Fuji WEC: Toyota ties Alpine on points with dominant win

The two Toyota GR010 Hybrids were in a class of their own on the Japanese marque’s home turf, and it was the #8 crew of Buemi, Hirakawa and Hartley that held a decisive edge in race trim over the #7 car of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez.

Kobayashi maintained the lead from pole at the start, initially building a small buffer over teammate Buemi, but in the second hour Buemi closed the gap and at the 1h38 mark Toyota made the call to swap its two cars, putting the faster #8 ahead.

Looking after its tyres over a stint much better than the #7 car, the #8 was never threatened for the rest of a race that was devoid of any safety car or full course yellow periods.

Hirakawa finally took the chequered flag 1m08s clear for he and his teammates’ second win of the year following their success in the Le Mans 24 Hours in June.

It puts Buemi, Hirakawa and Hartley level on points with Alpine trio Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Andre Negrao, who finished a distant third behind the two Toyotas.

The French manufacturer’s grandfathered LMP1 was never a factor for the lead fight, dropping off the lead lap in the fourth hour and ending up two laps down in the final reckoning.

Peugeot looked like it had the pace to challenge for a podium finish with the quicker of its two 9X8s, only for both of its entries to suffer reliability issues.

The #94 Peugeot had run third ahead of the Alpine in the second hour in the hands of James Rossiter, but in the third hour, after Loic Duval had taken over, the car was seen trailing smoke, prompting a 20-minute trip to the garage to fix an oil leak.

That promoted the #93 car, which had struggled for pace early on in Jean-Eric Vergne’s hands, to fourth place, with Vergne, Paul di Resta and Mikkel Jensen finishing in that position in class, seven laps down, following a seven-minute garage trip in the fourth hour.

Rossiter, Duval and Gustavo Menezes were classified fifth and last in Hypercar, 15 laps down, also receiving a one-minute stop-and-go penalty for a technical infringement.

LMP2: WRT beats JOTA to victory

In the LMP2 class, WRT’s #31 entry of Robin Frijns, Sean Gelael and Dries Vanthoor - standing in for an absent Rene Rast - scored a second victory of the season.

#31 WRT Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2: Sean Gelael, Robin Frijns, Dries Vanthoor (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

From fourth on the grid, Gelael charged to the front of the order at the wheel of the #31 WRT Oreca on the opening lap ahead of Roberto Gonzalez in the #38 JOTA Oreca.

It was JOTA that proved WRT’s closest challenger with both of its cars in the lead fight, despite the #28 car driven by Jonathan Aberdein losing time on the first lap after being hit by the Algarve Pro Racing car of Steven Thomas at Turn 10.

Frijns led the #38 JOTA car of Will Stevens by around 16 seconds heading into the closing stages, making his final splash-and-dash with 15 minutes to go.

Stevens had to bail out of his stint with four minutes left on the clock, allowing Frijns to take the chequered flag by a lap in the final classification.

JOTA’s second car shared by Aberdein, Ed Jones and Oliver Rasmussen hung on to the final podium spot against the Monza-winning Realteam by WRT Oreca of Ferdinand Habsburg, Rui Andrade and Norman Nato.

United Autosports didn’t have the pace to threaten the class frontrunners, with its pair of Orecas finishing fifth and seventh either side of Prema’s solo entry.

LMP2 Pro/Am honours went to AF Corse trio Francois Perrodo, Nicklas Nielsen and Alessio Rovera for the third time this season.

GTE Pro: Ferrari 1-2 as Porsche, Corvette struggle

Ferrari put on a clinic in the GTE Pro class as Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado extended their points advantage with their second win of 2022.

 

Despite a fierce battle in the early stages between both Ferraris and the two factory Porsches, the Italian marque gained the upper hand towards the end of the first hour when the two AF Corse-run 488 GTE Evos established a 1-2 out front.

Over the course of the second hour the best of the Porsche 911 RSR-19s, the #92 car of Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen that had started on pole slipped 15s off the two Ferraris, which ran in tandem for the bulk of the race.

The #52 Ferrari shared by Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco got ahead in the penultimate hour and led after the final pitstops, but 50 minutes to go Fuoco dropped back behind Calado and dutifully completed a 1-2 for the Italian brand.

Estre and Christensen were 31s off in the best of the Porsches, but comfortably clear of the sister #91 car of Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz, who were handed a drive-through penalty early on for track limits abuse.

Corvette Racing finished fifth, two laps down, after likewise being pinged for track limits and then running out of fuel on its way into the pits just after the one-hour mark.

The TF Sport Aston Martin squad bounced back from Henrique Chaves’ monster crash last time out at Monza to dominate the GTE Am division.

 

Chaves, Ben Keating and Marco Sorensen crushed the opposition despite Keating briefly losing the advantage in the early stages as fellow Aston squads D’station Racing and NorthWest AMR started with their silver drivers instead of their bronzes.

Iron Dames took a second runner-up finish in a row with its all-female Ferrari crew of Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting and Rahel Frey, while D’station managed to take a podium finish in its home race with Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii and Charlie Fagg.

WEC 6 Hours of Fuji - race results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Gap
1	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	232
2	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	232	1'08.382
3	36	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	230	2 Laps
4	93	Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	225	7 Laps
5	31	Sean Gelael Robin Frijns Dries Vanthoor	Oreca 07	LMP2	225	7 Laps
6	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens	Oreca 07	LMP2	224	8 Laps
7	28	Oliver Rasmussen Ed Jones Jonathan Aberdein	Oreca 07	LMP2	224	8 Laps
8	41	Rui Andrade Ferdinand Habsburg Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	224	8 Laps
9	23	Alex Lynn Oliver Jarvis Josh Pierson	Oreca 07	LMP2	224	8 Laps
10	9	Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz Lorenzo Colombo	Oreca 07	LMP2	224	8 Laps
11	22	Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Will Owen	Oreca 07	LMP2	224	8 Laps
12	1	Lilou Wadoux Paul-Loup Chatin Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	223	9 Laps
13	10	Renger van der Zande Ryan Cullen Sébastien Bourdais	Oreca 07	LMP2	223	9 Laps
14	83	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Oreca 07	LMP2	223	9 Laps
15	34	Jakub Smiechowski Alex Brundle Esteban Gutierrez	Oreca 07	LMP2	222	10 Laps
16	35	Jean Baptiste Lahaye Matthieu Lahaye François Heriau	Oreca 07	LMP2	221	11 Laps
17	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	217	15 Laps
18	52	Miguel Molina Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	217	15 Laps
19	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	217	15 Laps
20	94	Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes James Rossiter	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	217	15 Laps
21	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	216	16 Laps
22	64	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE PRO	215	17 Laps
23	33	Ben Keating Henrique Chaves Jr. Marco Sorensen	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	213	19 Laps
24	85	Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Sarah Bovy	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	212	20 Laps
25	777	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Charlie Fagg	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	212	20 Laps
26	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	212	20 Laps
27	98	Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	212	20 Laps
28	46	Matteo Cairoli Mikkel Pedersen Nicolas Leutwiler	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	211	21 Laps
29	71	Franck Dezoteux Pierre Ragues Gabriel Aubry	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	211	21 Laps
30	56	Takeshi Kimura Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	211	21 Laps
31	88	Fred Poordad Patrick Lindsey Jan Heylen	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	211	21 Laps
32	21	Simon Mann Christoph Ulrich Toni Vilander	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	211	21 Laps
33	60	Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	211	21 Laps
34	45	Steven Thomas James Allen Rene Binder	Oreca 07	LMP2	199	33 Laps
35	86	Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	193	39 Laps
	77	Christian Ried Sebastian Priaulx Harry Tincknell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	128	104 Laps
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