Porsche claimed victory in the penultimate round of the World Endurance Championship at Fuji to close in on the 2024 drivers’ title.
Laurens Vanthoor, Andre Lotterer and Kevin Estre scored the first win for the #6 Porsche 963 LMDh since the season opener in Qatar to extend their championship lead to 27 points ahead of the Bahrain title decider in November.
It followed the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID of Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries and Mike Conway failing to finish the race after Kobayashi was involved in a collision with the other factory Penske car of Matt Campbell with a little more than an hour to go.
The damage to the #7 GR010 HYBRID was so heavy that the Japanese manufacturer was forced to retire the car from the race, putting Porsche in a strong position to claim its first overall title in WEC since 2017.
A charging opening stint from Vanthoor, followed by an overcut in the first pitstop phase, propelled the #6 Porsche to the front of the field in the second hour of the race.
Although the #50 Ferrari 499P briefly managed to take the lead in the third hour on a slightly different strategy, Lotterer was able to pass Nicklas Nielsen shortly after the halfway mark to reinstate the status quo.
The race was essentially split into two unequal parts, with a caution period at the beginning of the fourth hour bringing all frontrunning cars on the same strategy and resetting the battle for the lead.
As the Lamborghini SC63 driven by Daniil Kvyat stopped at the exit of the final corner with a terminal technical issue, nearly the entire field took the advantage of the virtual safety car period to complete a cheap pitstop.
The VSC was followed by a full-blown safety car, which eventually retreated to make way for a 90-minute sprint to the finish.
The #6 Porsche led the way with Estre behind the wheel, heading the #15 BMW of Dries Vanthoor and the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID driven by Ryo Hirakawa.
Estre slowly pulled away from Vanthoor and was able to bring the car home with a winning margin of 16.6s despite a late off in the final hour.
The #6 Porsche was investigated for a possible tyre pressure infringement, but was able to get away with a reprimand.
Second place for Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello and Marco Wittmann marked BMW’s maiden podium in WEC as well as the first in any championship in 2024.
Wittmann started the race from third place and jumped the #8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi on the opening lap to claim second, a position the #15 crew would hold on to until the finish despite diverging on strategies in the second hour.
#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Marco Wittmann
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Another first-year manufacturer recorded its first visit to the rostrum, with Mick Schumacher, Nicolas Lapierre and Mathieu Vaxiviere taking third in the #36 Alpine A424 LMDh.
Ex-Haas Formula 1 driver Schumacher repassed the customer #12 Jota Porsche 963 of Norman Nato with just six minutes remaining in the race, having also impressed with his pace early in the first stint.
The #93 Peugeot 9X8 shared by Mikkel Jensen, Nico Muller and Jean-Eric Vergne claimed fourth after Jensen also managed to clear Nato in the final moments of the six-hour contest.
That left the #12 Jota car of Nato, Callum Ilott and Will Stevens in fifth and just ahead of the sister entry crewed by Jenson Button, Oliver Rasmussen and Phil Hanson.
Peugeot managed to get both its cars inside the points, as Stoffel Vandoorne, Paul di Resta and Loic Duval took seventh in the #94 entry ahead of the second Alpine of Charles Milesi, Ferdinand Habsburg and Jules Gounon.
Habsburg dropped to 17th place on the second lap after being caught up in a Turn 1 melee triggered by ex-Formula 1 driver Robert Kubica.
Kubica outbraked himself into Turn 1 and slammed the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P into the back of the #5 Porsche of Frederic Makowiecki, who then pitched the #51 Ferrari of Antonio Giovinazzi into a spin. Giovinazzi, in turn, tagged the Alpine of Habsburg.
Ferrari could best manage a ninth-place finish, with Nielsen, Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina in the #50 car that briefly led with Nielsen at the wheel.
The sole surviving Toyota that Hirakawa shared with Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley finished a distant 10th and last of the points scorers after a frustrating final stint where Hirakawa picked up a drive-through penalty for failing to respect blue flags. He had rejoined the field a lap down on Estre after his pitstop.
Cadillac led the opening stint of the race with Earl Bamber at the wheel, before a driver change in the first pitstop contributed to the #2 V-Series.R dropping behind the winning Porsche.
Bamber was then trying to regain third place lost to Marciello when he came to blows with the BMW driver at Turn 1 in the third hour, leaving him with a puncture.
A dramatic final-hour shunt for team-mate Alex Lynn put paid to any hopes of Cadillac finishing in the points, with the Briton barely managing to bring the hobbled car back to the pits.
Ferrari wins in LMGT3, Porsche wraps up class title
#54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3: Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci, Davide Rigon
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Ferrari scored its first victory in the new-for-2024 LMGT3 class, with Davide Rigon, Francesco Castellacci and Thomas Flohr taking the top spot in the #54 AF Corse 296 GT3.
Rigon sealed the victory with a last-lap pass over the #59 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 of Gregoire Saucy, who eventually slipped out of podium positions.
The #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R of Klaus Bachler, Aliaksandr Malkyhin and Joel Sturm eventually took second, sealing the drivers’ title with a round still to go.
The #92 Porsche was leading the race under the safety car in the penultimate hour, but Bachler was passed by the McLaren of Saucy. Both Bachler and Saucy were then overtaken by Rigon in an impressive final stint from the factory Ferrari driver.
The final place on the podium went to Maxime Martin, Valentino Rossi and Ahmad Al Harthy, marking the second visit to the rostrum for the #46 WRT BMW M4 GT3 crew.