Fuji WEC: First win for two years for Toyota's Kobayashi and Conway
Toyota secured another dominant World Endurance Championship victory at Fuji, with Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez taking their first win of the 2018/19 superseason
After losing pole, the #7 crew responded in emphatic fashion with an 11-second win over the sister #8 TS050 HYBRID of Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Fernando Alonso.
It marks Kobayashi and Conway's first WEC win since the 2016 Fuji race, as well as a first series triumph for Lopez.
The two Toyotas were once again in a league of their own, with the best of the non-hybrid LMP1s - the #1 Rebellion R-13 shared by Andre Lotterer, Neel Jani and Bruno Senna - ending up four laps down in third.
From eighth on the grid the #7 Toyota, started by Kobayashi, had carved its way through to second behind the polesitting #8 car by the end of the second lap on a wet track.
An off-sequence first pitstop set the #7 crew up to take command when a puncture for the MR Racing Ferrari spewed debris all over the main straight and brought out the safety car after 30 minutes.
Nakajima pitted the #8 Toyota just before the pitlane was closed, emerging behind Kobayashi, who inherited a five-second advantage when both men made their second stops to switch to dry tyres.
Conway later pulled away to the tune of 20 seconds as the #8 car appeared to struggle with balance during Alonso's turn at the wheel, leading to a rear deck change when the Spaniard made way for Nakajima in the penultimate hour.
Rebellion came out on top in its battle against SMP Racing to finish as top privateer, although the Russian squad held a decisive edge during the wet first hour.
Jenson Button even led overall after the first 60 minutes by virtue of leaving his first pitstop very late in the #11 BR Engineering BR1, before inevitably falling behind the Toyotas.
But the pendulum swung back towards Rebellion when the track dried, and by the end of the second hour the #1 car had established itself in third.
The SMP podium challenge ended when the #11 car shared by Button, Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin hit alternator trouble in the penultimate hour and spent 12 minutes in the garage before recovering to fourth, 11 laps down.
ByKolles' ENSO CLM P1/01 was a distant fifth after struggling with turbo issues for much of the race.
The LMP2 class was again dominated by Jackie Chan DC Racing, as the all-Malaysian #37 crew of Jazeman Jaafar, Weiron Tan and Nabil Jeffri came through for their first class win of the season.
Both Jota-Sport DCR ORECAs benefitted by pitting just before the pitlane closed early on, and were given a comfortable buffer by a spin for nearest rivals TDS Racing in the second hour.
Jaafar, Tan and Jeffri led home the sister #38 car of Ho-Pin Tung, Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry by 26 seconds.
Porsche came through for an unlikely win in the GTE Pro class, with Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen extending their points advantage with a second victory of the season in the #92 911 RSR.
But their victory came as a result of the #71 AF Corse Ferrari of Sam Bird and Davide Rigon suffering a puncture in the penultimate hour, after colliding with the #31 DragonSpeed ORECA, when it enjoyed a lead of 13 seconds.
After the early safety car shuffled the order, it was the BMW shared by Antonio Felix da Costa and Tom Blomqvist that took a net lead, but as the race progressed it became clear the M8 lacked the pace to win.
But the pair held on to take second, just ahead of the leading Ford GT of Harry Tincknell and Andy Priaulx.
Porsche made it a clean sweep of wins in GTE as Project 1 claimed its first-ever Am class WEC win.
Jorg Bergmeister, Egidio Perfetti and Patrick Lindsey took the honours ahead of the Dempsey-Proton Porsche shared by Matteo Cairoli, Satoshi Hoshino and Giorgio Roda.
Result
Pos | Class | Driver | Team | Car | Laps | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | LMP1 | M.Conway, K.Kobayashi, J.M.Lopez | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota | 230 | 6h00m21.800s |
2 | LMP1 | S.Buemi, K.Nakajima, F.Alonso | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota | 230 | 11.440s |
3 | LMP1 | N.Jani, A.Lotterer, B.Senna | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion/Gibson | 226 | 4 Laps |
4 | LMP1 | M.Aleshin, V.Petrov, J.Button | SMP Racing | BR Engineering/AER | 219 | 11 Laps |
5 | LMP1 | O.Webb, T.Dillmann, J.Rossiter | ByKOLLES Racing Team | ENSO CLM/NISMO | 219 | 11 Laps |
6 | LMP2 | J.Jaafar, W.Tan, N.Jeffri | Jackie Chan DC Racing | ORECA/Gibson | 217 | 13 Laps |
7 | LMP2 | H-Pin Tung, G.Aubry, S.Richelmi | Jackie Chan DC Racing | ORECA/Gibson | 217 | 13 Laps |
8 | LMP2 | N.Lapierre, A.Negrao, P.Thiriet | Signatech Alpine Matmut | Alpine/Gibson | 217 | 13 Laps |
9 | LMP2 | F.Perrodo, M.Vaxiviere, J-E.Vergne | TDS Racing | ORECA/Gibson | 216 | 14 Laps |
10 | LMP2 | E.Creed, R.Ricci, K.Ihara | Larbre Competition | Ligier/Gibson | 211 | 19 Laps |
11 | GTE Pro | M.Christensen, K.Estre | Porsche GT Team | Porsche | 207 | 23 Laps |
12 | GTE Pro | T.Blomqvist, A.F.da Costa | BMW Team MTEK | BMW | 207 | 23 Laps |
13 | GTE Pro | A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell | Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK | Ford | 207 | 23 Laps |
14 | GTE Pro | A.P.Guidi, J.Calado | AF Corse | Ferrari | 207 | 23 Laps |
15 | GTE Pro | R.Lietz, G.Bruni | Porsche GT Team | Porsche | 207 | 23 Laps |
16 | GTE Pro | M.Sorensen, N.Thiim | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 206 | 24 Laps |
17 | GTE Pro | M.Tomczyk, N.Catsburg | BMW Team MTEK | BMW | 206 | 24 Laps |
18 | GTE Pro | S.Mucke, O.Pla | Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK | Ford | 206 | 24 Laps |
19 | GTE Pro | A.Lynn, M.Martin | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 206 | 24 Laps |
20 | LMP2 | R.Gonzalez, P.Maldonado, A.Davidson | DragonSpeed | ORECA/Gibson | 205 | 25 Laps |
21 | LMP2 | F.van Eerd, G.van der Garde, N.de Vries | Racing Team Nederland | Dallara/Gibson | 204 | 26 Laps |
22 | GTE Pro | D.Rigon, S.Bird | AF Corse | Ferrari | 202 | 28 Laps |
23 | GTE Am | J.Bergmeister, P.Lindsey, E.Perfetti | Team Project 1 | Porsche | 201 | 29 Laps |
24 | GTE Am | S.Yoluc, J.Adam, C.Eastwood | TF Sport | Aston Martin | 201 | 29 Laps |
25 | GTE Am | P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 201 | 29 Laps |
26 | GTE Am | M.Wainwright, B.Barker, T.Preining | Gulf Racing | Porsche | 201 | 29 Laps |
27 | GTE Am | S.Hoshino, G.Roda, M.Cairoli | Dempsey-Proton Racing | Porsche | 201 | 29 Laps |
28 | GTE Am | T.Flohr, F.Castellacci, G.Fisichella | Spirit of Race | Ferrari | 200 | 30 Laps |
29 | GTE Am | Mok W.S., K.Sawa, M.Griffin | Clearwater Racing | Ferrari | 200 | 30 Laps |
30 | GTE Am | C.Ried, J.Andlauer, M.Campbell | Dempsey-Proton Racing | Porsche | 176 | 54 Laps |
- | LMP1 | J.Allen, B.Hanley | DragonSpeed | BR Engineering/Gibson | 179 | Retirement |
- | LMP1 | S.Sarrazin, E.Orudzhev, M.Isaakyan | SMP Racing | BR Engineering/AER | 132 | Retirement |
- | LMP1 | M.Beche, T.Laurent, G.Menezes | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion/Gibson | 23 | Retirement |
- | GTE Am | M.Ishikawa, O.Beretta, E.Cheever | MR Racing | Ferrari | 14 | Retirement |
Drivers' standings
Pos | Driver | Points |
---|---|---|
1 | Fernando Alonso | 84 |
1 | Kazuki Nakajima | 84 |
1 | Sebastien Buemi | 84 |
2 | Jose Maria Lopez | 71 |
2 | Kamui Kobayashi | 71 |
2 | Mike Conway | 71 |
3 | Gustavo Menezes | 63 |
3 | Mathias Beche | 63 |
3 | Thomas Laurent | 63 |
4 | Andre Lotterer | 51 |
4 | Neel Jani | 51 |
5 | Jazeman Jaafar | 34 |
5 | Nabil Jeffri | 34 |
5 | Weiron Tan | 34 |
6 | Bruno Senna | 33 |
7 | Andre Negrao | 33 |
7 | Nicolas Lapierre | 33 |
7 | Pierre Thiriet | 33 |
8 | Gabriel Aubry | 32 |
8 | Ho-Pin Tung | 32 |
8 | Stephane Richelmi | 32 |
9 | Oliver Webb | 22 |
9 | Tom Dillmann | 22 |
10 | Mikhail Aleshin | 22 |
10 | Vitaly Petrov | 22 |
11 | Pastor Maldonado | 16.5 |
11 | Roberto Gonzalez | 16.5 |
12 | Egor Orudzhev | 15 |
12 | Stephane Sarrazin | 15 |
13 | Dominik Kraihamer | 12 |
14 | Jenson Button | 12 |
15 | James Rossiter | 10 |
16 | Nathanael Berthon | 10 |
17 | Frits van Eerd | 8 |
17 | Giedo van der Garde | 8 |
18 | Anthony Davidson | 6.5 |
19 | Erwin Creed | 5.5 |
19 | Romano Ricci | 5.5 |
20 | Francois Perrodo | 5 |
20 | Matthieu Vaxiviere | 5 |
21 | Nyck de Vries | 4.5 |
22 | Jan Lammers | 3.5 |
23 | Loic Duval | 3 |
24 | Jean-Eric Vergne | 2 |
25 | Thomas Dagoneau | 2 |
26 | Yoshiharu Mori | 2 |
27 | Charlie Robertson | 1 |
27 | Leo Roussel | 1 |
27 | Mike Simpson | 1 |
28 | Keiko Ihara | 1 |
29 | Julien Canal | 0.5 |
30 | Ben Hanley | 0.5 |
30 | Henrik Hedman | 0.5 |
30 | Renger van der Zande | 0.5 |
31 | Matevos Isaakyan | 0 |
32 | James Allen | 0 |
33 | Alex Brundle | 0 |
33 | Oliver Rowland | 0 |
33 | Oliver Turvey | 0 |
34 | Rene Binder | 0 |
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