Toyota pulled off a strategic masterclass towards the end of the Fuji 6 Hours to claim a narrow World Endurance Championship victory over pre-race favourite Alpine.
Ryo Hirakawa, Brendon Hartley and Sebastien Buemi emerged victorious in the #8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid after the Japanese manufacturer made a shorter pitstop under the final Virtual Safety car to grant Hirakawa track position.
For the majority of the race, Alpine appeared on course to repeat its victory from last year, with the two A424 LMDhs holding on to a comfortable 1-2 after locking out the front row.
But a late safety car in the final hour threw a spanner in the works, with Toyota and BMW throwing the dice in the pitstops to grab first and second positions.
Victor Martins in the polesitting #36 Alpine put on an impressive fightback when the race resumed with just 20 minutes left on the clock, jumping from fourth to second behind the race-leading Toyota of Hirakawa.
But Hirakawa held off Martins in the final laps of the race, taking the chequered flag by 0.591s to deliver Toyota its third victory of the season.
When the race got underway at 11am local time, Jules Gounon led the field from pole position in the #36 Alpine he shares with Victor Martins, with team-mate Ferdinand Habsburg holding off the fast-starting #19 Genesis of Dani Juncadella to maintain a 1-2 for the French manufacturer.
#36 Alpine Endurance Team Alpine A424: Jules Gounon, Frederic Makowiecki, Victor Martins
Photo by: JEP
But while it was a clean start in Hypercar, AF Corse driver Francois Heriau triggered a major multi-car pile-up in the LMGT3 class, bringing out the safety car.
There were no major changes in the top class when the race resumed, but Nyck de Vries had to bring the #7 Toyota TR010 into the pits shortly afterwards for an unscheduled stop after suffering a puncture.
The alternative strategy elevated de Vries to second place after others completed their scheduled pitstops, with Habsburg now leading in the #35 Alpine as the sister car dropped to third after losing time during a driver change.
Carrying less fuel than rivals, de Vries attempted a pass on Habsburg for the lead into the final corner, only to be spun around by the Austrian. This left the two Alpines back in first and second positions, with the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie emerging as their closest challenger after Harry Tincknell jumped Juncadella’s Genesis in the pits.
Another safety car was called in the second hour after a GT3 car stopped on track, with the two Alpines swapping positions again in the pits. Martins reclaimed the lead in the #36 Alpine, while Habsburg briefly dropped to third before repassing Tincknell for second.
Martins initially pulled away from the chasing pack at the restart, but began to struggle on his used soft tyres in the third hour, allowing Habsburg to reclaim the lead just before the halfway point of the race.
In the fourth hour, both Alpines were leapfrogged by the #007 Aston Martin, with an undercut propelling Tincknell’s team-mate Tom Gamble to the front of the field.
#007 Aston Martin Thor Team Aston Martin Valkyrie: Harry Tincknell, Tom Gamble, #009 Aston Martin Thor Team Aston Martin Valkyrie: Alex Riberas, Marco Sorensen
Photo by: JEP
However, Aston’s stint at the front turned out to be short-lived, with Gamble handed a drive-through penalty for a pitlane infringement. He had been chasing Martins for second place in the fourth hour when he crossed the white line at the pitlane entry.
With the #007 dropping back down the order, Alpine regained the lead of the race, although both its cars swapped yet again, with the #36 jumping ahead of the #35 in the next pitstop cycle under a VSC.
The race was neutralised at the beginning of the final hour when one of the Garage 59’s McLaren LMGT3s cars crashed heavily into the barrier after contact with an Aston Martin from the same class.
Both Toyota and BMW rolled the dice, electing to change just one tyre on the #8 TR010 and the #15 M Hybrid V8 respectively as the entire field dived into the pits.
This elevated the #8 Toyota from seventh to the lead, while Alpine’s highest-placed car was now the #35 A424 in third, while the erstwhile leading #36 car dropped to fifth behind the #009 Aston Martin after a slow pitstop.
Still, the #36 Alpine appeared to be the fastest car in the field in the hands of Martins, who made light work of the #009 Aston and the sister car driven by Charles Milesi.
After clearing the #15 BMW of Dries Vanthoor with 10 minutes left on the clock, he set off after Hirakawa, circulating less than a second behind him in the final laps.
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TR010: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa
Photo by: JEP
However, home hero Hirakawa had no trouble keeping Martins at bay, as Toyota celebrated its first WEC win in Japan since 2023.
Martins and Gounon had to settle for third in the #36 Alpine, while the final spot on the podium went to the #15 BMW of Vanthoor, Kevin Magnussen and Raffaele Marciello.
The #35 Alpine shared by Habsburg and Milesi eventually took the chequered flag in fourth, ahead of the #38 Jota Cadillac V-Series.R of Jack Aitken, Sebastien Bourdais and Earl Bamber.
The sole-surviving Peugeot of Loic Duval, Malthe Jakobsen and Theo Pourchaire took sixth ahead of the second Cadillac driven by Will Stevens and Norman Nato.
De Vries, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway recovered from a drive-through penalty for a VSC infringement to finish eighth in the #7 and take control of the Hypercar standings.
The top 10 was completed by the #51 Ferrari 499P of Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi and the #009 Aston Martin of Marco Sorensen and Alex Riberas.
It was a disastrous race for the #20 BMW, which had started the race jointly leading the championship alongside the #7 Toyota. Rene Rast put together a brilliant stint in the opening hour to climb from 17th to ninth, while also saving enough fuel to go two hours longer than the rivals. But the #20 BMW’s race unravelled in the second hour when Rast made contact with the #51 Ferrari of James Calado while running in traffic, picking up a puncture.
Another incident between Rast’s team-mate Sheldon van der Linde and the #51 Ferrari then driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi further put paid to BMW’s chances of scoring points.
BMW wins in LMGT3
#32 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 EVO: Darren Leung, Sean Gelael, Augusto Farfus
Photo by: Jakob Ebrey / LAT Images via Getty Images
WRT claimed top honours in the LMGT3 class, with Augusto Farfus guiding the #32 BMW M4 GT3 he shares with Darren Leung and Sean Gelael to victory in the final hour.
Following the final safety car restart triggered by a crash between the #58 McLaren and the #27 Aston Martin, the two TF Sport Corvette cars assumed 1-2.
Farfus was only seventh under the safety car, but romped to victory, passing the #34 Corvette of Charlie Eastwood with a handful of minutes remaining in the race.
Incredibly, Mattia Drudi recovered from the incident that triggered the very incident to finish second in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin he shares with team principal/driver Ian James and Zacharie Robichon.
Eastwood, Salih Yoluc and Peter Dempsey wound up third in the #34 Corvette Z06 GT3.Rs, while the points-leading sister car crewed by Nicky Catsburg, Ben Keating and Jonny Edgar finished fifth.
The two Corvettes were separated by the #54 AF Corse Ferrari of Davide Rigon, Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci.
WEC Fuji 6 Hours results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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