.
Despite these stops, Rovera still ended up with a seven-second lead. However, his splash wasn’t long enough. He had to slow significantly on the final lap of the race, but Rovera was able to make to the finish to take the win on the road for Vista AF Corse.
Not so fast. On the final lap, the stewards issued a five-second penalty to the No. 21 Ferrari for a pit infringement. A crewmember was not where he was supposed to be back in the fourth hour when the car was leaving the pit box. That penalty was enough to cost Rovera the win and give it to Eastwood, Rui Andrade and Tom van Rompuy.
It is the second straight race in which Vista AF Corse lost a class victory due to a time penalty. At Circuit of the Americas, the No. 54 lost the win due to a five-second post-race penalty for contact.
TF Sport’s margin of victory was 3.01 seconds over Rovera, Francois Heriau and Simon Mann. Team WRT’s Timur Boguslavskiy, Augusto Farfus and Yasser Shahin were third in their BMW, then teammates Ahmad Al Harthy, Valentino Rossi and Kelvin van der Linde. Manthey 1st Phorm’s Pera, Ryan Hardwick and Richard Lietz were fifth in their Porsche.
In the points, Hardwick, Lietz and Pera have an 11-point lead over Heriau, Mann and Rovera. Andrade, Eastwood and van Rompuy are still in contention after their victory.
FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Fuji Unofficial Results
There is only one remaining WEC race in 2025. That is the Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain. That race will be Nov. 8 with coverage starting at 6:30 a.m. ET on HBO Max.
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.