Elfyn Evans secured a lights-to-flag victory on Sunday at WRC Rally Japan as his Toyota Gazoo Racing team locked out the top three positions on home asphalt. The Welshman (above) clinched his eighth career win, and third of the season, by finishing …
Elfyn Evans secured a lights-to-flag victory on Sunday at WRC Rally Japan as his Toyota Gazoo Racing team locked out the top three positions on home asphalt.
The Welshman (above) clinched his eighth career win, and third of the season, by finishing a dominant 1m17.7s ahead of teammate Sebastien Ogier at the final round of the 2023 FIA World Rally Championship. The result confirmed Evans as the runner-up in WRC points for the third time in four seasons.
Evans laid the foundations for victory early in the all-asphalt fixture when he charged to a near-two-minute advantage in Friday’s rain-soaked opening leg in his Toyota GR Yaris Rally1. From then on, he was able to control the rally by adapting his risk level to suit the ever-changing conditions.
Kalle Rovanpera took the final podium spot, capping off a near-perfect season for Toyota which includes repeat WRC titles for Rovanpera and co-driver Jonne Halttunen, plus a third successive manufacturers’ championship victory for the Japanese marque.
Elfyn Evans and co-driver Scott Martin headed a 1-2-3 for Toyota on its home asphalt. Toyota Gazoo Racing photo
“It was not easy with the conditions we had this week, even though we had a massive gap already after Friday night,” said Evans. “A massive thanks to the team — the car’s been great and a 1-2-3 for Toyota is a fantastic result.”
Eight-time WRC champ Ogier, who’s taken in a part-time program in 2023, damaged his GR Yaris’s chassis when he slid into a barrier on Saturday. The required repairs meant he exceeded his allocated service time, collecting a one-minute time penalty which ultimately prevented him from threatening Evans’ advantage.
Ogier finished 28.8s ahead of Rovanpera, while Esapekka Lappi, driving a Hyundai i20 Rally1, held off Toyota’s fourth entry, home hero Takamoto Katsuta, to claim fourth by 20.0s.
Katsuta was fastest through nine of the rally’s 21 stages, but ended just over three minutes adrift of winner Evans due to a car-damaging and time-losing incident on Friday morning. Without that misdemeanor, the 30-year-old could well have celebrated his first WRC victory.
Ott Tanak was unable to find a decent balance with his M-Sport Ford Puma Rally1, and sixth place was all the Estonian could manage on his final outing for the British-based team. The 2019 WRC champ returns to Hyundai Motorsport’s lineup next season.
Ott Tanak ended his single-season detour to M-Sport Ford with an out-of-sorts sixth-place finish. M-Sport photo
In WRC2, the second tier of international rallying, Andreas Mikkelsen was in a league of his own and took victory by more than a minute. Mikkelsen wrapped up the class title a fortnight ago at Central European Rally, and the win here in Japan was his fourth of the season.
“This one was really nice,” Mikkelsen said. “It’s been a really challenging weekend and I think our experience was key here. We made the difference on the first two stages and then from then on we tried to control it.”
Newly-crowned WRC2 champ Andreas Mikkelsen took his fourth class win of the season. McKlein/Motorsport Images
The Norwegian headed home Nikolay Gryazin and Kajetan Kajetanowicz for an all-Skoda Fabia RS WRC2 podium.
Pole Kajetanowicz’s podium secured the WRC2 Challenger crown, an accolade introduced this season for WRC2-registered crews who have not previously won a title with Rally2 machinery at WRC level.
The WRC returns in a little over two months from now, with the asphalt Alpine stages — and possible ice and snow — of the Monte Carlo Rally opening the 2024 season, Jan 25-28.
WRC Rally Japan, final positions after Leg Three, SS21
1 Elfyn Evans/Scott Martin (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) 3h32m08.8s
2 Sebastien Ogier/Vincent Landais (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m17.7s
3 Kalle Rovanpera/Jonne Halttunen (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +1m46.5s
4 Esapekka Lappi/Janne Ferm (Hyundai i20 N Rally1) +2m50.3s
5 Takamoto Katsuta/Aaron Johnson (Toyota GR Yaris Rally1) +3m10.3s
6 Ott Tanak/Martin Jarveoja (Ford Puma Rally1) +3m28.3s
7 Andreas Mikkelsen/Torstein Eriksen (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2 leader) +7m33.7s
8 Nikolay Gryazin/Konstantin Aleksandrov (Sloda Fabia RS – WRC2) +8m49.6s
9 Kajetan Kajetanowicz/Maciej Szczepaniak (Skoda Fabia RS – WRC2) +19m25.9s
10 Hiroki Arai/Hiroki Tachikui (Peugeot 208 Rally 4 – RC4) +22m22.7s
Final WRC Manufacturers’ Championship after 13 rounds
1 Toyota Gazoo Racing 548 points 2 Hyundai Motorsport 432 3 M-Sport Ford 287
Check out WRC.com, the official home of the FIA World Rally Championship. And for the ultimate WRC experience, sign up for a Rally.TV subscription to watch all stages of every rally live and on demand, whenever and wherever.
Seth Quintero has joined Toyota Gazoo Racing to tackle the 2024 Dakar Rally in the top T1+ car class. The young American will drive a Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1+ for the Japanese team as it targets a third consecutive victory in the rally raid event. He …
Seth Quintero has joined Toyota Gazoo Racing to tackle the 2024 Dakar Rally in the top T1+ car class. The young American will drive a Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1+ for the Japanese team as it targets a third consecutive victory in the rally raid event. He will team with Lucas Moraes, who impressed as a rookie at Dakar this year, finishing third in T1+ while running as a privateer with Overdrive Racing.
“I’m addicted to progression, obsessed by it, and this step up to T1+ is all I’ve been thinking about for a while,” said Quintero, who secured his shot at the top class by winning this year’s World Rally-Raid Championship T3 title alongside co-driver Dennis Zenz. “I always had raw speed over short stints, but now I’ve learned to hang on for two weeks at a time,” he added.
Quintero will race his 3.5-liter V6 twin turbo Toyota GR DKR Hilux T1+ car for the first time this weekend at the Dubai International Baja Then comes the Dakar Rally that will run from Jan. 5–19
Quintero and Zenz were part of the first intake of the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team program. The first-ever global talent search for the off-road stars of the future was launched ahead of the 2020 Dakar with the goal of promoting the next generation to the top class. In four short years the program has already delivered a crop of young, hungry and talented drivers such as Cristina Gutiérrez and Mitch Guthrie Jr. to the cusp of competing in the Dakar’s premier class.
The 2024 edition of Dakar again will be based in Saudi Arabia, starting from the city of Al-Ula on Jan. 5 and continuing through Jan. 19 with daily stage distances of up to 500km across inhospitable terrain before the checkered flag flies in Yanbu.
The 2023 FIA WEC season finale, held under the floodlights in Bahrain Saturday night, produced plenty of action and a suite of historic results. The headline in the top class was Toyota’s No. 8 crew clinching the 2023 FIA Hypercar Drivers World …
The 2023 FIA WEC season finale, held under the floodlights in Bahrain Saturday night, produced plenty of action and a suite of historic results. The headline in the top class was Toyota’s No. 8 crew clinching the 2023 FIA Hypercar Drivers World Endurance Championship in style, leading a dominant 1-2 finish for the Japanese brand.
Toyota’s achievements this season should not be downplayed. After spending years deflecting the criticism that its successes in the sportscar arena were primarily down to a lack of credible opposition, it delivered the goods up against four other major factory teams in 2023.
Yes, it has an invaluable level of experience at this high level. Yes, it has a mature platform to bring to battle in the GR010 HYBRID, which now has three Hypercar titles under its belt. But this season, by winning six of the seven races, it proved that it is the benchmark for everyone else in the class, and it will continue to be the team to beat when everyone reconvenes in Qatar next year, with the next wave of factory cars present and ready to race.
The No. 8 crew’s Driver’s title and TGR’s sixth race win add to the team’s laundry list of successes this year, which, lest we forget, includes the Hypercar Manufacturer’s crown that it sealed on home soil in September. The only blot on the page during the season came at the Le Mans 24 Hours back in June, when Ferrari stole all the headlines and stormed to victory with its 499P. It was a punishing event which left scars that the team will undoubtedly use as a primary source of motivation next season.
Sometimes things as simple as wildlife encounters foil the might of even Toyota. An errant squirrel on track at Le Mans caused damage, leading to rising temperatures and decreased pace, helping Ferrari to their historic victory. Toyota, though, came back blazing and took the manufacturer’s crown come Fuji. Rainier Ehrhardt/Motorsport Images
As for the title-winning drivers, Saturday’s performances saw Sebastien Buemi become a four-time WEC champion, as well as Brendon Hartley, who is now a double champion with Porsche and Toyota.
Early in the season, Buemi told RACER that everyone behind the scenes at Toyota Gazoo Racing was desperate to win every race this year. They craved respect for the level they operate at. While the team didn’t manage to achieve its primary objective of winning the Centenary Le Mans 24 Hours, he feels that by winning every other race, it is ‘mission accomplished’.
“I am so proud of this group,” Buemi said after the race. “We’ve done a good job in terms of consistency. We won two races, and car No. 7 won four. On a few occasions, we have been unlucky and couldn’t win, but they were unlucky with the torque sensor at Portimao and the incident at Le Mans. But for us to win the title with the race win here makes it all special.”
Hard work pays off in big ways, with more to come when the WEC comes back into action for 2024 in Qatar, the team says. Motorsport Images
He also revealed that the No. 8 crew were dealing with intermittent issues throughout the final race, which made what looked from the outside like a comfortable win and 1-2 formation finish, a stressful experience towards the end.
“Car No. 7 really put the pressure on,” he explained. “We knew all the time we could retire and they would win the championship. It was more difficult for us to manage the race from the lead. We knew the second and third was enough [to seal the title], so we didn’t want to take risks, but on the other hand, we had a clutch failure and a starter motor failure. Restarting the car was hard; we lost a lot of time because we couldn’t restart the car properly. That put us under so much pressure. But we delivered.
“This year we didn’t always dominate. We won a lot of the time by just executing races well. It was tough but we earned it.”
29-year-old Ryo Hirakawa, meanwhile, now has two titles in two seasons to his name, giving him a remarkable 100 percent winning rate. This, he told RACER, is something he could only dream of only a few years ago before he was promoted to the Hypercar team.
“I struggled last year in my first year, but my teammates Brendon and Seb helped me so much to improve,” he admitted. “Thanks to them I managed to up my game. I made a big step in my performance, and I am grateful to have them as teammates.
“I felt so much pressure because there were so many more manufacturers, but we worked hard. Winning the championship as a Japanese driver, for a Japanese manufacturer is very special.
“I am honored to be part of the team and I believe there is more to come.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 8 GR010 HYBRID scored a dominant 8 Hours of Bahrain victory Saturday evening from pole position, bringing another highly successful FIA WEC season for the Japanese-flagged team to a close. With their second win of the …
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 8 GR010 HYBRID scored a dominant 8 Hours of Bahrain victory Saturday evening from pole position, bringing another highly successful FIA WEC season for the Japanese-flagged team to a close.
With their second win of the season, Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa claimed the 2023 Hypercar World Endurance drivers’ championship, taking the manufacturer’s 45th all-time win as well as six victories from seven races in 2023 for the Cologne-based program.
Behind, the No. 7 sister Toyota came home second to make it a 1-2. It was a hard-fought podium for the No. 7 crew after a superb comeback drive early in the race.
Mike Conway was hit from behind by Cadillac’s Earl Bamber on the entry of Turn 1 at the start, which turned the Toyota around, dropping it to the back of the pack. “Everyone trying to win it in the first corner isn’t working well,” Conway said later.
Bamber explained after the race that he wasn’t trying to make an ambitious lunge.
“I was actually not trying to pass anyone; I was just braking,” he said. “Then, in the middle of the brake zone, both front tires just locked up. I tried to avoid the left-hand side bit just clapped the Toyota. I feel bad we affected their race and we obviously affected our own.”
The Briton had a mountain to climb but put his head down and steered the No. 7 to third in the opening hour. Kamui Kobayashi then took second off the No. 51 Ferrari 499P of James Calado at Turn 1 with just under six hours to go.
From there, the No. 7’s run to the front stalled, with Hartley, Hirakawa and Buemi at the end managing the gap back to the sister car. The winning margin was 47s after eight hours.
“It has been an amazing year,” Hartley said. “I am really proud to be part of the No. 8 crew and this Toyota Gazoo Racing team. Thanks to everyone for a fantastic season. We have had some fierce battles with car No. 7 and the other Hypercar competitors all year and today was no different. There were times when we were not the fastest car on the track so we were really pushing. Seb had the most stressful part of the race today, getting through the first corner cleanly but he and Ryo did a great job. Becoming a four-time world champion is probably going to take a while to sink in, but it sounds really nice.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]
The No. 7’s season featured many highs, including wins at Sebring, Spa, Monza and Fuji to keep Conway, Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez in the hunt for the drivers’ title and help ensure Toyota claimed the manufacturers’ crown on home soil. But the No. 7’s woes at Portimao and retirement at Le Mans proved extremely costly and ultimately prevented them from beating the sister car to the title.
Elsewhere, both Ferraris were mathematically in the title hunt for today’s finale, but for either crew to win, they needed both Toyotas to hit major trouble.
Neither 499P had the outright pace on this occasion and, instead, found themselves fighting for third with the Hertz Team JOTA Porsche and each other for much of the race. Frustrations did eventually boil over at Ferrari in the second half, too, when Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Fuoco made contact more than once after the sixth round of stops.
As for JOTA, its privately run Porsche 963 produced arguably the standout performance of the race en route to an impressive fourth-place finish for the British team, after herculean performances from Will Stevens, Yifei Ye and Antonio Felix da Costa.
Culminating after hours of fighting, Stevens crossed the line under a second behind Fuoco, who secured the final podium spot in the No. 50. The sister 499P came home sixth behind the No. 6 Penske Porsche.
A fifth-place finish for the No. 6 came on a day when neither Penske Porsche 963, nor the Proton example, featured in the battle for a place on the podium.. It was a quiet outing for both Peugeot 9X8s and the Cadillac V-Series.R, too. Cadillac Racing’s 11th-place finish in particular will come as a huge disappointment for all involved after showing so much promise pre-race.
The car started third after Alex Lynn’s Qualifying heroics but had to serve a 90s stop and hold for hitting the No. 7 at Turn 1. With no safety car periods during the eight hours, the team couldn’t find a way back into the race.
Team WRT dominated LMP2. Motorsport Images
In LMP2, Team WRT’s No. 41 ORECA of Rui Andrade, Robert Kubica and Louis Deletraz comfortably won the drivers’ and teams’ titles with a win from 10th on the grid. It was a metronomic run from the trio to the finish, while their title rivals from United Autosports and Inter Europol endured tough outings, punctuated by setbacks in the first half of the race.
United’s No. 22 ORECA was handed a punishing 90s stop and hold for hitting the Vanwall at the exit of Turn 1 at the start, while Inter Europol’s car lost chunks of time to a technical hiccup which forced Albert Costa to stop twice and complete power cycles.
This made it a relatively comfortable run to the flag for WRT’s title-winning crew in the final outing for LMP2 as a full-season WEC category. The No. 22 finished ninth, while the Inter Europol Gibson-powered ORECA took sixth. With a lead of over 30 points before the race, it was always going to be a long shot for either United or Inter Europol to clinch the title anyway.
Behind the No. 41 WRT, the sister No. 31 car took second making it a 1-2 for the Belgian team that is set to graduate to Hypercar with BMW next year. It was a heartbreaking final hour for Sean Gelael, Ferdinand Habsburg and Robin Frijns, though. The trio didn’t put a foot wrong and lost the lead after an issue at its final stop. The No. 28 JOTA ORECA finished the night in third.
It was a day to forget for Vector Sport’s ORECA and the No. 23 United ORECA. Both had their races ruined by 90s stop-and-go penalties for running with tyre pressures below the stated limit early in the race and “gaining a huge advantage.”
Both cars were leading at the time the decisions from race control came through. Vector’s car eventually retired in the final hour with a suspected throttle sensor issue, while the No. 23 came home eighth.
The Iron Dames claimed the last ever GTE victory. Motorsport Images
The final ever GTE victory, meanwhile, went the way of the Iron Dames Porsche after a highly-entertaining eight-hour battle for the 13 cars present for the category’s swansong. It was a hugely significant result for the program and the championship, as Rahel Frey, Sarah Bovy and Michelle Gatting’s performance secured the first-ever WEC class win for an all-female crew.
With the titles wrapped up by Corvette Racing in Monza, this was a straight fight with the pressure of a championship battle lifted. The gloves were off, and the category signed off its stint in the WEC, which dates back to the inaugural season in 2012, with a memorable encounter.
The D’Station Racing Aston Martin took second and Casper Stevenson was unable to catch and pass Gatting in the final hour. The No. 98 Northwest AMR Vantage made it a double-podium for the British manufacturer with a third-place finish.
“The final stint was pressured and stressful for me inside the car, but in the end, the feedback I was getting from our engineer helped made me stay calm,” Gatting said after the win. “At one point I could really see the No. 777 Aston Martin was very close. I pushed a bit more to increase the gap a bit, and in the end with the traffic I managed to increase the gap even more and feel pretty in control.
“To be honest, I just enjoyed the last ride in this car. It’s been an absolute pleasure having the opportunity to drive the Porsche this year. Finally getting this win is something we’ve wanted to achieve for a long time, and it’s quite emotional for all of us. This is what exactly what we want to achieve; we want to prove that we can compete on exactly the same terms as everybody else and we are here to win races.”
For much of the race, Iron Lynx’s No. 60 Porsche led the way, after monster stints from Matteo Cressoni and later Alessio Picariello. Sadly, though, the car had to be parked with 2h20m remaining as the team’s Bronze driver, Claudio Schivaoni, was not well enough to drive.
By regulation, the Bronze driver in each car must complete 2h20m during an eight-hour race. Thus, the team switched its driver order and held out as long as possible, but Schavoni felt unable to climb in for the end and the team parked the car early.
The GTE Am championship winners, in Corvette Racng’s final race as a factory with the C8.R, had an uncharacteristically forgettable run to seventh, but nevertheless enjoyed the final chapter of a spectacular season for the program.
Kamui Kobayashi continued to set the pace during practice during the second session this evening at the Bahrain International Circuit. The Japanese driver put the No. 7 atop the timing screens with a 1m48.851s, putting him over four-tenths clear of …
Kamui Kobayashi continued to set the pace during practice during the second session this evening at the Bahrain International Circuit. The Japanese driver put the No. 7 atop the timing screens with a 1m48.851s, putting him over four-tenths clear of the sister No. 8 Toyota which slotted in second.
Cadillac Racing’s V-Series.R was the only other Hypercar to get within a second of the No. 7 during the extended session, which ran for an additional 10 minutes to make up for the time lost to the adverse weather conditions in Free Practice 1. Its best time was a 1m47.690s from Alex Lynn.
The weather wasn’t a factor in FP2, with the cars getting plenty of mileage in under the floodlights ahead of FP3 and qualifying tomorrow.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]
Hertz Team JOTA’s Porsche ended up fourth, ahead of the quickest of the Penske 963s, the No. 6. It was another quiet outing for Ferrari AF Corse, its 499Ps faster than only the Vanwall, 3.7 and 3.9 seconds off the best time from Kobayashi.
In LMP2 United Autosports’ No. 22 ORECA set the fastest time again, with Filipe Albuquerque improving on his FP1 flyer with a 1m52.850s, three-tenths up on the No. 63 PREMA and No. 36 Alpine ORECAs that slotted in second and third in the class.
GTE Am was the only class that saw its order shuffled significantly from Free Practice 1 earlier in the day. This time it was the No. 57 Kessel Racing Ferrari that would finish with the best hot lap, Daniel Serra setting a 1m58.246s.
An unfortunate early exit for “Rexy.” Stephen Kilbey photo
GR Racing’s Porsche took second with the No. 56 Project 1 AO Porsche third. Unfortunately for the “Rexy” liveried No. 56, its day ended early when Gunnar Jeanette backed the car into the wall on the run to pit-in with 27 minutes remaining.
While Jeanette was unharmed in the incident, the team believes chassis damage to the left-rear corner is beyond immediate repair. And in this, the last race week for GTE in the WEC, there are no spare chassis available. The car may make the “farewell GTE” photocall this evening, at least.
Track action continues Friday with Free Practice 3 at 12pm local time.
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 7 GR010 HYBRID set the fastest time of the final WEC practice session at Fuji Speedway. Kamui Kobayashi, with times improving dramatically throughout the 60 minutes as the track dried after light rain throughout the …
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 7 GR010 HYBRID set the fastest time of the final WEC practice session at Fuji Speedway. Kamui Kobayashi, with times improving dramatically throughout the 60 minutes as the track dried after light rain throughout the morning, set a 1m30.068s with eight minutes to go, putting him 0.4s clear of the rest of the field.
The No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 came closest to the No. 7 Toyota with a 1m30.476s to go second. The No. 38 HERTZ Team JOTA Porsche, which sat atop the screens multiple times during the session, completed the top three with a 1m30.501s.
Further down the Hypercar order, it was a more encouraging session for the other privateer Porsche 963 run by Proton Competition, ending up fifth, just 0.6s off, faster than both Ferrari 499Ps which ended up sixth and 11th.
In LMP2, United Autosports’ No. 23 ORECA set the pace with a 1m34.258s. The sister No. 22 ended up third, within 0.1s of the No. 38 Alpine that slotted in second.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]
AF Corse’s No. 54 Ferrari, meanwhile, ran fastest in GTE Am after a 1m39.074s from Davide Rigon. The D’Station Aston Martin ended up second, with the No. 77 Dempsey Proton Porsche third.
Beyond a number of minor off-track excursions from drivers pushing too hard in the conditions, there was one notable incident during the session at Turn 1, 25 minutes in.
Fabio Scherer in the No. 34 Inter Europol Competition ORECA made a mistake in a move up the inside of the Am-topping No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari driven at the time by Francesco Castellacci. Scherer braked too late, lost the rear and swiped the side of the Ferrari just before the apex.
While the damage to the ORECA was minimal, the Ferrari was left with a right-rear puncture from the contact.
“He was on cold tires and on the first lap he was a bit too optimistic to try and pass,” said Castellacci after climbing out of the car. “He had no grip to stop the car and hit me. It was a mistake from him. The suspension seems OK though.”
Qualifying is set to get underway later Saturday at 2:40 p.m. local time, 1:40 a.m. ET.
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s GR010 HYBRIDs ended up 1-2 atop the timing screens in Free Practice 2 for the FIA WEC runners at Fuji Speedway this afternoon, with Sebastien Buemi setting the fastest time early in the session in the No. 8. The Swiss’ fastest …
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s GR010 HYBRIDs ended up 1-2 atop the timing screens in Free Practice 2 for the FIA WEC runners at Fuji Speedway this afternoon, with Sebastien Buemi setting the fastest time early in the session in the No. 8.
The Swiss’ fastest lap, set in significantly better conditions than the first session earlier in the day, was a 1m29.523s. It was almost six-tenths faster than the sister car, which ended up with a 1m30.120s.
Third in the times was the No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963, which finished with a 1:30.584, Antonio Felix da Costa reeling off the car’s best tour of the circuit.
After finishing 1-2 in Practice 1, which was held on a wet track after rain throughout the morning, Ferrari AF Corse’s 499Ps were fourth and sixth. The quicker of the two was the No. 51, which set a best time just over a second off the No. 8 Toyota. The No. 5 Porsche Penske 963 split the two 499Ps and slotted in fifth.
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]
LMP2 was tight at the top, with the top five all setting times in the 1m33s. Louis Deletraz in the No. 41 Team WRT ORECA ended up setting the benchmark time, a 1m33.131s, bettering Pietro Fittipaldi’s best lap in the No. 28 JOTA example which eventually was good enough for second. The No. 23 United Autosports ORECA rounded out the top three.
In GTE Am, AF Corse-run Ferrari 488 GTE Evos finished 1-2-3, with the No. 54 leading the way with a 1m38.239s from Davide Rigon. The No. 21 finished the day second, with the No. 83 Richard Mille-backed car third.
The quickest Porsche was the No. 83 from Dempsey Proton Racing, which was fourth fastest. The No. 777 Vantage AMR from D’Station was the quickest of the Aston Martins in sixth. The title-winning Corvette Racing C8.R ended up 10th.
UP NEXT: Track action continues Saturday with Free Practice 3 at 10:20am local time.
With the FIA WEC’s summer break in the rear-view mirror, the penultimate round of the season this weekend in Japan sees the resumption of the most hotly contested top-class title battle in many years between Toyota and Ferrari’s Hypercar teams. …
With the FIA WEC’s summer break in the rear-view mirror, the penultimate round of the season this weekend in Japan sees the resumption of the most hotly contested top-class title battle in many years between Toyota and Ferrari’s Hypercar teams.
Currently, in the drivers’ title race, the No. 8 crew of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa lead the standings in Hypercar. The gap between them and the sister No. 7 GR010 and the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 499P crews is 23 points, after the No. 7’s victory at Monza. The driver in the second Ferrari, the No. 50, sit fourth, a further seven points adrift.
The gap in the manufacturers’ world championship standings is 26 points with Toyota leading the way.
With just 65 points still up for grabs in the final two races, this weekend’s round at Fuji Speedway is set to be crucial. After Ferrari missed out on a home victory in Monza to follow up its Le Mans triumph, it is vital that the Italian marque make finds a way to close the gap before the eight-hour season finale. The task is mountainous, though, as Toyota has always been strong on home soil at Fuji and is looking to extend its win streak at the venue to six races on Sunday.
Granted, recent seasons with lesser competition since Porsche departed LMP1 have made for an easier ride for the Japanese manufacturer, but it remains the firm favorite even with the increased competition in the top class. This is primarily because the GR010 HYBRID, in addition to being arguably the strongest all-round package in the category, has raced at Fuji before.
No. 7 driver Mike Conway, who along with Jose Maria Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi is looking to make gains on the sister car in the points tally, says the level of expectation and pressure is therefore high on the team. He expects the battle for the win on Sunday to feature multiple teams.
“It’s going to be close between us, Ferrari and Peugeot,” Conway told RACER. “They have a pretty good shot with the way the BoP has worked out.
“Ferrari seemed a bit quicker at Monza, as did Peugeot in straight-line speed. But we have a little more kinetic energy, and Ferrari will run a fraction heavier. But it’s small adjustments. This place is all about the middle of the lap, even if you’re quick in a straight line if you can’t get through the other sectors, with the way the tires wear here, you won’t be strong.
“Since Monza, we’ve done simulator work in Germany ahead of the race to keep us sharp,” he continued. “We’ve been here early, since last week doing factory and partner visits. We’ve seen that there are so many more fans coming to the races, there’s good momentum and it’s a buzz to be here in Japan. There’s big pressure.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]
Ferrari has also been hard at work with the end of the season in sight. The team tested at Barcelona over the summer, as it did last year following the 499P’s first rollout at Fiorano. Testing at the Spanish circuit during that time each year “is a tradition we would like to keep,” said Giuliano Salvi, the Ferrari GT and sports race cars race and testing manager, because it represented a good benchmark of the car’s progress over the past 12 months.
“We did almost two weeks of simulator work and we are happy with it,” he said. “Part of our success this season has come from the work of our drivers and engineers who have found a good correlation (between the simulator experience and on-track performance).”
“We split the days between the six drivers, it was very demanding mentally,” added driver Miguel Molina. “Physically it’s not as much of an effort, but mentally it’s a lot — we have to keep stopping, clear our minds, have a coffee and go again.”
While the 499P hasn’t competed or tested at the Fuji Speedway before, Salvi’s expectation is that the car won’t be best suited to the circuit’s layout.
“This is the first time we are facing a circuit we haven’t tested at before,” Salvi noted. “It’s more difficult than normal to have a prediction, as every other circuit we have faced so far we were able to test at before the racing, even Le Mans. We are still beginners. We don’t have a lot of data.
“It shouldn’t be a track that suits us — the layout is tricky and the third sector (which is tight and technical, featuring seven corners) is something we have never experienced in previous races. There are some sections that are similar to Portimao, where we struggled in places compared to the others. So we need to find a way to improve on that sort of section.
“It’s an important race for us, because of the championship. Until the math is against us we will give everything.”
Looking further ahead, Ferrari is also going to make the most of the gap between this weekend’s race and the season finale in November, before shifting its focus to the 2024 season. The team still has seven days of testing left from its pre-defined allocation and intends to use it all. In the Middle East, Salvi said it will use its track time to “replicate the conditions of the race (which runs into darkness) as much as possible.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 7 GR010 HYBRID of Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez and Mike Conway emerged victorious in a thrilling FIA WEC 6 Hours of Monza Sunday afternoon in front of a huge crowd. The trio ran a clean race from pole position, beating …
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s No. 7 GR010 HYBRID of Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez and Mike Conway emerged victorious in a thrilling FIA WEC 6 Hours of Monza Sunday afternoon in front of a huge crowd.
The trio ran a clean race from pole position, beating the No. 50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P to victory after a final-hour showdown, successfully bouncing back from their retirement at Le Mans last month.
In the second half of the race, following a second safety car called for an incident involving the No. 9 Prema and No. 10 Vector Sport LMP2 ORECAs, Lopez took control up front, building a healthy lead of over 40s.
The third and final safety car of the race in the fifth hour (called due to mechanical woes at the first chicane for the No. 99 Proton Porsche) didn’t cost the No. 7 crew the lead, but it did reduce the gap and created a fight between them and the No. 50.
In the final two stints, Antonio Fuoco, with fresher tires, was tasked with reeling in the Toyota, which was double stinting its set before the final stops. Fuoco closed in and got to within 10s of Kobayashi, much to the delight of the hordes of Tifosi in the stands, before Toyota brought the No. 7 in for a final full-service stop to get it to the flag.
After both contending cars had pitted for a final time, the No. 7 was still leading, but the gap was down to 8.5s. Kobayashi, however, delivered the goods under immense pressure, setting his fastest lap of the race and pulling away, crossing the line 16.5s ahead of Fuoco.
Completing the top three was the No. 93 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8. Paul Di Resta, Jean-Eric Vergne and Mikkel Jensen, a year on from the 9X8’s race debut at the same circuit, fought hard and were rewarded with the program’s first podium.
The 9X8s, building on their surprise showing at Le Mans, were quick all weekend. Despite losing time at an early pit stop and suffering gear selection issues, the No. 93 came home as the third and final car on the lead lap. The result will mean the world for the Peugeot team, which appears to be turning a corner.
The victory, the third of the season for the No. 7 crew, has tightened the title race, as the sister No. 8 GR010 and Le Mans-winning No. 51 499P that sat first and second in the points before the race both had tough afternoons in the sweltering conditions trackside.
Toyota’s No. 8 crew still leads the title race (by 23 points) with a sixth-place finish after a late-race recovery that ended with Brendon Hartley battling past the No. 51 and No. 5 Porsche Penske 963. The tussling included a brave move from Hartley on Antonio Giovanazzi around the outside at Curva Grande to put the No. 8 ahead of the No. 51.
— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) July 9, 2023
It was a hard-fought result for the No. 8 crew, which was penalized twice early in the race for separate collisions involving Sebastien Buemi — first at the start when Buemi locked up and turned the No. 51 into a spin at Turn 1, then for wiping out the No. 777 D’Station Aston Martin later in the first hour.
There was a further 50 second penalty post-race for the No. 8 for excessive energy usage in the late stages of the race, the penalty dropping the car from fourth at the flag to sixth behind the No. 51 Ferrari.
The No. 51 ended up finishing fifth thanks to the Toyota penalty, behind the No. 5 Porsche that inherited fourth.
With the top two in the points finishing off the podium, No. 7 and No. 50 are now in the game. Both are within 34 points with two races remaining.
“After a tough Le Mans, it was important to bounce back,” Lopez said. “Unfortunately, car No. 8 had a tough race but recovered well. I am very proud of these guys, it feels nice.”
“With the split strategy, it was tense, but with a mega pit stop and a solid last stint from Kamui, it was nice to beat Ferrari on home ground,” added Conway.
Elsewhere in the top class, it was a messy race, with multiple teams in contention for podium honors hitting trouble.
The two privateer Porsches were on track for strong finishes, but both had dramas. The Hertz Team JOTA 963 mirrored its performance at Le Mans, fighting for the lead of the race before an issue for the electronics on the steering wheel saw Antonio Felix da Costa end up speeding in the pit lane under an emergency service.
The crew was unable to fix the issue as nothing more than five seconds of fuel was allowed. The car then stopped at pit out, requiring a power recycle. It came home ninth.
Proton Competition, meanwhile, also briefly led with its new 963, but late in the race stopped at the first chicane shortly after Harry Tincknell got in for his first race stint in the car. A throttle sensor issue was the root cause of the loss of power, which resulted in the car being retired by the Briton after briefly getting going again.
It wasn’t a much better race for the factory 963s either, as neither Penske prototype had the outright pace. The No. 5 ended up fifth, while the No. 6 ended up seventh after having to take an emergency service stop under the second safety car, forcing the team to pit twice in quick succession.
The fifth and final LMDh runner in the field, the No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, finished a disappointing 10th. Richard Westbrook, Earl Bamber and Alex Lynn were in the mix for a strong finish after the field was split in half at the first safety car due to varying strategies, but later faded.
“We were fighting at the front and on a different strategy to half the cars, so it was good, classic sports car racing with different strategies playing out. And it was working for us,” said Westbrook. “Unfortunately, the timing of the safety car was bad for us — we had to pit for emergency fuel and once that happens you’re pretty much out of the game. It’s a real shame. When stuff like the timing of the safety car happens, you’re in the lap of the gods and it didn’t quite work out for us today. But in the future it will.”
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]
In LMP2, it was heartbreak for the No. 31 WRT ORECA, which retired from the lead with an engine issue with under 20 minutes remaining. This promoted the No. 28 JOTA ORECA, which had been fast all day, to the lead in the run to the line. For Oliver Rasmussen, David Heinemeier Hansson and Pietro Fittipaldi, it was their first win and first podium of the season.
“It was amazing, we had an incredible start, then it was up in the air. I thought a podium would have been great, but to be number one, incredible,” said Heinemeier Hansson.
“We fought back, kept it clean, we were so close at Spa, to get the win was amazing,” added Fittipaldi.
While it wasn’t the best of days for JOTA’s Porsche Hypercar, things could hardly have gone better for its LMP2 ORECA-Gibson. Motorsport Images
Behind, the No. 36 Alpine also secured its best finish of the season with second, coming home ahead of the LMP2 pole-sitting No. 41 WRT ORECA.
The No. 41 snatched the final podium spot off the No. 23 United ORECA on the final lap of the race, completing a recovery drive after losing time in the pits in the first half of the race.
For Josh Pierson, Giedo van der Garde and Oliver Jarvis in the No. 23 United Autosports car, fourth will come as a disappointment, especially after van der Garde put in a trademark opening stint, fighting to third from 11th on the grid. The sister No. 22 ended up sixth behind the Le Mans-winning Inter Europol example that crossed the line fifth.
Motorsport Images
GTE Am, meanwhile, was won by the No. 77 Dempsey Proton Porsche of Julien Andlauer, Christian Ried and Mikkel Pedersen. All three were faultless and played their strategy cards right on a day in which the category delivered an enthralling, unpredictable contest.
“We had no idea where we would finish, it was so close, but we made the right calls and were out front in the closing hours. We had to manage a gap and maintain it at the end,” Andlauer said.
The No. 60 Iron Lynx and No. 86 GR Racing Porsche made it a 1-2-3 for the German brand.
The main headline here was Corvette Racing’s No. 33 C8.R of Ben Keating, Nico Varrone and Nicky Catsburg claiming the class title with a fourth-place finish.
— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) July 9, 2023
It wasn’t an easy race for the trio, who were carrying 40kg of success ballast, as they had to serve a drive-through for speeding in the pit lane and were forced to take an extra emergency stop for fuel. However, by finishing ahead of the Iron Dames Porsche and ORT by TF Aston Martin, they sealed the championship.
This was the first time all year the Corvette had finished off the podium, in what has been a fairy tale season which had seen the team score three wins and a second place prior to this weekend.
“I’ve said it over and over, but in this championship and in each one of the five races we’ve had, it has been a true team performance overall,” said Keating. “You win as a team and you lose as a team, but we’ve also been lucky in quite a lot of places.
“It’s just been a magical season. I’m really proud of everyone on the Corvette Racing team.”
Iron Dames and ORT by TF had hugely disappointing races with the titles on the line. The all-female-crewed No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche finished fifth, while the TF Aston could only muster seventh.
Almost eight hours into the Le Mans 24 Hours, the race finally felt like it was settling into a rhythm before drama at the end of the hour brought us to one-third distance. Much to almost everybody trackside’s surprise, it was Ferrari vs. Peugeot …
Almost eight hours into the Le Mans 24 Hours, the race finally felt like it was settling into a rhythm before drama at the end of the hour brought us to one-third distance.
Much to almost everybody trackside’s surprise, it was Ferrari vs. Peugeot for the lead in Hypercar. The No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari led over the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8, preventing the 499P from extending its lead gap.
It was Alessandro Pier Guidi vs. Nico Muller, and Muller was rapid after climbing aboard, reeling in Pier Guidi gradually, bringing the gap down to just 12s from 80s at the start of the hour. It looked to be game on, but just before the ninth hour began, Pier Guidi had a spin at the first Mulsanne Chicane, just behind the No. 911 Proton Porsche. Pier Guidi was in the gravel and needed to be craned back on the track.
This handed the lead to the No. 94 Peugeot, adding to the car’s simply astonishing run so far.
Moments after the No. 51’s off that cost Ferrari the lead, there was a multi-car pile-up at Tertre Rouge on the entry to the slow zone for the stranded Ferrari.
Kamui Kobayashi in the third place No. 7 Toyota slowed for the zone, and was hit hard at the rear of the JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Louis Prette and the No. 35 Signatech Alpine ORECA. The Ferrari then cannoned off the No. 7, going airborne and into an unidentifiable LMP2 car.
— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) June 10, 2023
The damage to the rear of the GR010 HYBRID was significant, as Kobayashi was unable to pull away and get back up to speed, the car’s battery without enough power to get the car going.
This meant the No. 94 Peugeot leads into Hour 9 by over two minutes over the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari and the No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R.
Earlier in the hour, trouble hit the LMP2 leader also. The No. 23 United Autosports car, straight after taking the lead over the No. 34 Inter Europol ORECA, had an off when Tom Blomqvist had a brake failure. The front and rear of the car were damaged and the car has now dropped to 17th losing two laps due to the repairs.
“It seemed like a series of unfortunate events,” Blomqvist told RACER. “I went wide at Mulsanne, through the gravel, I was on slicks and it was wet. I did Indianapolis and Arnage fine, but when I got to Porsche, I had no brakes. I was a super fast corner, it was wet off line, but I had to look for an escape road. Eventually, I spun out and hit the barrier. It’s a huge shame because we were in such a good position. I’ve been through the gravel so many times in my career, not once have I had a brake failure from it.”
This means Polish team Inter Europol is back in the lead, with the No. 41 WRT ORECA and the No. 80 AF Corse example second and third.
In GTE Am, the No. 56 Project 1 AO Porsche leads the Iron Dames Porsche. The No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari is third. A rare hour with no changes to the top three in the class.
