Title-chasing Toyota celebrated a tenth residence soil success within the 6 Hours of Fuji immediately (27 September), rolling the cube with a late technique name to vault to the entrance of the sphere within the remaining hour, as Ryō Hirakawa, Sébastien Buemi and Brendon Hartle-y soared to the summit of the FIA World Endurance Championship standings.
For almost all of the race, it was Alpine Endurance Group that regarded set to occupy the highest two spots on the rostrum at Fuji Speedway, after starting the sixth spherical of the season from the entrance row of the grid.
The 2 French prototypes largely managed the opening 5 hours of motion, however a late security automobile intervention – following a sizeable accident for the #58 Storage 59 LMGT3 McLaren, from which Finn Gehrsitz emerged unscathed – dramatically upended the order.
With the whole area peeling into the pits, Toyota determined to take a big gamble. The Japanese automotive big – probably the most profitable producer in FIA WEC historical past – elected to not change tyres and to short-fuel Hirakawa within the #8 TR010 Hybrid Hypercar, which had been operating in sixth place and had at one level been going through the unsuitable method after Hartley had discovered himself tipped right into a spin by Harry Tincknell on the strategy to Flip One.
Toyota’s closest championship challenger BMW equally took a threat by leaving Dries Vanthoor on used rubber within the #15 M Hybrid V8, whereas Alpine adopted a extra cautious strategy by giving #36 driver Victor Martins a wholly recent set of Michelins and Charles Milesi two new left-hand-side tyres within the sister #35 A424.
That dropped the pair to 3rd (Milesi) and fifth (Martins), behind Hirakawa and Vanthoor and sandwiching Aston Martin THOR Group’s Marco Sørensen. With simply 20 minutes remaining on the re-start, Martins was the person on the transfer, scything previous Sørensen earlier than Milesi strategically let him by. It took just a few laps for the French endurance racing rookie to alleviate Vanthoor of second, however as soon as he had performed so, he swiftly closed onto the tail of Hirakawa.
A go for the lead regarded inevitable, however on residence soil, the Japanese driver was in no temper to roll over, with a chic defence ensuing within the #8 crew’s second victory of the 2026 marketing campaign – and Toyota’s first at Fuji in three years. The factors gained have additionally vaulted Hirakawa, Hartley and Buemi to the highest of the Drivers’ World Championship desk.
“The re-start was actually difficult, with the circumstances altering and being on chilly tyres on a barely damp observe,” Hirakawa mirrored. “I used to be fortunate I had a lapped BMW forward, as a result of that gave me a form of reference, and I had the opposite BMW simply behind to dam the Alpine.
“Even permitting for that, there was numerous stress and the final couple of laps have been notably traumatic, however the workforce did an incredible job and saved giving me suggestions on the place I wanted to push and the place I wanted to defend, so I’m very grateful for that and this win is for all of them. To face on the highest step of the rostrum in entrance of all of our followers was superb. The final two races can be a step into the unknown for us, however I can’t wait!”
The #36 Alpine and #15 BMW rounded out the rostrum-finishers, whereas in LMGT3, Group WRT’s #32 BMW M4 Evo gained out in a frantic late battle with a number of rivals to prevail for the primary time this season within the palms of Augusto Farfus, Sean Gelael and Darren Leung.
The marketing campaign will proceed with the 6 Hours of Barcelona on 16-18 October.
