Toyota Racing’s Ryo Hirakawa took the lead during a round of pit stops in the final hour of the race early Sunday morning (Sept. 27). From there, he was able to hold on to win the FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Fuji with Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley. It is their second win of the year.
“It was amazing,” Hirakawa said after the race. “It was straightforward from the safety car restart. The team did a great job on the refueling stop. I think this win is for the team and it’s great to be on top of the podium in front of our fans.
The margin of victory was .591 seconds over Signatech Alpine’s Jules Gounon and Victor Martins. BMW M Team WRT’s Raffaele Marciello, Kevin Magnussen and Dries Vanthoor were third, while the second Alpine of Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi were fourth. Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber and Sebastien Bourdais were fifth.
Qualifying was cancelled late Friday night/early Saturday morning due to the combination of heavy rain and fog. As a result, the field was set by combined practice times.
That put Signatech Alpine’s Alpine A424s on the front row with Jules Gounon on pole. Everyone started on slicks in mixed conditions. It was likely to be a bit sketchy.
The Hypercars seemed to make it through ok. However, there was trouble in the first turn. Vista AF Corse’s Francois Heriau went too hot into turn 1 and hit Iron Lynx’s Martin Berry, causing a stackup. Racing Team Turkey by TF’s Salih Yoluc and Akkodis ASP Team’s Petru Umbrarescu both spun and Berry hit Yoluc.
In addition, Manthey Racing’s Yasser Shahin spun into the gravel. This brought out the safety car as Shahin’s Porsche was beached.
Yoluc and Umbrarescu were able to continue without issue. Berry and Proton Competition’s Stefano Gattuso were out on the spot. Shahin ended up back in the garage for repairs, but did continue.
Signatech Alpine’s Gounon and Martins dominated much of the race in not so great weather. It never really rained much during the race, but everyone had to be prepared for the skies to open at any time. Fog was never far away either.
Alpine’s biggest competitors for much of the race was The Heart of Racing’s No. 009 Aston Martin Valkyrie for Alex Riberas and Marco Sorensen. However, penalties late dropped them to a ninth-place finish.
The race turned at the beginning of the final hour when Garage 59’s Finn Gehrsitz had contact with The Heart of Racing’s Mattia Drudi on the pit straight. The contact broke the right rear tie rod on Gehrsitz’s McLaren and shot him hard into the barriers to bring out the safety car.
During the final safety car period, everyone made their final stops. The No. 8 Toyota not only went for fuel-only, but a short fill as well. Meanwhile, Martins pitted for tires as well. This put Martins down to fourth.
Cleanup took a little longer than expected, allowing Hirakawa to save fuel. This was critical as they would have struggled to make it to the finish otherwise.
Once the green came back out, Martins had to charge back to the front. By the time he was able to get past Vanthoor for second, he was a couple of seconds behind Hirakawa, but on fresher tires.
With the help of lapped traffic and the fresher tires, he was able to reel Hirakawa in the closing laps. However, Hirakawa had a top end speed advantage. This made it impossible for Martins to get a run on the Toyota on the main straight. With that speed advantage, Hirakawa was able to hold on for the win.
In LMGT3, Proton Competition’s Eric Powell started from pole in his Mustang. However, before the crash broke out, Gehrsitz was able to take the lead away.
After the restart, Heriau made another aggressive move for position and immediately got himself into trouble again. This time, he managed to not hit anyone, but spun into the runoff. Ultimately, Heriau was involved in three incidents in the first 20 minutes. Despite all that, they were still in position to get a good finish until mechanical issues put the team out late.
After Gehrsitz got out of his McLaren, Manthey Racing’s Timur Boguslavskiy took over the lead in his Porsche. As the race continued on, the lead revolved between Team WRT’s BMWs, Proton Competition’s No. 77 and the Garage 59 No. 10.
When Gehrsitz crashed with an hour to go, everyone stopped for their last service of the race. This resulted in a different lineup at the front.
Racing Team Turkey by TF’s Charlie Eastwood ended up in the lead in his Corvette with teammate Nicky Catsburg close behind. Garage 59’s Marvin Kirchhoefer, driving the McLaren that was leading prior to the safety car, was third. However, he quickly faded and finished eighth.
Team WRT’s Augusto Farfus restarted in sixth and slowly made his way forward. He dispatched of his opposition, one at a time. He was able to take the lead away from Eastwood in turn 13 with eight minutes to go. Drudi followed him past.
From there, Farfus was able to hold on to take the class victory with teammates Sean Galael and Darren Leung. They are the seventh different team in a row to claim a LMGT3 class victory stretching back to last year.
The margin of victory was 1.062 seconds over Drudi, Ian James and Zacharie Robichon. Eastwood, Yoluc and Peter Dempsey held on for third, while Vista AF Corse’s Francesco Castellacci, Thomas Flohr and Davide Rigon were fourth. Catsburg, Jonny Edgar and Ben Keating were fifth.
FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Fuji Unofficial Results
The last two races of the season were originally scheduled to be in the Middle East. However, the current unrest there forced the WEC to make a schedule change.
Now, the next race will be the 6 Hours of Barcelona at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain. That race will be Oct. 18 with coverage starting at 5:30 a.m. ET on HBO Max. The green flag will fly at 6 a.m. ET.
Phil Allaway has three primary roles at Frontstretch. He's the manager of the Frontstretch email 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 Frontstretch 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.
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