24h Le Mans
The #2 Porsche crew may have lost the 6 Hours of Fuji, they still have a comfortable lead in the World Endurance Championship.
Anyone in Europe who set the alarm clock to watch the race live surely didn’t regret it. Toyota snatched victory by just 1.439 seconds, the smallest gap the WEC has ever seen. The Japanese manufacturer hadn’t won a round since Bahrain in 2014. In the championship, the Fuji winning crew now stand second to Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb, the #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid team who took victory over Toyota at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a harrowing finish.
The #2 crew won the season-opener at Silverstone, but haven’t really shone since then. However, the 50 points they banked for the Le Mans 24 Hours win (worth double) are enough to keep them firmly in the lead in the championship stakes. Despite a below-par fifth place in Fuji, they are still 23 points ahead of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Stéphane Sarrazin in the #6 Toyota TS050 Hybrid and have 28.5 points in hand over the #8 Audi R18.
Title-holders Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Mark Webber, the #1 Porsche crew, trail their teammates by 46.5 points and will be hard-pressed to hold onto their crown.
In the manufacturers’ competition, Porsche is a step closer to a second consecutive title with a 59-point lead over Audi. Each manufacturer can hope to pocket up to 44 points per race: 25 for a win, 18 for second and 1 point for pole position. With two rounds left to go, Toyota is 89 points behind Porsche and therefore has no chance of a last minute victory in the championship.
The same goes for ByKolles Racing Team in the LM P1 privateers competition. Rebellion Racing is sure to win at the end of the year with the #13 R-One crew, Alexandre Imperatori, Dominik Kraihamer and Mathéo Tuscher. The Swiss team have decided to field just one car for the remainder of the season, leaving the #12 crew out of the running.
The next round is the 6 Hours of Shanghai on 6 November and the season will close in Bahrain on 19 November.
Results of the 6 Hours of Fuji
Photo (Gabi Tomescu -AdrenalMedia.com/FIA WEC): Audi started the 6 Hours of Fuji in pole position but failed to transform the advantage.
