Porsche Penske Motorsports drivers Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, and Laurens Vanthoor won the hypercar category Sunday at Japan’s Six Hours of Fuji. In the LMGT3 category, the Vista AF Corse Ferrari of Italians Francesco Castellacci, David Rigon, and Swiss Thomas Flohr took the LMGT3 to win.
FUJI, Japan—The Porshe Penski team overtook the Toyota Gazoo Team in the Constructor’s championship with one race to go. With the win, the team must finish eighth or better in the next (and the year’s final) race to secure their first championship in many years.
Cadillac Racing had the pole in this hypercar category and led the early part of the race until being passed by the winning Porsche team. But to make things worse, the car driven by Earl Bamber tried to pass the Alpine with Mick Schumacher abord with less than an hour left in the race and spun into the barriers, damaging the front of his car. Bamber managed to push his car back to the pits, where he retired from the race.
It was a remarkable event for BMW Team WRT. The German car maker with a Belgian license went on to finish second. At the same time, the Alpines managed to take the final podium, as their #36 car took advantage of errors and penalties by Ferrari #50 with Antonio Fuoco and Toyota’s Rio Hirakawa, who ignored blue flags and was penalized and finished third.
More cars in the category retired as Toyota’s Kamui Kobayashi struck the number five Porsche and spun both vehicles out of the race. The lone Lamborghini Lynx car, which started in ninth, retired with technical issues.
Even with the third victory on this circuit by the top Ferrari, the second-place team of the Lithuanian Manthey Purerxcing team was dominant all season, except for Lemans. But their second-place finish gave the team the LMGT3 championship and driver’s titles for Aliaksander Malykhin, Joel Sturm, and Klaus Bachler. The BMW WRT Team finished in third, which included former Moto GP champion Valentino Rossi.
The season’s final race will occur on Sunday, November 5, in Bahrain. The Hypercar manufacturer and Driver championships have yet to be decided.
