TOYOTA GAZOO Racing competes on home ground this weekend when the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) makes its annual trip to Japan for the 6 Hours of Fuji.
The seventh round of the 2016 season is held at the TOYOTA-owned Fuji Speedway, located just a few kilometres from the Higashi-Fuji Technical Centre, where the 1,000hp TOYOTA HYBRID System – Racing is developed and built.
TOYOTA approaches its home race in positive mood following another podium finish and close fight for victory in the last race, at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
Stéphane Sarrazin, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi in the #6 TS050 HYBRID were part of a three-way fight for victory that day, and will be looking to reclaim second place in the drivers’ World Championship at Fuji.
For Porsche the six-hour event at the Fuji International Speedway kicks off as the race for its mission to defend its title hots up. After five race wins for the 919 Hybrid – including the Le Mans 24 Hours – Porsche leads the manufacturers’ world championship with 238 points ahead of Audi (185) and Toyota (137). In the drivers’ world championship, the trio of Romain Dumas (FR), Neel Jani (CH) and Marc Lieb (DE) top the standings with 130 points.
They have an advantage of 37.5 points over the best Audi trio and half a point more to the best placed Toyota drivers. Mathematically, but only if there were special circumstances, a title decision in Japan would be possible. A race win is rewarded with 25 points, and this is the jackpot the crew of the sister Porsche took three times in a row: this way Timo Bernhard (DE), Brendon Hartley (NZ) and Mark Webber (AU) propelled themselves to fourth place (78.5 points) in the championship.
“We go to Japan with good momentum after three wins on the trot for car number 1,” commented Brendon Hartley. “Fuji is a track I enjoy and it’s a track that has produced great racing over the last years in the WEC. I expect another tough fight, and our goal and focus is to continue our winning streak.”
TOYOTA has a very strong record on home ground, having won three consecutive races at Fuji Speedway from 2012-2014 making it the team’s most successful circuit on the WEC calendar. After podium finishes in four of the six races so far this season, a return to winning ways in Japan is top of the agenda this weekend.
Although the current WEC series has raced at Fuji since 2012, the circuit is legendary in sportscar circles, having held the first 1000km of Fuji in 1967. Iconic TOYOTA cars, such as the 2000GT and TOYOTA 7, proved their performance by winning on the famed circuit close to Mount Fuji.
Fuji Speedway itself, located around 110km from central Tokyo, has evolved significantly since its opening in 1965, when a banked oval-style section began at the first corner and made up half of the track length until a redesign in the mid-1970s.
Nowadays, the circuit’s most striking characteristic is the long main straight which, at 1,475m, is the second longest on the WEC calendar after the Mulsanne Straight at Le Mans. Combined with a particularly tight and twisty final sector of the lap, this gives engineers and drivers a challenge to find the best compromise on car set-up.
Preparations for the race will begin on Friday with two 90-minute practice sessions, while the grid order is determined on Saturday with a short qualifying. The race will be held entirely in daylight, beginning at 11am local time.
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