Toyota Gazoo Racing celebrated the long-awaited return of FIA World Endurance Championship racing to Fuji Speedway with a 1-2 finish in the 6 Hours of Fuji.
The #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, and Ryo Hirakawa took their second win of the 2022 season, after their victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, followed by the #7 Toyota of reigning World Endurance Drivers’ Champions Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and José Maria López.
It had been three years since the WEC visited the historic Fuji Speedway due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the enthusiastic Japanese motorsport fans returned in as full of force as they could under the circumstances. Instead of the usual risk of adverse weather conditions that come with the 6 Hours of Fuji’s traditional calendar slot in autumn, this year the race was held in late summer under warm, beautiful sunny skies.
Kobayashi led the field of 36 cars into the first corner, and maintained that advantage throughout the first hour of his opening stint. Both cars made pit stops for fuel and left-side tyres, and Kobayashi re-assumed the lead. However, Buemi was catching up to his team mate quite rapidly in the second part of his stint. The call was made for the Toyotas to swap positions, and on lap 64, Buemi sailed past Kobayashi into Dunlop Corner (turn ten) to take the lead.
The #8 Toyota would strengthen its grip at the top of the leaderboard after Buemi handed off to Hartley. Hartley inherited a six-second advantage over the #7 Toyota, now in the hands of López. The Kiwi driver plugged away with consistent laps, while the #7 Toyota’s pace diminished due to a setup issue. At the end of Hartley’s stint, he’d stretched the advantage out to over 30 seconds.
All Hirakawa had to do was repeat what Hartley had done before him, and the young Japanese driver brought the #8 Toyota home to the overall victory. Buemi, Hartley, and Hirakawa combined to complete 232 laps, just 12 shy of the race’s all-time distance record under the six-hour format.
It’s the eighth overall win for Toyota in nine races at Fuji, since the FIA World Endurance Championship’s establishment. Buemi tied the all-time record for most overall victories in the Fuji 1000km/6H with Toyota racing legends Hiroshi Fushida and Kazuki Nakajima, with his fourth overall win in the event. Hartley recorded his third overall win, and his second with Toyota. And Hirakawa can now add a WEC victory to his growing list of Fuji Speedway trophies which include victories in SUPER GT and Super Formula.
“Fuji is my home track and the place where I grew up as a racing driver, so it is emotional to win here in a World Championship race,” Hirakawa said after the race. “After winning Le Mans, I came here and really wanted to win my home race so I felt a bit of pressure. But the whole team did a great job. I enjoyed my two stints and it was a great feeling to take the chequered flag.”
Conway, Kobayashi, and López finished second overall, a minute and eight seconds behind the winner.
“The 6 Hours of Fuji is a very important race and this is the best possible result for Toyota Gazoo Racing,” said driver/manager Kobayashi. “Everybody in the team worked so hard for this and did a great job, with no mistakes; I am very proud of everyone. The competition is intense in Hypercar but our race went really smoothly. We had a strong performance, which is a result of the big effort from the team, as well as great support from the Toyota family and all our partners. Thank you to the fans who cheered for us; it has been a fantastic experience to race here at Fuji Speedway again, especially in such brilliant weather.”
With their victory, the trio of Buemi, Hartley, and Hirakawa have drawn level with Alpine Elf Team drivers André Negrão, Nicolas Lapierre, and Matthieu Vaxivière in the Hypercar World Endurance Drivers’ Championship, at 121 points each. Negrão, Lapierre, and Vaxivière finished third overall in their #36 Alpine A480-Gibson, completing a race free of any significant troubles.
Conway, Kobayashi, and López are still mathematically eligible to take the title from 26 points back, but unless catastrophe strikes both cars in the upcoming 8 Hours of Bahrain, they will be relegated to a supporting role for the #8 team’s championship bid.
It wasn’t a perfect outing for the new Peugeot 9X8 Hypercars on their Japanese debut, but both cars would take the chequered flag without any catastrophic failures.
In fact, the #94 Peugeot (Loïc Duval/Gustavo Menezes/James Rossiter) looked to be a threat for the podium, once Peugeot finally let Rossiter past the #93 Peugeot of Jean-Éric Vergne in the first hour. But two hours and 30 minutes into the race, Duval brought the car into the garage with smoke billowing out from under the engine cover. What appeared to be a catastrophic turbocharger failure was actually a low pressure circuit oil leak. After 20 minutes in the garage, Duval was sent back out.
An hour later, the #93 Peugeot had the same issue, but it took much less time to diagnose and remedy the issue, and they only lost seven minutes in repairs. Vergne, Mikkel Jensen, and Paul di Resta would recover to finish fourth overall, seven laps behind the winning Toyotas. As for the #94 Peugeot, they had to serve a 60-second penalty stop for exceeding the cumulative deployed energy limit, which relegated them to a 20th overall finish.
“It was a little frustrating because I believe we could have fought for a podium placing had we not had the problem that affected both cars and which was quickly cured,” said Duval. “It would have been a close thing, but possible. I was a little surprised by our race pace compared with qualifying. We have closed the gap to our rivals and we now have a better understanding of the temperature window of our tyres, even though we still have a great deal to learn.”
In the Hypercar World Endurance Manufacturers’ Championship, Toyota heads into Bahrain leading Alpine, 147 to 121.
The battle for LMP2 class victory went all the way to the wire, with the #31 WRT Oreca 07-Gibson of Sean Gelael, Robin Frijns, and super-sub Dries Vanthoor narrowly winning the duel with the #38 JOTA Oreca of Roberto González, António Félix da Costa, and Will Stevens.
Less than one lap into the race, JOTA appeared to have lost their #28 car when Jonathan Aberdein was hit in the side at Dunlop Corner by an out-of-control #45 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca. Steven Thomas locked up the rears into Dunlop Corner and made contact with Aberdein, sending the #45 car to the garage for extensive repairs. But the #28 JOTA car not only escaped catastrophic damage, but Aberdein would surge through the field and take the lead in the second hour before handing the baton to Ed Jones.
However, after the third round of pit stops, WRT’s quick pit work pushed the #31 Oreca into the lead with Frijns at the helm. JOTA would persist as their closest rival, but the challenge of the #28 eventually gave way to the #38, which was also able to stretch out one more lap of fuel per stint than the leading WRT car.
With around 75 minutes left, Frijns pitted on lap 188. Stevens was able to go five laps longer before making his next pit stop, and over the course of the final hour, some wondered if the “Mighty ’38” could snatch a clever victory on fuel mileage. Frijns made his final stop on lap 215, but Stevens could only make it until lap 221 before he needed to take a splash of fuel in the final five minutes.
That was enough for Gelael, Frijns, and Vanthoor to take their second win of the season, busting a two-race scoreless drought.
WRT won the battle, but the #38 JOTA crew have all but won the war for the LMP2 Endurance Trophies. Their second place finish gives them a commanding 28-point lead in both the Drivers’ and Teams’ standings, with up to 39 points available in Bahrain.
The #28 JOTA car of Aberdein, Jones, and Oliver Rasmussen rounded out the class podium, holding off the #41 RealTeam by WRT Oreca (Rui Andrade/Ferdinand Habsburg/Norman Nato) by just 0.563 seconds at the flag. The #23 United Autosports USA Oreca (Alex Lynn/Oliver Jarvis/Josh Pierson) finished fifth in class, followed by the #9 Prema Orlen Team Oreca (Robert Kubica/Louis Delétraz/Lorenzo Colombo) in sixth, then the #22 United Oreca (Philip Hanson/Filipe Albuquerque/Will Owen) and the #1 Richard Mille Racing Team Oreca (Lilou Wadoux/Paul-Loup Chatin/Charles Milesi), who had a collision in the penultimate hour but still finished seventh and eighth.
Pierson/Jarvis are second in the LMP2 Drivers’ table, six points ahead of Andrade/Habsburg/Nato, and then a further two points ahead of Frijns/Gelael. These drivers and their respective teams are still eligible to win the title, but they know they no longer control their own destiny.
LMP2 Pro-Am honours went to the #83 AF Corse Oreca (François Perrodo/Nicklas Nielsen/Alessio Rovera), tenth place out of all the P2s, and two laps ahead of the #35 Ultimate Oreca (Jean-Baptiste Lahaye/Matthieu Lahaye/François Heraux). It was also their third Pro-Am win of the season.
With the #45 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca of Thomas, James Allen, and René Binder losing half an hour in the garage after Thomas’ incident in the opening lap, AF Corse and their drivers now lead the Pro-Am Drivers’ and Teams’ standings by eight points heading into Bahrain.
The last battle of Fuji for the GTE Pro category was won by Ferrari and AF Corse, and with their class win, reigning LMGTE World Endurance Champions Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado moved one step closer to becoming the three-time and final champions in the class.
Pier Guidi and Calado drove the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo to its second win of the season, finishing in formation ahead of the #52 Ferrari of Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco.
Calado led from pole position, but was soon overtaken by the #92 Porsche GT Team 911 RSR-19 of Kévin Estre with a textbook overtake up the inside at TGR Corner (turn one). Estre was able to keep Calado at bay for a few laps, but soon the Ferrari was able to tuck into the slipstream and despite stern defence from Estre, the Porsche outbraked itself and Calado went through to the lead.
Molina would almost have to go to the pit wall to get past Estre into second, but he was able to get the move done and make it a Ferrari 1-2.
Only during pit cycles did the #51 Ferrari relinquish its lead as the race unfolded. Pier Guidi and Calado took turns and executed their race to perfection – as did the AF Corse crew. Estre and Michael Christensen finished on the last step of the podium in third.
“We enjoyed a great race with both cars, achieving a significant result for the drivers’ and constructors’ standings,” remarked Calado. “At the start, I took first position by overtaking Estre. Then we ran a good race, always sporting, and managed the tyres as best as possible. Now our minds turn to the season finale at Bahrain, where, as always, it won’t be easy, but we will certainly give one hundred per cent as a team to secure our third world title.”
Pier Guidi and Calado, the 2017 and 2021 LMGTE World Champions, lead Estre and Christensen by 11 points after five rounds. And the Manufacturers’ Championship is practically a dead heat, with Ferrari leading Porsche by just a single point.
Penalties plagued the #91 Porsche (Gianmaria Bruni/Richard Lietz) in fourth. First, Bruni picked up a drive-through for excessive track limits infringements, then Lietz hit the Am class #88 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche and got a five-second penalty stop for avoidable contact.
Bruni is now 14 points behind Pier Guidi and Calado, but may have to play a supporting role to his team mates in the #92 car. Likewise, Molina and Fuoco are 27 points back, and they’ll likely have to be the wingmen for the #51.
In its Japanese debut, the #64 Corvette Racing C8.R (Tommy Milner/Nick Tandy) struggled to fifth in class. A drive-through penalty for track limits didn’t help Tandy, but what really hampered their race was running out of fuel at the end of a stint, costing them nearly a minute of extra time in the pits. Combined with their car not coming to grips with the track surface, and Corvette Racing will just be happy to move on to Bahrain.
In GTE Am, the victory went to the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR of Ben Keating, Henrique Chaves, and Marco Sørensen. It was their second win of the season, coming just two months after Chaves’ horror shunt at Monza.
By the end of the first hour, D’station Racing – based within walking distance of the circuit – had made their way to the class lead thanks to a sterling opening stint from Tomonobu Fujii. But the sky blue #33 Aston Martin was eventually able to grab the lead after driver changes, with Chaves and Sørensen driving to the front after Keating’s opening stint, and never looking back from there.
Earning maximum points for their pole-to-win victory, TF Sport, Keating and Sørensen now lead the #98 Northwest AMR Vantage (Paul Dalla Lana/David Pittard/Nicki Thiim) by 20 points in the GTE Am Drivers’ and Teams’ standings. The #98 Aston Martin finished fifth after battling for the podium for most of the race.
The #85 Iron Dames Ferrari (Rahel Frey/Michelle Gatting/Sarah Bovy) equalled their best result in second place. It was an encouraging result for the female-fronted crew that included a strong first stint from Bovy which saw her drive to the lead in the first hour, and strong wheel-to-wheel fights for Frey and Gatting to maintain their position.
Satoshi Hoshino and Charlie Fagg would make good on the work that Tomonobu Fujii did early on and give D’station Racing a home-grown podium, their first of the 2022 season, in third. This also means that both TF Sport-run cars finished on the podium.
The #54 AF Corse Ferrari (Thomas Flohr/Francesco Castellacci/Davide Rigon) finished just two seconds off the podium in fourth, followed by the #98 Northwest AMR Vantage.
The sole retirement of the race was the #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche (Christian Ried/Sebastian Priaulx/Harry Tincknell), out with a terminal driveshaft failure with two hours and 30 minutes left in the race. This would prove to be costly as the #77 team are now no longer mathematically eligible to win the championship.
The season ends at Bahrain International Circuit, for the 8 Hours of Bahrain on 12 November.
