With an overall win for the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 and a second-place finish for Manthey Pure Rxcing’s 911 LMGT3 R 992 in LMGT3 today in the 6 Hours of Fuji, the storied German brand is on the cusp of a truly remarkable feat: taking a clean sweep of every WEC title in 2024.
In Hypercar, Andre Lotterer, Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor dug deep, won from fifth on the grid and as a result, have opened up a 35-point lead heading into the Bahrain finale. With a maximum of just 39 points now on offer, barring a total disaster, the FIA Hypercar Drivers’ World Championship is theirs.
“We knew we had a chance this weekend,” said Vanthoor in the post-race presser. “In Brazil and America, we were conservative and we didn’t take risks because we had a lead to protect. Today though, we needed to capitalise, things felt good and we pushed with a good strategy.”
It was a near-perfect run from the #6, the only real blemish on the day was an off at Turn 1 with the end in sight after AC liquid leaked onto the brake pedal, causing Estre’s foot to slip and miss the braking point. Aside from that, it was another flawless performance, a champion’s drive, which adds to an impressive set of results in 2024 for the points leaders, which includes a victory in Qatar and three additional podiums.
That consistency means only one other crew remains realistically in contention: Ferrari’s #50 trio of Miguel Molina, Antonio Fuoco and Nicklas Nielsen. Today’s race was a struggle for the Le Mans winners, who could only manage ninth. The 499P, once again, lacked outright pace on the Fuji circuit. The recent Evo Joker did nothing to improve the team’s prospects on this occasion and the timing of the late-race safety car cost it dearly.
In the middle portion of the six hours, the #50 did work its way to the front and led a chunk of the race. The team on the strategy desk opted to put Nielsen on a full set of fresh tyres and let him loose to gain track position. He stormed to the front and for a time it looked like a masterstroke.
But race control’s decision to neutralise the field in the fifth hour to recover the stranded Lamborghini proved to be a major setback when on older tyres the 499P simply didn’t have the pace to match or better the cars at the sharp end. Consequently, the #50 crew now have to win in Bahrain to have any shot at glory, and in the Manufacturers’ battle, Ferrari needs to overcome a 27-point deficit.
Ferdinando Canizzo, the team’s head of endurance race cars, insists Ferrari hasn’t given up, but he acknowledged after the race realistically, it’s “game over”.
As for Toyota’s contenders in the #7 GR010 HYBRID – Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries – their title dreams are all but over and on a day in which they hoped to claim a 10th win in 11 WEC races on home soil.
Instead of extending the win streak, the #7 retired. Kobayashi’s overly ambitious move on the #5 Porsche at Turn 3 late in the race led to terminal damage, leaving himself and his full-season teammate 37 points adrift. To make matters worse, the sister car also lost out on a podium to a penalty for ignoring blue flags.
Not all is lost for Toyota, as it remains in the Manufacturers’ World Championship hunt, 10 points behind Porsche. But make no mistake, this was a disastrous weekend for a brand which has become accustomed to winning major races and titles regularly. All of a sudden, it needs a standout weekend in Sakhir, and its fair share of luck, to come away with anything.
Adding to Porsche’s Hypercar successes, Hertz Team JOTA’s #12 963 wrapped up the Hypercar World Cup for private teams today too. A fifth-place finish for Norman Nato, Will Stevens and Callum Ilott and a calamitous outing for the #83 AF Corse Ferrari was enough to seal it.
That of course, wasn’t the only title win for Porsche this evening, as Manthey Pure Rxcing wrapped up the LMGT3 teams’ championship and Joel Sturm, Alex Malykhin and Klaus Bachler took the drivers’ title with yet another dazzling performance.
The team’s decision to keep Malykhin in the car for over two hours early in the race and conserve tyres proved to be the right one; it left Bachler with fresh rubber and a chance to attack at the end.
Crucially though, they capitalised on the dose of luck they were served in the form of a perfectly timed safety car. Despite hauling 40 kilos of ballast down the pit straight each lap, the advantage that gave them ultimately meant they found themselves fighting for a podium from 14th on the grid.
Pure Rxcing’s achievements this season deserve real recognition. In its debut WEC season, the Edgar Kochanovskij-led team has managed to orchestrate one of the most ruthless campaigns in the championship’s history. Second place at Fuji means the Le Mans 24 Hours is still the only race the #92 has finished off the podium. But missing out on a strong double points haul in France, as it’s turned out, didn’t matter in its pursuit of the title.
In the shorter races, the Pure Rxcing crew have met every challenge thrown their way and put together a fairytale run. As a reward for their efforts, Malykhin, Bachler and Sturm head to Bahrain as champions with the pressure off, knowing a memorable night awaits them at the end-of-season beach party.
For Porsche, the 2024 FIA WEC season has been one for the ages. Pure Rxcing and Cadillac-bound Hertz Team JOTA have played their part in its pursuit of all five titles. Now it’s over to Penske to finish the job.
