Fuji WEC: Toyota scores first WEC win since 2014 on home soil
Toyota secured its first victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship for almost two years in the 6 Hours of Fuji, as a late strategic gamble allowed Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Stephane Sarrazin to take the win.
Photo by: Vision Sport Agency
The race was controlled virtually throughout by the polesitting #8 Audi of Lucas di Grassi, Oliver Jarvis and Loic Duval, but the #6 Toyota crew was able to stay close enough in the closing stages to grab the lead in the final hour by virtue of not equipping fresh tyres at the final pitstop.
That allowed Kobayashi to turn a seven-second deficit to Duval into a 13-second advantage that he had to nurse on worn tyres through the final 45 minutes of the race.
At first, the gap came down rapidly, but stabilised at four to six seconds until the final 10 minutes, when a renewed charge from Duval saw the Audi man reduce Kobayashi's lead to under two seconds.
But the Frenchman ran out of time to get close enough to attempt a pass, Kobayashi crossing the finish line with 1.439s in hand to take Toyota's first WEC win since Bahrain in 2014 - and his own first win since joining the team this year.
Third place went to the #1 Porsche of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard, whose winning streak came to an end on a day when the Weissach marque seemed to lack ultimate pace.
Bernhard passed Sarrazin for second place after the fourth round of pitstops, only for the #1 car to fall back behind the #6 Toyota after the next round of stops. Webber brought home the car 17.3s off the lead.
The #5 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima was never a major factor for the win, settling into fourth place early on and ending up 53s behind its victorious sister car at the finish.
Points leaders Neel Jani, Romain Dumas and Marc Lieb had to settle for fifth in the #2 Porsche, which had suffered a problem in qualifying that seemed to translate into a subdued race pace. The trio lost further time with a front bodywork change at the halfway point.
Worse luck was to befall the #7 Audi car of Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer, which suffered a hybrid system failure early on and was forced to retire after a long spell in the garage to remove the front driveshaft - which rendered the R18 illegal.
The LMP1-L class was won by the #13 Rebellion, as its sole rival - the #4 ByKolles - caught fire at the start of the third hour and retired.
G-Drive wins LMP2 epic
The battle for honours in the LMP2 class was equally thrilling, with the #26 G-Drive Oreca car of Will Stevens, Roman Rusinov and Alex Brundle beating #43 RGR Sport by Morand car of Filipe Albuquerque, Ricardo Gonzalez and Bruno Senna to finally take its first win of the year.
G-Drive led the majority of the race, but couldn't quite stretch its stints as long as the RGR Sport Ligier - and when Stevens brought in the #26 for the final time, he came out just behind Senna in the #43.
Stevens went on to slipstream his way past Senna along the main straight, but in doing so he crossed the white line demarcating the edge of the track on the right-hand side, as he positioned his Oreca right by the pitwall.
The Briton was therefore instructed to give back the position to Senna, which he did before finally getting back ahead legally to grab the win with five minutes to go.
Third place went to the LMP2 points-leading #36 Signatech Alpine of Nicolas Lapierre, Gustavo Menezes and Stephane Richelmi, followed by the #30 ESM Ligier of WEC debutant Antonio Giovinazzi, Sean Gelael and Giedo van der Garde.
The #44 Manor of Roberto Merhi, Richard Bradley and Matt Rao had been in the mix in the first part of the race before its chances were ruined by a drive-through penalty for pitlane speeding and then a further unscheduled stop to repair a number panel.
Manor's other car, the #45 of Alex Lynn, Tor Graves and Shinji Nakano, had a lengthy spell in the garage to fix a starter motor early on that removed it from contention.
Ford takes first regular WEC win
In the GTE-Pro class, the two Ford GTs were in a class of their own, as Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx secured the American marque its first WEC win since its famous Le Mans 24 Hours triumph.
The #67 pair swapped positions with the sister car of Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke several times in the early running, but the battle was effectively ended when Pla suffered a spin at the end of the penultimate hour.
Third place went to the #51 Ferrari of James Calado and Gianmaria Bruni, with the #71 AF Corse-run machine of Sam Bird and Davide Rigon taking fourth ahead of the two Aston Martins.
While the British manufacturer couldn't keep up with its GTE-Pro class rivals, its #98 car was unstoppable in the GTE-Am division, as Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda and Paul Dalla Lana sauntered to victory by a lap over the #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Rui Aguas, Francois Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard.
Race results:
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Time/Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 6 | Stéphane Sarrazin Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 244 | 6:00'37.284 |
2 | 8 | Lucas di Grassi Loic Duval Oliver Jarvis |
Audi R18 | LMP1 | 244 | 1.439 |
3 | 1 | Mark Webber Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 244 | 17.339 |
4 | 5 | Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 244 | 53.779 |
5 | 2 | Romain Dumas Neel Jani Marc Lieb |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 243 | 1 lap |
6 | 13 | Alexandre Imperatori Dominik Kraihamer Matheo Tuscher |
Rebellion R-One | LMP1 | 229 | 15 laps |
7 | 26 | Will Stevens Roman Rusinov Alex Brundle |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 223 | 21 laps |
8 | 43 | Bruno Senna Ricardo Gonzalez Filipe Albuquerque |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 223 | 21 laps |
9 | 36 | Nicolas Lapierre Gustavo Menezes Stéphane Richelmi |
Alpine A460 | LMP2 | 223 | 21 laps |
10 | 30 | Giedo van der Garde Sean Gelael Antonio Giovinazzi |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 223 | 21 laps |
11 | 31 | Pipo Derani Ryan Dalziel Chris Cumming |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 222 | 22 laps |
12 | 42 | Jonny Kane Lewis Williamson |
Gibson 015S | LMP2 | 222 | 22 laps |
13 | 44 | Roberto Merhi Richard Bradley Matthew Rao |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 222 | 22 laps |
14 | 27 | Maurizio Mediani Nicolas Minassian Mikhail Aleshin |
BR01 | LMP2 | 222 | 22 laps |
15 | 35 | Paul-Loup Chatin Ho-Pin Tung David Cheng |
Alpine A460 | LMP2 | 221 | 23 laps |
16 | 37 | Vitaly Petrov Viktor Shaytar Kirill Ladygin |
BR01 | LMP2 | 220 | 24 laps |
17 | 67 | Harry Tincknell Andy Priaulx |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 212 | 32 laps |
18 | 66 | Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 212 | 32 laps |
19 | 51 | Gianmaria Bruni James Calado |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 212 | 32 laps |
20 | 71 | Sam Bird Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 212 | 32 laps |
21 | 95 | Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE PRO | 211 | 33 laps |
22 | 97 | Darren Turner Richie Stanaway |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE PRO | 211 | 33 laps |
23 | 77 | Richard Lietz Michael Christensen |
Porsche 911 RSR (2016) | LMGTE PRO | 210 | 34 laps |
24 | 98 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE AM | 208 | 36 laps |
25 | 83 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Rui Aguas |
Ferrari F458 Italia | LMGTE AM | 207 | 37 laps |
26 | 78 | Christian Ried Wolf Henzler Joel Camathias |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 206 | 38 laps |
27 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Adam Carroll Ben Barker |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 205 | 39 laps |
28 | 88 | David Heinemeier Hansson Patrick Long Khaled Al Qubaisi |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 200 | 44 laps |
29 | 45 | Shinji Nakano Tor Graves Alex Lynn |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 190 | 54 laps |
30 | 50 | Pierre Ragues Ricky Taylor Yutaka Yamagishi |
Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06 | LMGTE AM | 172 | 72 laps |
Ret | 4 | Simon Trummer Oliver Webb Pierre Kaffer |
CLM P1/01 | LMP1 | 79 | 165 laps |
Ret | 7 | Andre Lotterer Marcel Fassler Benoit Tréluyer |
Audi R18 | LMP1 | 36 | 208 laps |
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