6hrs of Fuji Recap:
A French 1-2!

Alpine’s Glory!

Its Race day in the land of the rising sun, which ironically might have been the only thing missing this race. And rise they did, The #35 Alpine driven by Paul-Loup Chatin, Ferdinand Habsburg, and Charles Milesi coming from 9th, ending a three year drought by winning the 6 hours of Fuji, with a really bold strategy call at the last pitstop phase. The team deciding to only change their two left-side tires saving about 10 seconds and crucially exiting the pits in front of the #93 Peugeot and the #6 Porsche who decided to go for a full set of fresh rubber.

The #93 Peugeot achieved its best result in modern hypercars, putting in some very solid stints in the beginning of the race with later on having some good and some bad luck with safety cars, FCY and VSC’s. Almost every hypercar at one point had the chance to get to the podium today, but the car that made its way best to the front today must certainly be the #6 Porsche driven by Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor making its way from the back of the grid to 3rd, charging through the field, perfectly using the hectic conditions to their advantage. The #5 Porsche finished 4th after a solid race making up 3 positions.

The #009 Aston Martin Valkyrie 5th dropping a couple places back from where they started after experiencing some brake bias issues mid race. The #12 Cadillac starting from pole only finishing in 6th, Where there are winners there must be losers, getting a bit unlucky with the safety cars and not being able to make a fist against the race pace of the top 3. The #7 Toyota made its way through the field in the end finishing 7th, solid but just not enough to fight for a podium sadly. The sister car the #8 Toyota finished in 16th as they had to come in as the pitlane was closed for fueling, getting a 3 minute stop and go penalty.

Elbows Out

2 bigger incidents involving the #007 Aston Martin and the #15 BMWs both struggling with the cold tires coming out of the pits, going off on separate occasions while trying to cut their way through traffic. The #8 Toyota with a very late defensive move trying to fend off the #35 Alpine hitting the front splitter of the Alpine and having to make a pitstop because of a rear left puncture. Overall no extreme incidents but from what we had seen it's extremely unlikely that every car made it back without some borrowed paintwork, no hypercar nor GT3.

LMGT3: Fights, gambles and controversy

It looked to be a promising race for the #10 Aston Martin of the Racing Spirit of LeMan team, but sadly early on it was clear the team's race pace was not what they expected in the end, even falling back to 17th after a hectic opening. There were the Aston’s struggled the McLaren’s flew, The #59 and #95 taking first and second early on, with the #95 being the faster of the 2 and leading for most of the race. Just like in the hypercar class with all the chaos in GT3 almost every team was in contention for the win at one point, but again safety cars and VSC’s stirred up the pack. In the end it was between the #21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari and the #81 TF Sport Corvette and exactly here is where the controversy starts. With the #21 driven by Alessio Rovera setting a magnificent stint building up the lead, but having to gamble on fuel the AF Corse team decided to make a pitstop just for some fuel in the last stages of the race, during this pitstop there was still a mechanic over the pitline when the car was already moving. So with the Ferrari coming over the line in first, but with a 5 second penalty meaning they drop to second, and TF Sports #81 Corvette driven by Rui Andrade, Charlie Eastwood and Tom van Rompuy win the 6 hours of Fuji GT3 class!

A worthy 100th WEC race?

So was it a worthy 100th race in the World Endurance Championship? We say YES, this race was all endurance racing fans could hope for. It's been a bit of a returning topic this year, but the FIA had the Balance of Performance beautifully balanced giving almost all the teams a shot at victory. Combine that with tight racing and a legendary circuit made for an epic race. See you again next year Japan!