Porsche Penske 963 shared by Kévin Estre, André Lotterer, and Laurens Vanthoor secured victory in an ultra-close battle for victory in the 6 Hours of Fuji, the penultimate round of this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship season.
The Porsche trio became the first entry to win a second race in 2024, finishing ahead of the #15 BMW M Team WRT entry of Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, and Marco Wittmann. This marked BMW’s first-ever podium in the WEC after delivering its strongest performance of the season by far.
There was drama in the penultimate hour when the #7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi and the #5 Porsche driven by Matt Campbell collided between Turns 2 and 3, eliminating both cars as a result.
Set to take the final step of the podium was the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid of Sébastien Buemi, Ryō Hirakawa, and Brendon Hartley. However, Hirakawa received a late-race penalty for ignoring blue flags while being lapped by the winning Porsche of Estre.
This penalty led to a thrilling duel in the final laps for the final podium position between the #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche of Norman Nato and the #36 Alpine of Mick Schumacher. The battle went the way of the Alpine after a fantastic contest that was resolved with a decisive move in the final six minutes of the contest.
Cadillac Racing suffered a spectacular end to the race as Earl Bamber crashed the pole-sitting V-Series.R while chasing the #36 Alpine of Mick Schumacher.
The #35 Alpine faced heartbreak as the A424 of Charles Milesi, Ferdinand Habsburg, and Jules Gounon was denied a likely podium finish after serving a drive-through penalty for contact with the #81 TF Sport Corvette in the final 30 minutes. They eventually finished eighth in the Hypercar class.
MAIDEN LMGT3 VICTORY FOR FERRARI AS MANTHEY PURERXCING PORSCHE SECURES TITLE
Taking a thrilling LMGT3 class win and reprising their success from last season, the #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 of Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci, and Davide Rigon triumphed.
Rigon caught and passed the #59 United Autosports McLaren, driven by Grégoire Saucy, in the final 30 minutes to seal Ferrari’s first win in LMGT3.
United Autosports took fourth after also being overtaken by the #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche and the #46 Team WRT car of Valentino Rossi, Maxime Martin, and Ahmed Al Harthy, who achieved their second podium of the season.
Aliaksandr Malykhin, Joel Sturm, and Klaus Bachler celebrated winning the first-ever LMGT3 championship title after claiming a superb second position in the #92 Porsche.
Hertz Team JOTA took its fourth victory of the season to secure the title in the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Teams. – www.fia.com
