Toyota scored its first FIA WEC win since Bahrain 2014, in what turned out to be a wild race on its home turf at Fuji Speedway.
Kamui Kobayashi, who was in at the end when the Japanese team made a bold strategy call on the #6 car’s final stop, taking no new tyres to gain track position, took the win by 1.4 seconds ahead of the #8 Audi which led the majority of the race. He, along with Mike Conway and Stephane Sarrazin, took a very deserving victory, and in front of the always enthusiastic and knowledgable home fans.
“It was really hard, this is my home race and the team did a great job all week. We had a lot of support all week, which I really appreciate. I’m really happy to be here and have been a part of it,” Kobayashi said after stepping out the car.
It was a close race throughout between the three manufacturers, but it looked like Audi’s to lose for five of the six hours, as the #8 of Loic Duval, Oliver Jarvis and Lucas Di Grassi held the lead. What cost them though, was a series of slower stops which meant that the #8’s lead never felt comfortable.
The Audi had the luxury for much of the time from not having to run door-to-door, its pace taking the #8 R18 clear of the squabbles behind, while the #6 Toyota and #1 Porsche had near race-long on-track battles as they closed the gap to the leading Audi towards the end.
At the last set of stops, the Audi, which had to spend longer fuelling the car due to Equivalence of Technology rules, was the first in, and took on fresh tyres in an attempt to secure the win. But the Toyota crew elected to just take fuel when the #6 came in, handing Kobayashi a 13-second lead on older tyres when he emerged from the pits. It nullified the nine-second lead Duval had built up before he came in with the race winding down in the final hour.
On fresher tyres Duval was quicker, but couldn’t quite reel the Toyota ahead in, despite breaking the lap record on his first flier, reducing the gap to under a second on the final lap of the race. For Kobayashi it was a sportscar career-defining drive. It was however yet another race this year in which Audi had the fastest car, but couldn’t quite seal the win.
Finishing third was the #1 Porsche 919 of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard who combined for a clean drive to the flag, but the pace wasn’t quite there at key points of the race. The car managed to stay in the fight all the way through, climbing to second on pace at times, but in the end the reigning champs came home 17 seconds back from the winning Toyota ending a three race winning streak.
Finishing just shy of the podium was the #5 Toyota which crossed the line on the leading lap, but never really featured in the fight for the win. The same could be said for the #2 Porsche which finished a distant fifth, a lap down and oddly off the ultimate pace. Romain Dumas, Marc Lieb and Neel Jani complained of balance issues in the car affecting its pace, as it couldn’t match the other runners enough to stay in the hunt. It puts a dent in the trio’s championship lead, which is now down to 23 points as the #6 Toyota and #8 Audi close in to with two races remaining.
The story of the LMP2 field was the final 30 minutes of the race. It came down to the G-Drive racing squad with Will Stevens and Bruno Senna in the RGR by Morand, with G-Drive eventually taking their first win of the season.
The G-Drive Racing team had dominated the pace all throughout the race, seemingly having the win in hand. However, a risky strategy call by RGR to not take tyres on the final pitstop almost paid off.
Senna came off the final pitstop sequence with a small lead over Stevens but Stevens had the fresher rubber.
With 27 minutes to go a seemingly crucial move was made by Stevens as he put his car on the inside of Senna on the pit-straight. Senna’s defence was robust and pushed Stevens right against the wall and, essentially off the track. Through the pit lane exit, locking up in the first corner Stevens was able to make the pass.
But it wasn’t settled there. The Stewards decided that Stevens had placed all four wheels off track when taking the place, overtaking off track and was ordered to give the place back.
It took several laps for Senna to be given the lead back but eventually the Stewards call, was heeded.
Initially it seemed as though Stevens was flustered, running a little wide in places, and with seven minutes of the race left Senna led by two-seconds.
Though the race was not settled, Senna lost time in traffic, and with five minutes to go, Stevens tried the same move, though with less robust defence from Senna. Into turn one, Stevens took the lead, Senna tried to fight back on exit but was unable to.
Stevens controlled the lead for the remainder of the event, to take the win, Jota’s first with G-Drive in the World Endurance Championship.
In the end the trio of Roman Rusinov, Alex Brundle and Will Stevens won by 1.4 seconds from Ricardo Gonzalez, Filipe Albuquerque and Bruno Senna. Steven’s was another man who had a breakthrough sportscar drive after a disjointed 2016 in the WEC thus far.
While the focus was on the front two, the Alpine Signatech team was never out of the hunt, managing to complete the race on one fewer pitstops that their counterparts – stopping six times in stead of seven as the team ran an effective but conservative race to keep their Championship run on track.
That run though briefly looked to bring them into overall contention before cool heads intervened, Gustavo Menezes, Nicolas Lapierre and Stéphane Richelmi would though bring home a podium finish.
The LMP2 race as a hold was amongst the very best in the FIA WEC’s now near 5 year history, hard to call throughout with different strategies being employed and battles up and down the field. Indeed it seemed that both Manor and Strakka could have found their way to the podium before dropping back to fifth and sixth in class.
In LMP1 L, the #13 Rebellion of Matheo Tuscher, Dominik Kraihamer and Alex Imperatori cruised home after the ByKolles CLM failed to finish. The result sealed the championship win for the Swiss-entered squad, ByKolles mathematically out of the running with two races remaining.
It was all Ford in GTE Pro, from start to finish. The #67 GT of Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx took the lead at the start and didn’t look back, heading a well earned 1-2 for the UK Ganassi team, making its first win in the WEC extra special. Priaulx and Tincknell were both fast and consistent on their way to the win, a reward after so many tough races this season.
It wasn’t a totally clean formation drive though for the pair of Fords, as Olivier Pla had a scary moment late in the race, spinning at Turn 3, narrowly missing the #1 Porsche as it slid backwards onto the track. the Frenchman was able to recover and continue though.
Taking the final podium spot in the class was the #51 AF Corse Ferrari of James Calado and Gianmaria Bruni, ahead of the sister #71 488. Pro was, overall, a fairly quiet race, with on-track scuffles few and far between. Aston Martin’s Vantages meanwhile, came home a disappointing fifth and sixth, a tough pill to swallow after dominant runs at Mexico and CoTA. That saw Ferrari take the led in the Manufacturers Championship with a nine point advantage over the Astons today.
On the other hand, Am saw good fortune for the British team, as the #98 Aston Martin took a dominant win over the #83 AF Corse Ferrari to establish itself as the championship challenger in the class to the trio in the 458. Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda drove faultlessly and won the race by a lap, scoring their fourth win of the season in the process.
By finishing second though, Manu Collard, Rui Aguas and Francois Perrodo scored valuable points to ensure their championship lead is still hefty, it was a great drive by the trio, whose only issue was a 35-second stop-go penalty for speeding in the pitlane – They can’t relax just yet on the run to the Championship, but 18 points today was a return to form that will steady the nerves.
Finishing third in the class was the KCMG Porsche which inherited the podium place after the Larbre Corvette hit trouble, pushed back into the garage with mechanical issues, the C7.R seen crawling into the pit lane with 85 minutes remaining in the race.
Next up on the calendar is the 6 Hours of Shanghai on the 6th of November.
