Porsche has taken the lead in the 6 Hours of Fuji from Cadillac as we reach the end of the second hour of this penultimate event of the FIA World Endurance Championship season.
Several battles provided entertainment during the third and fourth hours, especially after the restart from the previous Safety Car with all the cars grouped together to compete for the various positions.
Porsche #6 and Cadillac had tried to escape before making their pit stops, scheduled a few laps ahead of their rivals, and here we must applaud Nicklas Nielsen, who was superb at the wheel of the Ferrari #50 in taking command of the operations, also taking advantage of a slow pit stop by the BMW #15 which had forced him to cede temporary third place.
Shortly before, the great duel for the top spot had been resolved in favour of the factory 963 when Bamber was caught and overtaken by Raffaele Marciello’s BMW; the New Zealander found himself with a punctured front right tyre after turn 1, slowly bringing the V-Serie.R back to the pits for a replacement.
Nielsen gritted his teeth for several laps before handing over first place to André Lotterer, who was clearly faster than the 499P and with the Toyotas recovering in the fourth hour, taking advantage of a better pace than Marciello’s BMW.
Halfway through the fourth hour, two short Full Course Yellows within minutes of each other to clear the track of debris and the battles resumed with the #6 Porsche back in front in the HYPERCAR class after the final stop of the #7 Toyota, which had jumped into the lead after getting rid of the #50 Ferrari.
The #15 BMW is in second place, 3″ behind the official Penske-branded 963 and with a good margin over the #8 Toyota, which has 5″ ahead of the #50 Ferrari as the GR010 Hybrids have started to bring out the best of themselves as they did in Austin in the second part of the race, and are now seriously playing for all or nothing.
The #35 Alpine climbed into the top five, overtaking the #12 Porsche of Jota, leader of the private cars, while the #51 Ferrari continues to suffer in seventh place, behind it the #38 Porsche-Jota, Cadillac and the #7 Toyota, which made its final stop just 22 minutes after the previous stint, losing ground after having been in the running for the podium.
The best Peugeot was the #94 in eleventh place, with the 9X8s having fought for some stretches against the Alpines, the Lamborghini found itself in 13th place having also taken a 10″ penalty for an infringement committed during the pit stop.
In the LMGT3 class, pit stops were differentiated and crossed several times between the various teams; at the moment the lead has passed into the hands of the #85 Lamborghini of the Iron Dames with a handful of seconds of advantage over the #81 Corvette-TF Sport and the #27 Aston Martin-Heart of Racing.
The #59 McLaren-United Autosports instead lost the podium having to serve a Drive Through for an infringement committed under FCY
The #55 AF Corse Ferrari took the top five, while sixth place went to the #46 Team WRT BMW, in which Valentino Rossi put on a show in his first stint, overtaking a series of rivals with intelligence and aggression, before handing over to Maxime Martin.
Seventh was the #54 AF Corse Ferrari, chased by the Porsches of Manthey PurRxcing #92 and Manthey EMA #91, with the #77 Proton Competition Ford completing the top 10.
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