Weekend Recap: Toyota Clinches Manufacturers' World Championship at Fuji & More
Catch up on the action from the penultimate round of FIA World Endurance Championship season...
Toyota Overcomes Porsche to Win 6H Fuji
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.
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Estre Hails Porsche 963 Package at Fuji as “Best It’s Been”
Kevin Estre felt that the No. 6 Porsche 963 that he and his co-drivers steered to third place at the 6 Hours of Fuji was the best the car has been in the FIA World Endurance Championship so far.
Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Andre Lotterer claimed their second podium of the season on Sunday after leading for two-thirds of the race, in Porsche’s most competitive Hypercar performance from six races.
Vanthoor seized an early lead at the first corner and remained there until the end of his double stint, as the recovering Toyota GR010 Hybrids that started on the front row worked their way past the two Ferrari 499Ps.
Estre continued Vanthoor’s good work and led through halfway, before relinquishing the position to Ryo Hirakawa who planted the No. 8 Toyota down the inside at Turn 10.
The No. 7 Toyota then moved ahead during the following pit cycle before going on to cement a one-two result for the Japanese manufacturer on home soil, although the Porsche Penske crew remained upbeat about its day.
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Kubica: Fuji Win Puts WRT in “Good Shape” for LMP2 Title
Team WRT’s run in Sunday’s 6 Hours of Fuji has put them in “good shape” to win the LMP2 world title according to Robert Kubica, who along with co-drivers Louis Deletraz and Rui Andrade extended their lead in the championship with their second class victory of the season.
The No. 41 trio took top category honors in Japanese round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, overcoming contact from the No. 23 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson in the opening hour, which resulted in a ten-second penalty handed to Josh Pierson.
While relegated to sixth, Deletraz and Kubica, on alternating stints, made up significant ground through the middle portions of the race to get back in contention and into the lead by the fourth hour.