At the half way point of the 6 Hours of Fuji, there is a three way battle for the lead with Audi, Toyota and Porsche all having a chance for the win.
With the third round of pitstops completed the #8 Audi just over 100 laps into the race the leading R18 had taken new tyres but Lucas di Grassi stayed in the car. The #5 Toyota was the next to pit on lap 107, followed by the #6 on lap 108. Both the Toyotas changed drivers and tyres. The last stop was the Porsches on lap 110, again both with driver changes and tyre changes.
The crux of the story remains that at the half way point the leading Audi is at a pitstop disadvantage on their rivals. This will be key because #8 Audi, with di Grassi leads Stephane Sarrazin’s #6 Toyota by just five-seconds with Mark Webber in the #1 Porsche just a further six-seconds back.
The #2 Porsche was off the pace with Marc Lieb commenting that the balance was poor. They had replaced the nose section at their third pitstop to try and rectify the issue.
Meanwhile, in what has turned out to be a difficult race for the #7 Audi came to an end. The car had spent 80 minutes in the pits with an MGU problem but was able to make it back on track, albeit without the battery power.
They were lapping some six seconds slower than their practice pace. However, they were forced to retire with the stewards ruling that they cannot run without driveshafts as this is outside homologation.
There was also strife for the Bykolles CLM P1/01. The car stopped on turn three with a cloud of smoke. While Simon Trummer was able to get the car back to the pits, it was still in the garage at the half way point.
In LMP2 there were three constants, the pace of G-Drive, cars falling and climbing through the field and two cars fighting hard.
In particular the #36 Alpine and the #44 Manor were involved in titanic struggle. The two cars were rarely more than a couple of seconds apart and at the height of the battle Gustavo Menezes launched into the air on the outside grass in an effort to pass Richard Bradley. Neither car was damaged in the incident.
There were two pitlane penalties in the LMP2 field with a 20 second penalty for Guido van der Garde and for the #44 Manor.
At the half way point the Strakka Gibson was in the lead but owed the G-Drive Oreca a pit stop.
In GTE Pro, the Fords are dominant with the #67 with Andy Priaulx leading the #66 of Stefan Mucke with Sam Bird in the AF Corse Ferrari in third.
The class had remained relatively stable throughout the session with the Fords dominating the pack. The only concession they can give to the rest of the pack is a slight fuel disadvantage at this stage of the race as the Ferraris and the Aston Martins being able to run a couple of laps further than the Ford in a stint.
The GTEAm field was rocked as Kalid Al Qubaisi’s leading Abu-Dhabi Proton Porsche locking up and crashing in the Gulf Racing Porsche of Mike Wainwright. The duo clashed in heavy traffic going into turn one, spinning both around and with the Abu-Dhabi Proton Porsche suffering a puncture.
Paul Della Lana’s Aston Martin leads the category from KCMG Porsche of Wolf Henzler by 36 seconds with Emmanuel Collard’s AF Corse Ferrari in third.
