Championship points pictures clear up as World Endurance Championship completed fifth of six races on 2022 schedule.
The Toyota Gazoo Racing team of drivers Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa took care of business in the Hypercar class on Sunday in Japan to set the stage for a winner-take-all championship race.
Toyota Gazoo Racing No. 8 car finsihed 1-2 at the World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Fuji, as Hartley, Buemi and Hirakawa topped its sister No. 7 car of drivers Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez by a comfortable 1 minute, 8.382 seconds. The win was the second for the No. 8 car this season and the eight win in nine starts for Toyota in Fuji.
The win, coupled with the third-place finish of the Alpine ELF Team of Andre Negrao, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Nicholas Lapierre left the No. 8 Toyota Gazoo team and the Alpine team in a tie for the overall points lead in the Driver’s Championship with only the season-ending race at Bahrain on Nov. 12 left on the calendar.
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The race was the first race in Fuji since 2019 due to the pandemic.
“We had an amazing car today and the race was incredibly smooth; it doesn’t often happen like that,” Hartley said. “On our car, we saw the track temperatures were likely to be high so we went a different direction on set-up and it worked. We were a bit quicker than the sister car.
“Séb did a strong first stint then I was able to build a gap and Ryo drove well at the end. It was one of those races where everything just worked perfectly. Big thanks to the engineering team and the mechanics; as a crew were very strong. Now the World Championship fight comes down to Bahrain, which is pretty cool.”
The race in Fuji featured a field of 36 cars, including five in the Hypercar class, 13 in LMP2, five in LMGTE Pro and 13 in LMGTE Am.
Robin Frijns, Sean Gelael and Dries Vanthoor won in LMP2 for WRT.
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LMP2
The No. 31 WRT team of Robin Frijns, Sean Gelael and Dries Vanthoor was one of several cars in the lead during the six hours, but Frijns was in the car and leading at the end when it counted for the win.
Frijns took the lead with four minutes remaining when the the No. 38 JOTA team Oreca-Gibson of Antonio Felix da Costa, Will Stevens and Roberto Gonzalez gave up the lead when Stevens was force to pit and make a final fuel stop.
The No. 38 JOTA entry, however, held on to second place and maintained a healthy lead in the points championship. Da Costa, Gonzalez and Stevens lead the United Autosports USA duo of Joshua Pierson and Oliver Jarvis by 28 points in the drivers’ championship. Pierson, Oliver and Alex Lynn finished fifth in class on Sunday.
The No. 28 JOTA team of Oliver Rasmussen, Edward Jones and Jonathan Aberdein completed the LMP2 podium.
“It was a very positive weekend,” da Costa said. “The car was quick in all conditions, both qualifying and race trim. As always, the team executed a great strategy throughout the whole race. Unfortunately, today we didn’t have the pace of the No. 31 car, but also, we already had the championship on our minds. We’ve beaten all the cars we had to beat; and we’ve increased our championship lead going into Bahrain. We’re going to try to do the same again there. Obviously, our eyes are on the championship now.”
LMGTE Pro
The No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVO of drivers James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi had no trouble in racing to the win in LMGTE Pro over the team’s No. 52 sister car driven by Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco. The 1-2 finish for Ferrari was its first in class this season.
The Porsche GT Team claimed third and fourth, with Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre finishing to keep their championship hopes alive. The pair trails Ferrari’s Pier Guidi and Calado by 11 points heading to the season finale at Bahrain.
The No. 64 Corvette Racing entry finished fifth in Japan.
Richard Prince for Corvette Racing
The No. 64 Corvette Racing entry of driver Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner, fresh from a win the team’s last time out at Monza, finished fifth. The team’s race was hampered early by a track limits penalty and later when the car ran out of fuel coming down pit lane.
The race was caution-free and the Corvette was unable to get back into contention.
“Today was not our best day on many fronts, for sure,” Milner said. “It was a frustrating day I think for Nick, frustrating for our engineers and frustrating for me all in our own ways. We’ll give ourselves some time after the race to decompress and think about those lessons and take them with us to Bahrain. In general, we had some struggles through practice and we improved the car for Nick through FP3 and qualifying. We were still behind the eight-ball a little bit, and in the race we saw some residuals from that.”
The No. 33 TF Sport Aston Martin moved closer to the series championship with the win in Fuji.
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LMGTE Am
The No. 33 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR team of drivers Ben Keating, Marco Sorensen and Henrique Chavez won for the second time this season, while Keating and Sorensen moved closer to the Drivers’ Championship.
Keating and Sorensen head to the final at Bahrain with a 20 points lead over the No. 98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin Vantage AMR team of David Pitard and Nicki Thiim. The No. 98 finished fourth on Sunday.
Also making the podium were runner-up No. 85 Iron Dames Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting and Sarah Bovy, along with the third-place No. 777 D’Station Racing Aston Martin Vantage of drivers Charles Fagg, Satoshi Hoshino and Tomonobu Fujii.
Mike Pryson Mike Pryson covered auto racing for the Jackson (Mich.) Citizen Patriot and MLive Media Group from 1991 until joining Autoweek in 2011.
Keyword: Toyota Gazoo Racing Gives WEC Field the Ol' 1-2 at 6 Hours of Fuji