In the foothills of the majestic, sacred Mount Fuji in Japan, lies Fuji Speedway. This is the site for the penultimate event of the hotly contested 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship, a race, and a track with a tremendous and illustrious history dating back to the late 1960s. The track itself is located within the city of Oyama, Japan. This is Toyota's home. Toyota Motor Company owns the Fuji Speedway. They have won eight of nine races in the modern FIA World Endurance Championship era, here. Will today see them win nine out of ten? Or will there be new faces, a new marque, on the top step of the podium? Join us over the course of the next six hours of racing to find out.
It very well could be that such manufacturers as Porsche, Ferrari, Cadillac, and Peugeot, want a slice of success here at the fabled mountain. But they will have to wrestle it from Toyota's grasp. In qualifying, this certainly proved to be the case. As mentioned, this is the penultimate race of the championship for 2023. Two of the four 2023 championships are in the bag. Corvette Racing locked up the final LM GTE Am championship in the previous race at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza in Monza, Italy, and the Hypercar teams' championship going to a privateer effort instead of any of the factory backed cars, is awarded to the #38 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963.
Good morning and welcome to Fuji Speedway in Japan and the 6 Hours of Fuji, the sixth of seven races of the year. A hot, sunny morning. We are ready for a dry race as we welcome Martin Haven, Anthony Davidson, and Graham Goodwin, in the broadcast booth, and Louise Beckett in the pit lane. This is the penultimate event of the year before we get to the 8 Hours of Bahrain, the first weekend in November. This is going to be a dry race after lots of wet weather running in Free Practice and in qualifying. We saw the circuit safari yesterday with fans in buses seeing the cars fly by as they stay to one side of the track but it has to take the drivers by surprise.
We are dealing with a 4-and-a-half-kilometer circuit as we run to Daiichi corner, and the turns 3, 4, and 5, to turn six, the hairpin, and into turn ten, the Dunlop corner at the bottom of the hill before turn 11 and into the final sector for a total of 16 corners. Toyota should be the hot favorites as they own the circuit. Lots of fans frm other brands here as well and the manufacturers are doing a lot of activation in the fan zone. This is how sports car racing works. Fifth in GTE Am, the #57 CarGuy Ferrari 488 GTE of Takeshi Kimura, Scott Huffaker, and new recruit,
Fourth is Ian James, Daniel Mancinelli, and Alex Riberas, the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GTE. Tomonobu Fujii, Casper Stevenson, and Satoshi Hoshino is next in the D'station Aston Martin. Iron Dames in second in the #85 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Rahel Frey, Michelle Gatting, and Sarah Bovy. Pole position goes to Corvette Racing and the #33 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R of Ben Kearing, Nico Varrone, and Nicky Catsburg. Toyota on pole with the #7 GR010 Hybrid and Jose Maria Lopez says he sees a long, hot race, looking for a good result and the fans will go crazy.
Ffith in LMP2, Jakub Smiechowski starting the #34 Inter Europol Competition Oreca sharing with Albert Costa and Fabio Scherer. Next, the #38 Jota Oreca 07 of Oliver Rasmussen, David Heinemenier Hansson, and Pietro Fittipaldi. Third place, the #22 United Autosport Oreca of Phil Hanson, Fred Lubin, and Filipe Albuquerque. Rain is expected later on as this race goes on with the mountains all over the place but the weather, like at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium, rolls down the mountain and like Spa, this place has it's own microclimate.
We are pinned between Mount Fuji, a volcano, and the Pacific Ocean as the Japanese national anthem is sung. Beautifully sung, the anthem. Usually, it is played as an instrumental. We'll have two formation laps. Tenth in Hypercar is the #93 Peugeot 9X8 of Jean Eric Vergne, Paul di Resta, and Mikklel Jensen. Harry Tincknell will start the #99 Proton Competition Porsche sharing with Gianmaria Bruni and nEEL jANI.. Will Stevens, the #38 Jota Porsche. Miguel Molina sevent in the #50 Ferrari 499P. James Calado starting the #51 sister Ferrari, the Le Mans winner, with Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinaazzi.
Alex Lynn fifth in the #2 Ganassi Racing Cadillac with Earl Bamber and fourth place, Michael Christensen starting the car alongside Fred Makowiecki and Dane Cameron. Laurens Vanthoor next up in the sister #6 Porsche with Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer. Ryo Hirakawa starting second in Toyota #8 with Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley, and the sister #7 is on the pole. Mike Conway, sharing with Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez. We have two formation laps behind the safety car before we get going. There are no tire warmers and the tires are at ambient temperature currently. No tire warmers allowed.
The command is given. Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines! It is go time and this will be a fast and furious race as Taki Mori, paralympic Alpine skiier waves the green flag and the cars roll off lined up double file. The Japanese flag waves. We are going to see a great battle in GTE Am primarily between the Corvette and the Iron Dames Porsche, the final appearance of GTE cars at Fuji. Ferrari building the energy management, the SOC, state of charge for the battery as high as possible for using the MGU, the kinetic Motor Generator Unit. This way the car is charging, not deploying energy.
The clock should begin running soon. I think we'll have a couple of formation laps behind the safety car. We could very well see drama in the opening moments. D'station and ORT by TF Aston Martin's have gone with soft front Michelin tires and the rear tires take a pasting around here. The Peugeot 9X8's tires are all the same width, but all other Hypercars have narrower front tires than rear tires, so they have an advantage on their tire wear. OK. The field is forming up behind the safety car which is readdy to pull off to pit lane. Red lughts on. Red lights out! Away we go!
Mike Conway is going for the lead but here comes Laurens Vanthoor and there's contact with the Ferrari's early doors. Cold tires and cold brakes. Porsche and Ferrari run 1-2. Holy cow! The sister Ferrrari making a move on the #2 Cadillac. Major trouble for the sister factory Porsche which has dropped like a stone! There is a puncture for the #5! Goodness gracious! The Proton Competition Porsche of Harry Tincknell gets passed by Antonio Felix Da Costa and we have a GTE Am car spun off the road and into the gravel trap! Safety car. Luis Perez Companc is off. Oy yoy yoy!
That is a get out of jail free card for the #5 Porsche Penske Motorsports 963. Michael Christensen is in good shape as Mikkel Jensen tells the Peugeot brain trust that he got pushed. Christensen has a right rear puncture and the sister #6 Porsche 963 of Laurens Vanthoor is in the lead. This is a race against time ad there is trouble as the shredded tire maybe has wrapped it's way around the suspension. Nobody touched the Ferrari GTE car. Did car #5 make contact with the Ferrari? He is back on track and has not lost a lap now catching the crocodile and getting heat into his tires.
Ferrari #83 is caboose on the field as the #5 Porsche rejoins the end of the queue. The Ferrari walloped the Proton Porsche 963, and then, thwack! Calado went in deep and touched the right rear of the Porsche and the sister Ferrari hit one of the Toyota's. Miguel Molina tagged the Toyota. Good grief. Safety Car into the lane at the end of this lap according to Edoardo Freitas, chief Race Director along with his two deputies.
Vanthoor accelerates early and now Molina is having to play catch up and now, Molina has his hands full with Toyota #8 and Sebastien Buemi wants by Alex Lynn but Lynn slams the door in his face. Mike Conway has the bit between his teeth. The Ferrari struggles building tire temperature. Conway tries the outside and is pushed wide onto the grass and gets mugged by James Calado and by Alex Lynn, well, almost. Both Toyota's on the attack already. Lynn protecting the inside and it s a drag race to turn one. Where's my DRS?! No DRS on a prototype, boys.
We are only ten minutes into a six-hour race. Don't do anything silly. Toyota cannot run away and whistle off into the distance as we see Sarah Bovy forcing Ben Keating wide and Keating deciding discretion is the better part of valor. This is for second while Gold rated driver Tomonobu Fujii leads in the #777 D'station Aston Martin! The home crowd will go bonkers! Meanwhile, it is Prema on Prema in LMP2. Daniil Kvyat in the #63 vs. Juan Mnauel Correa for eight in LMP2. United Autosports leads LMP2. Ben Keating is putting daylight between himself and Sarah Bovy.
Michael Christensen under investigation for entering a closed pit lane for emergency service. In replay, Keating was in the slipstream and just slingshots right by Sarah Bovy in the Porsche. Filipe Albuquerque leads Josh Pierson. Mikkel Jensen running ahead of Loic Duval in the two Peugeot 9X8's and they are behind the #2 Cadillac V Series R for Ganassi Racing again, in the hands of Alex Lynn. Toyota applying the blowtorch to Ferrari and there is a bottleneck here with the Peugeot's holding up the Jota Sport Porsche 963.
Bovy ran wide and gave the place back to Ben Keating. Battle resumes. No worries. No skin off her nose. Mike Conway on the radio says he is dealing with a long brake pedal. You hit the brake pedal and it travels further than you expect even though you have stopping power and a plucky move, look, as the Peugeot darts out past Antonio Felix Da Costa and Loic Duval says, "no you don't sunshine", and Da Costa says, "yes, I will." Harry Tincknell is also flying. The factory Peugeot's at a deficit to both privateer Porsche's.
In GTE Am, Ben Keating is indeed being given the rough end of the pineapple by Bovy while the Texan locks up the brakes on corner entry. Keating, the Texas car dealer. James Calado is told by Ferrari team manager Justin Taylor, to look after the left rear Michelin tire. There are not enough tires to throw new sets on the car at every pit stop. Buemi and Molina, turn one, lap one, noted by the stewards. Same for the #23 and #41 LMP2 cars. Josh Pierson for United Autosport and Rui Andrade for WRT. Hertz Team Jota and Proton Competition have both used hard tires while the Penske cars I think have gone with a medium compound Michelin.
Hypercars now encountering GT traffic. Conway and Buemi can both begin making inroads. We know Ferrari's boys have to save their left side tires through turns four and five, right hand corners that are high speed. The leader is just onto the main straightaway right in the thick of the GTE Am traffic. They have their own battles. Daniil Kvyat says he is aware the engine is not getting fresh air. He has to duck outside to get into clear airflow. If you sit behind the car, the engine will overheat and lose power, going into a fail-safe mode.
Porsche #5 is now behind the LMP2 leader and is in recovery mode as we watch Mike Conway chasing both of the Ferrari 499P's going by P.J. Hyett in the #56 Project 1 AO Porsche, "Rexy" the dinosaur. The Hypercar battle is getting spicy early doors. Mike Conway and Sebastien Buemi are looking for their rivals to make a mistake and open the doors. James Calado is told to go softer with the rear sway bar, checking the traction control, and use the tools on brake bias as well. So, use your tools and soften the car up to help with traction. Chief engineer Justin Taylor is informing Calado of what he can do. Use your brake bias. Use your traction control.
Andre Lotterer at Porsche Penske tells us (at a track he is familiar with) Laurens Vanthoor's risk taking effort at the start has gone well. They are looking to build and advantage. Laurens Vanthoor is a risk taker and is going for it, definitely. Kevin Estre is the third driver. Vanthoor is doing a good job of driving cleanly, running on the medium compound Michelin tires. It would have been even faster on hard compound tires. Takeshi Kimura vs. Ian James vs. Ahmad Al Harthy vs. Christian Ried, as the Vanwall makes it by, the #4 Vanwall Vandervell 680, Esteban Guerreri, the Argentine driver at the wheel of it.
Heart of Racing had their cool suits on, and the regular drivers are used to racing in this heat and humidity in Japan. Filipe Albuquerque and Ben Keating's starts are being investigated in addition to the #5 Porsche as Harry Tincknell passes Mikkel Jensen. Tincknell, the cork in the bottle, and now, the Peugeot boys have swapped places, Mikkel Jensen gets passed by Loic Duval who has cleared away. The Sebastien Buemi and Miguel Molina incident under investigation by the stewards. 26 minutes on the board and all the videos and all the data points are being examined in the stewards' room upstairs.
Tomonobu Fujii is under 11 seconds clear of Sarah Bovy in GTE Am. Harry Tincknell did indeed make his move on Mikkel Jensen. Loic Duval is 2.3 seconds ahead of Tincknell. The Race Director will note the incident and hand the paper to the stewards. The sheriff hands the warrant to the court. Iron Dames will be racing Lamborghini's next year. James Calado third, Mike Conway fourth. Conway is putting Calado under pressure at times, but now, it seems that the Ferrari is a match in the higher speed sections of the circuit. One punctured tire can be changed if it is indeed damaged. Filipe Albuquerque may have questions to answer about the race start.
18 laps now completed in LMP2, 51 miles. Refueling, repairing damage, or replacing a damaged tire count as emergency service. But a splash and a dash is not allowed unless they have been on the track for a certain amount of time. These cars are running on 100% sustainable fuel made by TotalEnergies. Harry Tincknell is pressing Loic Duval and sends it. Conway tries the lead change, but it doesn't work. Return the envelope to the sender. Wrong address. Conway is pressing Miguel Molina, trying to make him burn up his tires.
Conway has the speed over Calado, not Molina. Excuse me. Michael Christensen now to 11th place passing the #4 Vanwall, 13.8 seconds down from the second Peugeot whole being warned for track limits and Cnway jinked out from beijd the Aston and Calado nearly got chopped by Ahmad Al Harthy! Yikes! Al Harthy in the ORT by TF #25 Aston Martin Vantage GTE. Alex Lynn in the #2 blue Cadillac is closing in on the Toyota and the Ferrari but behind the lapped traffic with the GTE and a random LMP2 car. Next year, no LMP2 machines in WEC except at Le Mans.
Conway has to make up 2.8 seconds to catch Miguel Molina and man oh man, Calado had to judge the gap to the car in front and squeeze past the Aston Martin of Al Harthy who had the foresight to know he was there instead of slamming the door in Calado's face while Conway whistled by. Every time you make a move in traffic, the potential for contact is very high. Sebastien Buemi passes Rui Andrade. Team manager for the #31 WRT Oreca summoned to the stewards with immediate effect. Antonio Felix Da Costa is catching Alex Lynn. Jota Porsche 963 vs. Ganassi Racing factory Cadillac V Series R. Toyota know what they have. Alex Lynn and Antonio Felix Da Costa are good pals, but the red mist comes down with the helmet visor.
Tires out and a checkover for the #41 WRT car. David Heinemeier Hansson and Jakub Smiechowski have both pitted and now, Da Costa goes straight on at turn ten and towards or through the barriers! Jeepers creepers! In replay, it is a lockup all by his lonesome. No harm done. United Autosports in the lane from second in class with Josh Pierson also serving a penalty after the stop. Buemi on Calado's six into turn three. Vanthoor at 1:31.7 in traffic over Conway at 1:31.9 with no traffic. We are seeing another sizzler of a race so far. Daniil Kvyat doing the undercut on the sister Prema entry in LMP2. James Calado, Le Mans winner, fourth, holding off Sebastien Buemi, the three-time Le Mans winner.
Sean Gelael and Filipe Albuquerque pit in LMP2. Albuquerque under investigation after starting on pole for maintaining a too large gap, I think. A gap at the start that was too large between the classes. Julien Canal the erstwhile LMP2 leader. The battle is raging for seventh place between Antonio Felix Da Costa and Harry Tincknell in the two privateer Porsche 963's. Proton Competition vs. Jota Sport. This is a brand-new car for Proton Competition and their second car is now racing in GTP in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship and we will see that car race next weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. More details will come about that event, next week after we finish talking about how this race came out.
A long way to go yet. One race at a time, folks. One race at a time. Buemi has poked his nose past James Calado. Mie Conway tries around the outside and can't quite make it stick. Toyota turning it on in their fight with Ferrari. As these stints unfold, the tire wear will be harder to manage. Toyota will truly understand but most teams have no understanding on a hot, fully dry day. Cibwat wants the unside line on Molina and Conway outbrakes himself and now Molina is going to take it back but Conway I swear, he almost went outside track limits over the white line.
It is so hard to overtake offline like that. Molina parked the car on the solid white line and could have gone into no man's land and Da Costa is off the road slicing past the Alpine LMP2! Egad! Another lockup and those tired are going to be... square. In GTE Am it is chopping and changing all over the place. Buemi's previous lap, in the 1:31 range, now in clear air. Laurens Vanthoor is now 14 seconds ahead of Mike Conway. Laurens Vanthoor in the lane from the lead a wee bit earlier than we expected. Refueling going on and Vanthoor is going to do a double stint.
I think he needs a wee bit more fuel but has been economical with the energy meter. Left side medium compound Michelin tires only on that stop for the #6 Porsche 963. Claudio Schiavoni brings in the #60 Iron Lynx Porsche 911 RSR-19 as we see Christian Ried passing Ahmad Al Harty and the green dinosaur Porsche in the hands of P.J. Hyett. Ried, Al Harthy, and Hyett battling and now, David Heinemeier Hanson spins off right in front of the sister car, the #38 Porsche 963! Yikes! The #38 tagged his teammate! Da Costa biffed Heinemeier Hansson! That can happen in turn ten. Meanwhile, Peugeot #93 of Mikkel Jensen is trying his best to pass Michael Christensen aboard the #5 Porsche 963.
Video evidence says Antonio Felix Da Costa tipped David Heinemeier Hanson. Porsche #6 is off strategy and has flown Plummet Airways from first place to 12th place! Oy yoy yoy! We are only 36 laps into the race. 102 miles. Buemi chasing Molina and he tries to get past and does so. Molina covered the Toyota, outbrakes himself, and well, that's that. Toyota, Ferrari, and Cadillac are all preparing to hit the pit lane for the first time. Miguel Molina and Ferrari AF Corse, they are thinking on their feet and are doing left side tires only, experimenting.
Ferrari to the lane for both cars. #51 has only left side tires. Calado is the one in the lane now. They are going left side tires only on both of these cars as we are now seeing this at status quo, Toyota 1-2. Car #7 will box this lap. What tires will we see them put on? They are going to likely double stint these tires which will tell us they are better than anyone at double stinting tires.
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