Porsche Penske’s number six squad is set to clinch the World Endurance Championship at the season finale after scoring their second win of the season in Fuji.
The 963 shared by Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor hit the front in the early stages of the race, moving ahead of the pole-winning Cadillac of Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn.However their victory was briefly cast into doubt when the stewards announced they were under investigation for a tyre pressure infringement after the race. The team was handed a reprimand and their victory stood.
Robert Kubica, who shared the race-winning AF Corse Ferrari in Brazil two weeks ago, triggered a multi-car crash at the hairpin as lap two began, earning his car a 30-second stop-go penalty. Several cars were delayed, including the sister works number 51 Ferrari and the second Penske Porsche.
Toyota, who won the series’ last six visits to Fuji stretching back to 2016, had a home race to forget. The number seven car suffered race-ending rear suspension and bodywork damage when team principal Kamui Kobayashi collided with the number five Penske Porsche, driven at the time by Matt Campbell.
The sister number eight Porsche came 10th after Ryo Hirakawa collected a drive-through penalty for failing to respect blue flags when the winning Porsche appeared in its mirrors with Estre at the wheel.
The pole-winning Cadillac was delayed by a puncture, then retired after Bamber crashed. The number 15 BMW of Dries Vanthoor, Rafaelle Marciello and Marco Wittmann therefore rose to take second place.
The final podium position was secured by Mick Schumacher for the number 36 Alpine, which he shares with Nicolas Lapierre and Mathieu Vaxiviere, when he passed the number 12 Jota Porsche in the latter stages. That car was then pipped to fourth by the number 93 Peugeot.
With the number seven Toyota failing to score, and the number 51 Ferrari finishing a lowly ninth, Penske Porsche’s leading driver trio are now hot favourites to clinch the title at the season finale in Bahrain.
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Race result
Pos | No. | Class | Team | Car | Drivers |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 6 | Hypercar | Porsche Penske Motorsport | Porsche 963 | Kevin Estre/Andre Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor |
2 | 15 | Hypercar | Bmw M Team WRT | BMW M Hybrid V8 | Dries Vanthoor/Raffaele Marciello/Marco Wittmann |
3 | 36 | Hypercar | Alpine Endurance Team | Alpine A424 | Nicolas Lapierre/Mick Schumacher/Matthieu Vaxiviere |
4 | 93 | Hypercar | Peugeot | Peugeot 9X8 | Mikkel Jensen/Nico Mueller/Jean-Eric Vergne |
5 | 12 | Hypercar | Team Jota | Porsche 963 | Will Stevens/Callum Ilott/Norman Nato |
6 | 38 | Hypercar | Team Jota | Porsche 963 | Jenson Button/Philip Hanson/Oliver Rasmussen |
7 | 35 | Hypercar | Alpine Endurance Team | Alpine A424 | Paul-Loup Chatin/Ferdinand Habsburg/Charles Milesi |
8 | 94 | Hypercar | Peugeot | Peugeot 9X8 | Paul di Resta/Loic Duval/Stoffel Vandoorne |
9 | 50 | Hypercar | Ferrari AF Corse | Ferrari 499P | Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen |
10 | 8 | Hypercar | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota GR010 | Sebastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa |
11 | 99 | Hypercar | Proton Competition | Porsche 963 | Harry Tincknell/Neel Jani/Julien Andlauer |
12 | 83 | Hypercar | AF Corse | Ferrari 499P | Robert Kubica/Robert Shwartzman/Yifei Ye |
13 | 54 | LMGT3 | Vista AF Corse | Ferrari 296 | Thomas Flohr/Francesco Castellacci/Davide Rigon |
14 | 92 | LMGT3 | Manthey Purerxcing | Porsche 911 GT3 R | Aliaksandr Malykhin/Joel Sturm/Klaus Bachler |
15 | 46 | LMGT3 | Team WRT | BMW M4 | Ahmad Al Harthy/Valentino Rossi/Maxime Martin |
16 | 81 | LMGT3 | TF Sport | Corvette Z06.R | Tom Van Rompuy/Rui Andrade/Charlie Eastwood |
17 | 85 | LMGT3 | Iron Dames | Lamborghini Huracan Evo2 | Sarah Bovy/Rahal Frey/Michelle Gatting |
18 | 55 | LMGT3 | Vista AF Corse | Ferrari 296 | Francois Heriau/Simon Mann/Alessio Rovera |
19 | 777 | LMGT3 | D’Station Racing | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | Clement Mateu/Erwan Bastard/Marco Sorensen |
20 | 59 | LMGT3 | United Autosports | McLaren 720S Evo | James Cottingham/Nicolas Costa/Gregoire Saucy |
21 | 27 | LMGT3 | Heart Of Racing Team | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | Ian James/Daniel Mancinelli/Alex Riberas |
22 | 31 | LMGT3 | Team WRT | BMW M4 | Darren Leung/Sean Gelael/Augusto Farfus |
23 | 78 | LMGT3 | Akkodis Asp Team | Lexus RC F | Arnold Robin/Clemens Schmid/Kelvin Van Der Linde |
24 | 87 | LMGT3 | Akkodis Asp Team | Lexus RC F | Takeshi Kimura/Esteban Masson/Jose Maria Lopez |
25 | 60 | LMGT3 | Iron Lynx | Lamborghini Huracan Evo2 | Claudio Schiavoni/Matteo Cressoni/Franck Perera |
26 | 91 | LMGT3 | Manthey Ema | Porsche 911 GT3 R | Yasser Shahin/Morris Schuring/Richard Lietz |
27 | 77 | LMGT3 | Proton Competition | Ford Mustang | Ryan Hardwick/Zacharie Robichon/Ben Barker |
28 | 88 | LMGT3 | Proton Competition | Ford Mustang | Giorgio Roda/Mikkel Pedersen/Dennis Olsen |
29 | 95 | LMGT3 | United Autosports | McLaren 720S Evo | Joshua Caygill/Nicolas Pino/Marino Sato |
30 | 7 | Hypercar | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota GR010 | Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/Nyck de Vries |
31 | 20 | Hypercar | Bmw M Team WRT | BMW M Hybrid V8 | Sheldon Van Der Linde/Robin Frijns/Rene Rast |
32 | 2 | Hypercar | Cadillac Racing | Cadillac V-Series.R | Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn/ |
33 | 51 | Hypercar | Ferrari AF Corse | Ferrari 499P | Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/Antonio Giovinazzi |
34 | 82 | LMGT3 | TF Sport | Corvette Z06.R | Hiroshi Koizumi/Sebastien Baud/Daniel Juncadella |
35 | 5 | Hypercar | Porsche Penske Motorsport | Porsche 963 | Matt Campbell/Michael Christensen/Frederic Makowiecki |
36 | 63 | Hypercar | Lamborghini Iron Lynx | Lamborghini SC63 | Mirko Bortolotti/Edoardo Mortara/Daniil Kvyat |
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World Endurance Championship
- Ford’s return to boost top Le Mans and WEC classes to 10 manufacturers
- Lotterer, Estre and Vanthoor clinch WEC drivers’ title, Toyota win constructors’
- Hyundai to launch hypercar racing programme under Genesis brand
- Court of Appeal rejects Ferrari’s challenge to WEC Six Hours of Spa result
- Kubica, Shwartzman and Ye grab first win ahead of charging Toyota at COTA