We are well underway in the 6 Hours of Fuji at Fuji Speedway in Fuji, Japan. Normally, Fuji Speedway is very picturesque. But, weather has been a factor in this race so far. There's been heavy clouds and rain. In nearly three hours of running, we have had only about 45 minutes of racing under green. Porsche leads overall. Ferrari is dominating the GTE classes. The track has just gone green after an extended safety car period. Each championship leader in all classes have had bad luck. Nick Tandy leads Jose Maria Lopez in the #7 Toyota, that has had electronic issues. Porsche #2 of Earl Bamber could take the championship today, sharing with Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard. The conditions are changing.
The visibility has ben a big issue as the #91 Porsche 911 RSR runs off the road after starting on the front row in class. Porsche and Ford have stayed on track in this recent stint. G-Drive leads LMP2 and they won here with a different driving squad, last year. This straightaway at Fuji is the longest in the World Endurance Championship at a mile in length. We've been on wet weather tires for most of the race. Sam Bird started his Ferrari on wet tires and has kept them for a while after his team mate Davide Rigon took over. We are getting to the halfway mark and will back time the pit stops. Longer fuel runs are a benefit of running in the wet. This race could be called if the weather gets worse.
Ho Pin Tung and Jackie Chan DC Racing are third in LMP2 and lead the points championship in class. Bruno Senna says he has had a tough stint, just on the limit of being able to drive the car. The crowd turned out in spades even in the rain. Safety has to come first before putting on a show. It's been an iffy weekend with the weather. Vitaly Petrov crashed on Friday, stopping the session. Lots of spray coming off these high downforce prototypes. This is a huge race for Toyota, who have had a bad season. They are still committed to the LMP1 Hybrid category. They won four of the five races run here at Fuji, their home event.
They won at Silverstone and Spa at the beginning of the year, before the #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid went on a tear, winning the most recent four races at Le Mans, Nurburgring, Mexico, and Circuit of the Americas. If Porsche could get a 1-2 today, they'd clinch their third LMP1 manufacturer's championship cup. Points are awarded though, through the whole Prototype field, and you will have nil points if you finish behind both the LMP1 and LMP2 cars, aggregated together. The LMP2 title fight is a 20 point swing. Five points in GTE Pro between Ford and Porsche. Four points separate the LM GTE Am teams.
Nick Tandy leads the race for Porsche as Kazuki Nakajima in Toyota #8 pitted. Jose Maria Lopez went off the road, struggling with braking into turn one. There haven't been too many incidents today. Conditions may be improving, but there's another wall of mist at the end of the front straightaway. Ford GT #66 is off the road with Stefan Mucke at the wheel of it. He was locked up entirely. No ABS on a GTE car, unlike a GT3 racer we see racing in the U.S. and worldwide. Andy Priaulx did not take tires on his most recent pit stop.
We have yet another safety car. Deary me. The visibility is horrid as the clouds are shrouding the speedway. This is not an unusual situation here at Fuji. A few years back, there were a couple tries to get the race underway and then the organizers cancelled it and said to the drivers, "boys and girls, head home. No racing today." There's lots of standing water out there. Everything affects everything else in a race car. The tires need to get into their sweet spot, and you can't get to the tire's sweet spot which compounds the problem, (no pun intended).
AF Corse is running well. They did not have a good qualifying result. Both the track and ambient temperatures are in the 50s. Patrick Dempsey was the grand marshal. There's a slow zone down the front straight before the Porsche's got into it and the Toyot'a sbegan to battle as Nelson Piquet Jr. spun. Sebastien Buemi challenges Andre Lotterer but no dice. Conditions only got worsre as the LMP2 battle began to heat up. LMP1 cars went off into a race of their own and Andre Lotterer found grip before the field was red flagged due to the rain. The conditions have ebbed and flowed all day long.
Porsche #2 is a lap down to everyone else. The Clearwater Ferrari #54 started from the LM GTE Am pole. Jose Maria Lopez had steering wheel electronic problems. Keita Sawa who drives for cClearwater does driver coaching here at Fuji. Lopez pushed too hard and ran wide. Hats off to the fans who have sat through all this rain to see the WEC stars perform. The fans are knowledgeable and courteous. Mike Hedlund is racing in the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR. We watrch slow motion action from the pit lane. Stand by for more action, coming up, from Fuji.
We expect to go back to green flag conditions shortly. There may be residual yellow flags and a slow zone to reduce the spray. Toyota could be making a pit stop. Mike Conway could get behind the wheel of the Toyota. Brendon Hartley will race Formula 1 for Scuderia Toro Rosso next weekend in Austin, Texas. Now, Porsche #92 is in the lane. Strategy has cycled them back. The Porsche 911 RSR has not won in WEC yet. Rebellion is also pitting. In 1976, the F1 world championship was decided by Niki Lauda and James Hunt, in the rain. Lauda withdrew from the race, James Hunt won the title, and Mario Andretti won the race.
James Hunt was not sure he'd clinched the title. McLaren team boss Teddy Mayer had to calm James Hunt down from his anxiousness, and he did win. Now, Toyota #7 has a problem with a non functioning windscreen wiper. Oh dear. All four LMP1 cars have stayed on track. What will the stewards do in calling the race? There are so many factors. This is ideal for cars and driver squads that may not have all the performance of the front runners. There has been a wave around procedure executed today on a few occasions, and many teams have taken advantage of it. Timo Bernhard could not get the wave around before the red flag.
The darkest area of the radar are moving away from the track. So, we could go racing soon. Emmanuel Collard brings the #28 TDS Oreca Gibson to pit lane and Alexandre Negrao will move into the class lead for Alpine. Kevin Estre and Marvin Dienst are your GT class leaders, both in Porsche's. We have not seen any puddling or aquaplaning today. Race Director Edoardo Freitas is going to bring the safety car in and there will be a slow zone down the front straight before we turn the cars loose at turn one.
Brendon Hartley wants to have his tire temps up and some boys are actually touching each other at 80 kilometers an hour. One of the Rebellion cars was making contact with another car as Nick Tandy runs away like a scalded cat! He was on the button! Matthias Beche and Jean Eric Vergne have hit each other and Beche pinwheels into the wall! Wow! Beche was trying to set up to pass a GT car and he spun. Safety car, scrambled again. Both of these blokes will need to have a discussion with the race director. Vergne says "don't pass me until we get to turn one." Beche is trying to go down inside and Vergne was right there before he spun off the road obliterating the Rebellion entry.
Beche has beached it. He has drive, but the suspension is busted. The two cars were accelerating at the same pace. Beche thought he'd out accelerate Jean Eric Vergne. No way. Andre Lotterer was probably like, "what the.. expletive... was that?!" Vergne was telling Beche, "you can't pass me". Jani says to Lotterer, "can you believe it?!" Neel Jani raced for Rebellion before joining Pporsche. Alex Brundle's #37 has been in the garage for a long time, with battery issues. But, the sister Jjota Sport entry has not been officially withdrawn from the race.
Matthias Beche has been going to photographers to try and figure out what happened in the argy bargy between he and Jean Eric Vergne. Vergne can't be fully at fault for that. No updates from the accident scene as yet. Toyota #8 will be in good shape on pit strategy. The fuel consumption numbers have been thrown out the window. There's a lot of elevation changes on this track. It's 2.83 miles long with 16 corners here at Fuji. Two hours still remain in this race. The Dempsey entry is in the lane for scheduled pit work.
The most recent incident is under investigation. We're back to green and Tandy is trying to fend off the challenge from the Toyota's! Wow! Jose Maria Lopez goes to the race lead! Kazuki Nakajima is now pressurizing Nick Tandy! Wow. Kevin Estre is trying to keep Andy Priaulx at bay and Priaulx wants his lap back. Toyota has struggled in the ran, but they have pace. Porsche decided on a high downforce setup as Andy Priaulx taps Kevin Estre who spins. Porsche #91 took advantage. Estre is racing for the first time here at Fuji.
Estre is a great rain driver though. These conditions are in his wheelhouse. Ooh! Priaulx is off the road. Ford's day for the #67 goes from bad to worse, and now he's beached it in the gravel trap. James Calado and his wife just welcomed a daughter into their family. We're only 65% done in this race. You have to get to 70% to score points. Waving yellow flag in the corner while the marshals snatch Andy Priaulx. We are set to go full course yellow and we are there. Andy Priaulx is still beached. Poor chap. Not having a good day at all.
These boys are only five points ahead in the championship and everything has gone pear shaped for them today. The #26 G-Drive LMP2 car with Romain Rusinov spun and was able to continue. Nick Tandy is in the lane. The race strategists will have some whopper headaches after this and need some Tylenol or ibuprofen or something. Mike Conway into the Toyota. Neel Jani into the #1 Porsche 919. One race strategy after another is thrown in the trash can as the situations change. Priaulx is back underway once again and needs to focus on scoring points now.
Kazuki Nakajima leads overall and LMP1. Nico Prost leads LMP2. Fred Makowiecki is leading LM GTE Pro. Miguel Molina leads GTE Am. The restart has been called off as track cleanup continues. We go back to green officially this time with Mike Conway leading Neel Jani. Visibility is getting worse, again. James Calado has made a pass on Fred Makowiecki. The Ganassi crew is pitting the #67. They will get the dollies under the car and go to work in the garage. Porsche has a lot of pace in LM GTE Pro. Aston Martin is struggling on their Dunlop wet tires.
Fred Makowiecki has done a lot of racing here in Japan. James Calado is adapting well to GT cars. Ditto for Sam Bird. Many drivers in the field have raced here in Japan in Formula Nippon and Super Formula. Racing in Japan is lucrative, and the Japanese are great racing fans. We are within the final two hours of this race. This track is known as a speedway. It was supposed to be a 2.5 mile superspeedway. The place was converted into a toad course and has a lot of history. The rain is about as bad as we've seen it all day.
It goes from being clear to being in the middle of a cloud. Ho Pin Tung and Andre Negrao battle in LMP2. LMP2 is a spec class, and LMP1, LM GTE Pro, and LM GTE Am, they are world championships. Keita Sawa said that if the fog comes through turn one, you are in trouble. It comes in at turn one and then blankets the rest of the circuit. We are in the foothills of Mount Fuji. There is a yellow flag for poor visibility. Edoardo Freitas is a reassuring voice to the drivers. Turn one and the straightaway are shrouded in water.
The weather clears up a bit in turn three. It's remarkably better. Search for grip on the surface. You want more abrasive surfaces in the rain. Not a polished, smooth line, because that will cause the tires to chunk. Good racing between Andre Negrao and Ho Pin Tung. Ho Pin Tung is the LMP2 class leader in the championship standings. Here comes the fog down the straightaway and into turn one. Don't allow drivers to get the red mist in the middle of a championship battle. Kazuki Nakajima leads Mike Conway in a battle of the two Toyota's. Nakajima leads by 20+ seconds. The slow motion pictures show water trailing off the bodywork of the cars.
Imagine managing 1,000 horsepower in these conditions. We now have an hour and 45 minutes left in this race. Fuji is truly one of the most gorgeous race tracks in thew world. We have an hour and a half to go in this race as sunshine has been hard to come by this weekend.. Very little attrition has been seen in this race. This is a pea soup fog.
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