Toyota survives chaotic start for one-two win at home

Toyota survived a messy start to the Six Hours of Fuji to chase down Porsche Penske and take a home one-two finish in Japan.

The number seven car of Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez and Mike Conway won at Toyota’s home round ahead of team mates Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi finishing second to complete the one-two.

With the two Toyotas on the front row, there was a major rush to the first corner with Mike Conway leading the field in the number seven car and the sister number eight alongside him. But Laurens Vanthoor in the number six Porsche Penske got a good slipstream on the leader and pulled to the inside of Conway. As they all braked for the first turn, most of the Hypercars ran off the track, including the two Toyotas, with the number six Porsche Penske emerging in the lead ahead of the number 50 Ferrari and Conway in the number seven Toyota.

The number five Porsche Penske suffered a puncture after contact from the number 51 Ferrari at the first corner. Fortunately for its drivers, the Safety Car was deployed on the first lap for a GTE AM car stuck in the gravel at turn one. At the restart, Conway tried to take second from Molina at the chicane but was shoved onto the grass, losing a place to the second Ferrari of James Calado.

Conway eventually passed Calado for third and later overtook Molina for second down the straight for second with an aggressive move into turn one. Ahead, the number six Porsche Penske continued to lead for well over the first half of the race, but when Kevin Estre took over the car, Jose Maria Lopez in the number seven Toyota began to put the pressure on the leader, as Ryo Hirakawa in the number eight Toyota caught up to its sister car.

With just over two hours remaining, the two Toyotas swapped positions with Hirakawa moving into second and then the lead as he dived past at the chicane. Estre then brought the Porsche Penske into the pits to hand over to Andre Lotterer, with both Toyotas resuming ahead of him after their next stops, as Brendon Hartley and Kobayashi took over their respective cars.

Kobayashi in the number seven Toyota caught up to Hartley, who was instructed to allow his team principal through into the lead. Kobayashi extended his lead over the final 90 minutes of the race and comfortably secured the number seven crew’s fourth win of the season. Hartley crossed the line almost 40 seconds behind in second, with the number six Porsche Penske completing the podium, the only car on the lead lap with the Toyotas.

The two Ferraris of number 50 and 51 finished fourth and fifth, respectively, ahead of the Jota Porsche in six. The two Peugeots of number 94 and number 93 finished seventh and eighth, ahead of the Proton Porsche ninth and the sole Cadillac of car number two tenth.

Toyota’s victory secured them the manufacturer’s championship having won every race of the season aside from the biggest prize, the Le Mans 24 Hours, which was claimed by Ferrari. In the other classes, WRT won in LMP2 with car number 41 with Robert Kubica crossing the line first, while AF Corse number 54 took the honours in GTE AM.

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Race result

Pos	No.	Class	Team	Car	Drivers	Laps
1	7	Hypercar (H)	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR010	Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/Jose Maria Lopez	229
2	8	Hypercar (H)	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota GR010	Sebastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa	229
3	6	Hypercar (H)	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	Kevin Estre/Andre Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor	229
4	50	Hypercar (H)	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen	228
5	51	Hypercar (H)	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/Antonio Giovinazzi	228
6	38	Hypercar (H)	Hertz Team JOTA	Porsche 963	Antonio Felix Da Costa/Will Stevens/Yifei Ye	228
7	94	Hypercar (H)	Peugeot Totalenergies	Peugeot 9X8	Loic Duval/Gustavo Menezes/Nico Mueller	228
8	93	Hypercar (H)	Peugeot Totalenergies	Peugeot 9X8	Paul di Resta/Mikkel Jensen/Jean-Eric Vergne	226
9	99	Hypercar (H)	Proton Competition	Porsche 963	Gianmaria Bruni/Harry Tincknell/Neel Jani	221
10	2	Hypercar (H)	Cadillac Racing	Cadillac V-Series.R	Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn/Richard Westbrook	219
11	41	LMP2	Team WRT	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Rui Andrade/Louis Deletraz/Robert Kubica	219
12	22	LMP2	United Autosports	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Philip Hanson/Ben Hanley/Frederick Lubin	218
13	31	LMP2	Team WRT	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Sean Gelael/Ferdinand Habsburg/Robin Frijns	218
14	23	LMP2	United Autosports	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Joshua Pierson/Giedo van der Garde/Oliver Jarvis	218
15	36	LMP2	Alpine Elf Team	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Matthieu Vaxiviere/Charles Milesi/Julienal Canal	218
16	28	LMP2	JOTA	Oreca 07 – Gibson	David Heinemeier Hansson/Oliver Rasmussen/Pietro Fittipaldi	218
17	10	LMP2	Vector Sport	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Ryan Cullen/Gabriel Aubry/Matthias Kaiser	217
18	9	LMP2	Prema Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Bent Viscaal/Juan Manuel Correa/Andrea Caldarelli	217
19	34	LMP2	Inter Europol Competition	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Jakub Smiechowski/Albert Costa/Fabio Scherer	217
20	63	LMP2	Prema Racing	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Doriane Pin/Daniil Kvyat/Mathias Beche	216
21	35	LMP2	Alpine Elf Team	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Andre Negrão/Olli Caldwell/Memo Rojas	216
22	4	Hypercar	Floyd Vanwall Racing Team	Vanwall Vandervell 680	Esteban Guerrieri/Tristan Vautier/Joao Paulo de OIiveira	211
23	54	LMGTE Am	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Thomas Flohr/Francesco Castellacci/Davide Rigon	210
24	57	LMGTE Am	Kessel Racing	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Takeshi Kimura/Scott Huffaker/Kei Cozzolino	210
25	33	LMGTE Am	Corvette Racing	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	Nicky Catsburg/Ben Keating/Nicolas Varrone	210
26	85	LMGTE Am	Iron Dames	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Sarah Bovy/Michelle Gatting/Rahel Frey	210
27	56	LMGTE Am	Project 1 – AO	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Efrin Castro/Guilherme Oliveira/Matteo Cairoli	210
28	77	LMGTE Am	Dempsey-Proton Racing	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Christian Ried/Mikkel Pedersen/Julien Andlauer	210
29	98	LMGTE Am	Northwest AMR	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Ian James/Daniel Mancinelli/Alex Riberas	210
30	86	LMGTE Am	GR Racing	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Michael Wainwright/Benjamin Barker/Riccardo Pera	210
31	83	LMGTE Am	Richard Mille AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Luis Perez Companc/Alessio Rovera/Lilou Wadoux	209
32	777	LMGTE Am	D’Station Racing	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Satoshi Hoshino/Casper Stevenson/Tomonobu Fujii	209
33	60	LMGTE Am	Iron Lynx	Porsche 911 RSR-19	Claudio Schiavoni/Matteo Cressoni/Alessio Picariello	209
34	21	LMGTE Am	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE Evo	Simon Mann/Julien Piguet/Ulysse de Pauw	208
35	25	LMGTE Am	ORT by TF	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Ahmad Al Harthy/Michael Dinan/Charlie Eastwood	206
36	5	Hypercar (H)	Porsche Penske Motorsport	Porsche 963	Dane Cameron/Michael Christensen/Frederic Makowiecki	185

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