Porsche Closes in on WEC in Japan, Toyota Ferrari Disaster
Victorious Porsche Penske Racing left Fuji one step closer to winning the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship over the weekend.
Victorious Porsche Penske Racing left Japan one step closer to winning the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship over the weekend. The dramatic, crunching Fuji 6 Hour also essentially scuppered Toyota and Ferrari’s title chances, as much it was a dream weekend with best results yet for podium finishers BMW and Alpine, and also a good result for Peugeot. Porsche meantime clinched the GT3 title as a Ferrari won that race.
In what started as a maiden pole position for Cadillac, the race soon descended into chaos. Robert Kubica set off a Turn 1 melee when his yellow Ferrari rammed Frederic Makowiecki’s 5 Porsche, which then tagged the Giovinazzi 51 into Habsburg ‘s Alpine. That left Bamber ahead in the Cadillac, until an early driver change released the number 6 Penske Porsche to lead the 50 Ferrari, Marciello’s BMW and the Cadillac. The BMW and Cadillac however clashed in their fight for third, as the Caddy limped to the pits.
A Litany of Fiji Incidents & Accidents
That was the next of a litany of accidents and incidents that would shape the race. The 6 Porsche and 50 Ferrari then took turns to lead while strategies played out. Then title contender Kamui Kobayashi smashed the 7 Toyota into Matt Campbell’s 5 Penske to end his Nyck de Vries and Mike Conway’s title hopes after the Gazoo team was forced to park it. The Cadillac continued with its dodgem car afternoon when Bamber crashed again and was forced to limp back to the pits again to quash any hopes of even a point.
It was however a safety car period to rescue Daniil Kvyat’s expired Lamborghini early in the fourth hour that would most re-shape the race. It presented the front runners with a free pit stop opportunity to set up a 90-minute dash to the finish. So Kevin Estre’s 6 Porsche led Dries Vanthoor’s BMW, Ryo Hirakawa in the 8 Toyota and the 50 Ferrari. But both the Toyota and the Ferrari were caught out by alternate strategy and penalties, to leave the Vanthoor, Lotterer, Estre and the 6 Porsche 963 LMDh to add a second win to their victory in the Qatar season-opener and extend their title advantage.
Fuji Blunders Quell Toyota, Ferrari Charge
Worse still for Toyota and Ferrari, a combination of strategy blunders and penalties saw both the 50 Ferrari and 8 Toyota tumble down the order in that dash to the finish. That in contrast to Penske’s overcut to complement the charging Lourens Vanthoor’s pace to propel the 6 Porsche into a lead it would not relinquish earlier in the race.
Both BMW and Alpine found the WEC podium for the first time as they continued their fight for fourth in the title chase and the rookie team win. Vanthoor, Marciello and Wittmann stood on the second step for BMW. Joined by Alpine sharing its first spoils with Mick Schumacher, Lapierre and Vaxiviere.
Both Schumacher and the fourth-placed Jensen Muller Vergne 93 Peugeot 9X8 passed Norman Nato’s Jota Porsche 963 in the dying minutes. Jota duly ended fifth and sixth ahead of the second Peugeot and Alpine, and then only the best Ferrari and Toyota.
Porsche are LMGT3 Champions
Porsche’s WEC cup flowed even further over when Klaus Bachler, Aliaksandr Malkyhin and Joel Sturm brought their Manthey 911 home second in LMGT3 behind the Rigon Castellacci Flohr Ferrari 296 GT3 to clinch the GT3 drivers’ world title with a round still to race. A combative Valentino Rossi driving with Martin and Al Harthy, ended third in the 46 BMW M4 GT3.
The 6 Porsche now lead the Hypercar World Endurance Championship by 27 points over the 50 Ferrari, now two points clear of the 8 Toyota with only the Bahrain finale left to run in November. Porsche has also returned to the top of the maker’s table, ten points clear of Toyota. Ferrari is now a distant third, but well clear of the fight for fourth between Alpine and BMW with Peugeot and Cadillac close enough to pounce.
So it’s all said and done? No way! This is motor racing and anything can still happen before the fat lady sings in Bahrain. Bring it on!
Photos: WEC