Summary: A prolonged safety car period at the start of the race for the wet conditions served as a reminder of the 2013 running of the 6 Hours of Fuji, this time though, it wasn’t red-flagged! The #7 Audi stole the lead off Porsche on the first lap of the race and wouldn’t relinquish the position during the first third of the race. Alpine held the P2 lead, with Porsche (#91) and Aston Martin (#96) leading Pro and Am respectively.
The race began under safety car conditions, the track deemed too wet for a standard rolling start. The #12 Rebellion Racing R-One and #88 Proton Porsche highlighted just how tough the conditions were, spinning under the reduced speed prior to the green flag. Many teams started the race on intermediate tyres, but had to change to full-wets in the first 15 minutes of the race. Some teams opted to burn the bronze-driver drive time too, pitting to change drivers.
The race finally got under way after 40 minutes of running and Marcel Fassler was immediately on the pace, flying past both Porsches on the first lap of green. Mark Webber in the #17 went off and lost four places, narrowly avoiding the wall on the outside of Turn 3 making it an Audi 1-2, with Oliver Jarvis sneaking into second spot in the #8. The #18 slipped back, looking bogged down, leaving both Porsches scrambling for positions early.
Alex Wurz in the #2 Toyota which managed to mix in with the Audis was later hit by Romain Dumas on the second lap of running under green, trying to get by at Turn 3. The contact was light, both went off but continued undamaged.
After a few laps of racing the order at the front was #7, #8, #1, #17, #2, #18.
Down in GTE Pro there was lots of squabbling immediately after the start, but the order remained the same, it was still an AF Corse 1-2, with James Calado in the #71 458 leading the way.
GTE Am was thrilling though, with Stuart Hall in the #96 Aston driving to the lead of the class, running three-wide with Victor Shaytar’s SMP Ferrari and Manu Collard’s AF Corser Ferrari. Very brave from the Brit, but he made it stick and quickly began to drive away from the rest of the field.
LMP2 was led by Oliver Webb of Team SARD Morand with the Signatech Alpine of Paul Loup-Chatin second. The #26 G-Drive Ligier of Sam Bird sat third battling with Nick Tandy in the KCMG Oreca, who eventually climbed up into the top three; Bird unable to hold the Le Mans winner off. LMP2 was very much a jumbled affair after some stops under the safety car!
With the first hour winding down, LMP1 was still the class to watch, with Kazuki Nakajim and Romain Dumas scrapping for third place, Nakajima in the #1 Toyota put on a show to keep his car ahead of the 919 behind. Nakajima couldn’t hold the position for long though, as Dumas blasted past down the pit-straight as the LMP1 cars began to lap the GTE runners for the first time.
At the end of Hour 1 though, up front it was still an Audi 1-2 with Marcel Fassler leading Oliver Jarvis by over 12 seconds. Dumas in the #18 represented the first of the Porsches in third ahead of the two Toyotas. The pole-sitter, the #17 of Mark Webber, was down to fifth!
James Calado continued to lead Pro with five hours to go, but his teammate in the sister #51 AF Ferrari Toni Vilander was struggling for pace. Vilander was swallowed by both the #92 and #91 Porsches as the hour ended and finished it up fourth in the class.
“The Porsche’s are just too strong,” said Calado after his stint. “We can’t keep up, I had to drive over the limit sometimes.”
The second hour started with a battle for fourth place overall between Nakajima and Webber. Through the corners the TS040 was noticeably quicker than the Porsche, but down the straight it was at a clear disadvantage. Luckily for local Nakajima, Mark Webber made a second error under breaking into the final sector and lost further time. The Aussie was definitely struggling in the tricky wet conditions.
Team SARD Morand was first to pit and therefore lost its lead in LMP2, with Loup-Chatin sneaking past Webb as he dived into the pits. Nick Tandy’s pace was rapid in the KCMG Oreca, who caught up to the back of the Alpine by lap 40.
The #18 continued to climb the order at the top of the second hour, with Romain Dumas all over the back end of Oliver Jarvis’ #8 Audi while Fassler continued to gap them both as the first set of steps approached.
Michael Christensen in the #92 Porsche was on the move in GTE Pro as the LMP1s pitted for the first time, and took the lead in GTE Pro. He dived up the inside of James Calado’s #71 Ferrari at Turn 1 and snatched the place, handing Porsche its first lead in the class of the race.
Fred Makowiecki climbed in at the first green flag stop however and went straight on at Turn 1, which would result in a loss of two places. When the class was back in sync, the #91 of Richard Lietz held the lead, with the #71 second, and the #91 third.
Meanwhile, LMP2 turned into a real fight when all the teams were back in sync after their tops. The KCMG Oreca had emerged in the lead of the class with Tandy driving, with the Alpine (Chatin), SARD Morand Morgan (Webb) and #26 G-Drive Ligier (Bird) all fighting for second just behind. Tandy was struggling for grip though, going off multiple times on the wet track.
A few laps later Tandy had fallen to third, allowing Chatin’s Alpine and Webb’s SARD Mogan past after 100 minutes of running in the race. Tandy fought back against Webb all the way to the end of Hour 2, but couldn’t make anything stick until the very end of hour two, when Webb made an error trying to hold the position.
GTE Am’s running order was almost unchanged after the first round of stops. Stuart Hall continued to lead in the #96 Aston Martin, ahead of Collard’s AF Corse Ferrari and the SMP Ferrari of Aleksey Basov who swapped positions as Shayatar got out of the SMP 458.
After the LMP1 cars had stopped for the first time, Fassler still led the race ahead of Romain Dumas and Olivier Jarvis. But the Porsche of Dumas was reeling in the leading Audi, the gap just over five seconds upon rejoining the race, and the sister Porsche was reeling in the third placed #8 Audi.
Jarvis eventually fell to fourth spot, relinquishing the position without much of a fight. And with four and a half hours remaining the battle for the lead was on. Dumas was suddenly within striking distance but Fassler kept pushing and ensured the gap between them didn’t fall to under 2.5 seconds.
With a third of the race run, the order in P1 was #7, #18, #17, #8, #1, #2.
Two down, four to go at Fuji!
Stephen Kilbey
