The race win at Fuji sees the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Squad with a very significant points advantage going into the season finale at Bahrain.
The team and all three drivers have a 35-point lead over the #50 Ferrari crew and 37 over the #7 Toyota squad (though Mike Conway, after missing Le Mans, is now out of even mathematical contention). It was, put simply, a disastrous race for both of Porsche’s rivals. The 499P tumbled down the order in the closing stages and the Toyota crashed out after Kamui Kobayashi ran into the back of Matt Campbell’s #5 Porsche putting both cars out.
With 39 points up for grabs at the finale, the #6 needs just three points across qualifying and the race to be assured of the title(s).
There are other stats to note amongst the #6 crew, who became the first to win twice this season in the WEC:
- Kevin Estre scored his 10th WEC win, including two overall wins
- Andre Lotterer joins former teammate and compatriot Timo Bernhard on 12 overall wins with his second for Porsche.
- Lotterer has now won WEC races at nine different venues – Le Mans, Silverstone, Bahrain, Spa, Saõ Paulo, Shanghai, COTA, Qatar, and now Fuji.
- This is Lotterer’s first sports car race win at Fuji, after four runner-up finishes in SUPER GT GT500.
- Laurens Vanthoor overtakes brother Dries with now three series wins.
The Vanthoor brothers also appeared for the first time together on a WEC podium, their first appearance together on any podium since the 2019 Nürburgring 24 Hours – where Dries took the win and Laurens would lose second place post-race with his Porsche disqualified.
Special. pic.twitter.com/WLo6XGcL2y
— Laurens Vanthoor (@VanthoorLaurens) September 15, 2024
They become only the second brothers in WEC history to appear on a podium together (after Kirill and Anton Ladygin drove together and scored a podium with SMP Racing at Bahrain – their third that season.)
Both BMW and Alpine scored their first WEC podium finishes. It was also the first trip to the WEC podium for Raffaele Marciello and Marco Wittmann and Mick Schumacher.
The result also saw only the second time in the WEC that Toyota failed to score a podium finish (after 2015, when Porsche also won).
With Lamborghini’s #63 SC63 leading the race on two occasions, every current WEC Hypercar team (though not quite every individual car) has now led a race this season. Only the Isotta Fraschini did not, and in the history of the class so far, only the Vanwall joins it on that list.
And impressively, 10 of the 18-car Hypercar field have now scored a podium finish in 2024.
LMGT3
The win for the Vista AF Corse #54 is both the first podium and win for the 296 GT3 in the WEC, and Ferrari’s first WEC win of the LMGT3 era.
Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci have now been winners in two GT classes (including GTE AM), their first in WEC since Fuji 2023. And remarkable, all of Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci’s wins have been at Fuji.
Davide Rigon has now been a winner in all three WEC GT classes (GTE Pro, GTE Am and now LMGT3 and has been a winner too in all three models of Ferrari that have raced in the championship – the 458, 488 and 296.
The #46 WRT BMW scored its second WEC podium (after a second at Imola).
Manthey PureRxcing’s #92 took the title with a race remaining, only the second time this has happened in the WEC – after Corvette Racing’s GTE Am title last season.
Pure Rxcing is now the first LMGT3 title winner and the first FIA Champion from Lithuania in any discipline too.
The LMGT3 title is the first GT title for Porsche since both classes in 2018/19 and means the German brand has now scored championship wins in every WEC GT class.
