Weekend Recap: Toyota Wins at Home in Fuji & More
Catch up on the weekend's sports car racing action from Fuji, Spa, Nürburgring...
Toyota’s Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa won the 6 Hours of Fuji to draw level with Alpine’s crew at the top of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The winning No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid finished one minute and eight seconds ahead of its teammate No. 7 machine driven by Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi as Toyota Gazoo Racing claimed a dominant one-two on home soil.
Victory at Fuji Speedway leaves Hartley, Buemi and Hirakawa on 121 points in the Hypercar standings, while a third-place finish for Nicolas Lapierre, Andre Negrao and Matthieu Vaxiviere put the Alpine trio on the same amount with only one race to go.
Alpine’s drivers arrived in Japan with a 10-point lead after winning the 6 Hours of Monza.
Toyota controlled the entire contest at Fuji, with the No. 7 car leading the first hour through pole-sitter Kobayashi.
However, the No. 8 Toyota kept its stablemate in sight and Buemi soon got close enough for the team to coordinate a positional switch between its drivers at Turn 10.
The gap dramatically increased in the second half of the race, with Hartley running 35 seconds clear of Lopez at the four-hour mark as the No. 7 faded away.
A trouble-free run to the checkered flag from Hirakawa ensured the 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning car claimed its second victory of the WEC campaign.
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Cassidy Wins Sunday DTM Thriller; Van Der Linde Extends Lead
Nick Cassidy took a hard-fought first DTM victory by fighting off Sheldon van der Linde at Spa, with the South African extending his championship advantage over some of his closest rivals.
Cassidy captured the lead of the race by rejoining the circuit ahead of Van der Linde following his mandatory pit stop, profiting from a slower stop for the South African’s No. 31 Schubert Motorsport BMW M4 GT3.
The No. 37 AlphaTauri AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 then remained out front even as Van der Linde attempted to regain the lead during Cassidy’s out lap, but the New Zealander managed to stay ahead.
Cassidy secured his first victory of the season and the second Ferrari win of the year following Felipe Fraga’s win at the Norisring, but survived contact with Rene Rast to make it happen.
Rast started from pole but lost out at the start to Van der Linde before coming under pressure from Cassidy’s Ferrari early on.
The two engaged in a lengthy battle that culminated with side-by-side contact between the two on the approach to La Source before Cassidy completed the pass at Les Combes.
Rast, who ran third behind Cassidy and Van der Linde after the pitstops, was given a five-second penalty for the contact but would fail to finish the race.
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Falken Wins Two-Part NLS 12-Hour Race
Sven Mueller, Jaxon Evans, Alessio Picariello and Joel Eriksson won the first 12-hour NLS race at the Nürbrugring in their Falken Motorsports Porsche 911 GT3 R.
Falken won by 15.2 seconds as Scherer Sport Team Phoenix, which rounded out the podium in second and third with its Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo IIs.
The 12 Hours of the Nürburgring was a new addition to this year’s Nordschleife-based series and took the form of two six-hour parts staged across Saturday and Sunday.
The second half started from the pit lane, with cars released into Code 60 speed-controlled conditions at time intervals equal to the gaps at the end of the first six hours.
Wet conditions shook up the order in the opening stages of the first segment, with Gabriele Piana taking the lead in a Cup 2-class Porsche. The GT3 cars eventually worked their way back ahead, although several including the eventual winner had off-track moments as they battled with the slippery surface.
Falken led at the six-hour mark which was reached in darkness, while the Nürburgring 24 pole-sitting Octane 126 Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 and the No. 13 Scherer Sport Team Phoenix Audi of Kuba Giermaziak and Kim-Luis Schramm were second and third.
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