Porsche Penske 963 shared by Kévin Estre, André Lotterer, and Laurens Vanthoor secured victory in an ultra-close battle for victory within the 6 Hours of Fuji, the penultimate spherical of this yr’s FIA World Endurance Championship season
The Porsche trio turned the primary entry to win a second race in 2024, ending forward of the #15 BMW M Staff WRT entry of Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, and Marco Wittmann. This marked BMW’s first-ever podium within the WEC after delivering its strongest efficiency of the season by far.
There was drama within the penultimate hour when the #7 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi and the #5 Porsche pushed by Matt Campbell collided between Turns 2 and three, eliminating each vehicles consequently.
Set to take the ultimate step of the rostrum was the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid of Sébastien Buemi, Ryō Hirakawa, and Brendon Hartley. Nevertheless, Hirakawa acquired a late-race penalty for ignoring blue flags whereas being lapped by the successful Porsche of Estre.
This penalty led to an exhilarating duel within the remaining laps for the ultimate podium place between the #12 Hertz Staff Jota Porsche of Norman Nato and the #36 Alpine of Mick Schumacher. The battle went the way in which of the Alpine after a improbable contest that was resolved with a decisive transfer within the remaining six minutes of the competition.
Cadillac Racing suffered a spectacular finish to the race as Earl Bamber crashed the pole-sitting V-Collection.R whereas chasing the #36 Alpine of Mick Schumacher.
The #35 Alpine confronted heartbreak because the A424 of Charles Milesi, Ferdinand Habsburg, and Jules Gounon was denied a possible podium end after serving a drive-through penalty for contact with the #81 TF Sport Corvette within the remaining half-hour. They ultimately completed eighth within the Hypercar class.
MAIDEN LMGT3 VICTORY FOR FERRARI AS MANTHEY PURERXCING PORSCHE SECURES TITLE
Taking an exhilarating LMGT3 class win and reprising their success from final season, the #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 of Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci, and Davide Rigon triumphed.
Rigon caught and handed the #59 United Autosports McLaren, pushed by Grégoire Saucy, within the remaining half-hour to seal Ferrari’s first win in LMGT3.
United Autosports took fourth after additionally being overtaken by the #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche and the #46 Staff WRT automobile of Valentino Rossi, Maxime Martin, and Ahmed Al Harthy, who achieved their second podium of the season.
Aliaksandr Malykhin, Joel Sturm, and Klaus Bachler celebrated successful the first-ever LMGT3 championship title after claiming an excellent second place within the #92 Porsche.
Hertz Staff JOTA took its fourth victory of the season to safe the title within the FIA World Cup for Hypercar Groups.
