TOYOTA GAZOO Racing earned a one-two finish at its home race following an eventful and rain-affected 6 Hours of Fuji, the seventh round of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima won their third race of the season in the #8 TS050 HYBRID, TOYOTA’s fifth victory in six events at Fuji Speedway.
The Porsche LMP Team had to be content with third and fourth place finishes at the seventh of nine round. Neel Jani (CH), André Lotterer (DE) and Nick Tandy (GB) finished in third place. This year’s Le Mans winners Earl Bamber (NZ), Timo Bernhard (DE) and Brendon Hartley (NZ) had started from pole position and came home fourth with Bamber impressively recording the fastest race lap (1:37.702 minutes on lap 19 of 115).
“It was going great for Earl in the beginning,” commented Hartley. “He was in P1, leading by over ten seconds, but then we had safety car after safety car which obviously affected our race. We had very tricky conditions today with a slippery track and poor visibility. But we kept the car on track and had clean stints.”
Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López in the #7 car took second place on a day when the TS050 HYBRID showed its strong performance in wet conditions.
Persistent rain throughout the morning meant the race began behind the safety car, with Kamui at the wheel of the #7 and Sébastien in the #8, but after 12 minutes the green flags waved.
Rain intensified and fog descended on Fuji Speedway, causing several interruptions to the race. The first came on 40 minutes with a safety car period, then 40 minutes later the race was red flagged, with the #8 running second and the #7 third.
Immediately after the race resumed, the two TS050 HYBRIDs took over first and second, setting up a fight for victory with Porsche #1 which was regularly interrupted by safety cars due to rain, fog and accidents.
The TS050 HYBRIDs had a speed advantage over their rivals in heavy wet conditions but with differing fuel strategies and any advantage removed during safety cars, the final order of the podium was unpredictable throughout.
But with the 75% mark approaching, after which full World Championship points would be awarded, more heavy fog came and another safety car was called. At that point Kazuki led in the #8 with Mike second in the #7.
Visibility was too poor, particularly in the first sector, so the red flags were waved again, with the race not restarting. That came a few laps before a planned driver change for the #8 and therefore meant Anthony unfortunately did not have the chance to race.
The #7 car overcame adversity to earn the runners-up spot; José had earlier needed an unscheduled pit stop to change steering wheel due to a problem activating the windscreen wiper.
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing now heads to the penultimate round of the season, the 6 Hours of Shanghai on 5 November still with an outside chance of both World Championships. TOYOTA trails Porsche by 58.5 points in the manufacturers’ standings while Sébastien and Kazuki are 39 adrift of the Porsche #2 in the drivers’.
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