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.
Regular start with Earl Bamber leading the way, keeping the V-Series.R ahead of Marco Wittmann’s BMW, while the battle for the podium and top five is already underway between Toyota and Porsche, with the Ferraris trying to get in the mix.
Chaos ensued on the second lap, however, when a huge braking error at Turn 1 by Robert Kubica saw the #83 Ferrari crash head-on into the #5 Porsche of Frédéric Makowiecki, who in turn crashed into the 499P of Antonio Giovinazzi, involving the #35 Alpine of Ferdinand Habsburg.
Those following find their path blocked by spinning cars and have to turn very wide, like the Alpine #36, the BMW #20 and the Porsches of Jota, the Porsche #99 of Proton and the Peugeots take advantage of this, gaining the Top 10.
Safety Car on track to remove debris (rear wing of the 963 #5 and so on) and return to the pits for Makowiecki, Giovinazzi and Kubica to repair the damaged bodywork, returning to the tail end of the group. The Pole is inevitably given a 30″ Stop&Go for the pileup he caused, served on lap 10, i.e. a couple of seconds after the restart.
During the first hour, Bamber pulled away from Dries Vanthoor, managing the lead well, while Laurens Vanthoor overtook Buemi’s Toyota to take third place with the #6 Porsche, while Molina couldn’t keep up with the GR010s, falling behind. Meanwhile, a good comeback by Alpine and Porsche-Jota, regaining the Top 10 at the expense of Peugeot and Lamborghini.
After the first round of pit stops, a great comeback lap for L.Vanthoor who takes the lead by overtaking the Cadillac that Alex Lynn had climbed into in the meantime. But just before halfway through the second hour, the Virtual Safety Car is deployed to remove debris along the track; before Race Direction subsequently sends the Safety Car into action, grouping everyone together, most of the HYPERCARs and LMGT3s take advantage of the opportunity to return to the pits and refuel, except for Porsche #6 and Cadillac #2, which find themselves in front, but with a different strategy now and less fuel on board than those chasing them.
#2 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn
Photo credit: JEP / Motorsport Images
The SC dropped out with 4h18′ to go and Vanthoor immediately pushed to drop Lynn, who was being chased by the #15 BMW now in the hands of Raffaele Marciello.
Nicklas Nielsen took over the #50 Ferrari and, benefiting from 4 new medium tyres, overtook the #7 and #8 Toyotas in the top five, with the #5 Porsche recovering behind.
Peugeot #94 continues in eighth place, Porsche-Jota #38 and Alpine #36 complete the top 10 ahead of their respective twins #12 and #35, with behind them the Ferrari #51, Lamborghini, Peugeot #93, Porsche-Proton #99, Ferrari-AF #83 and BMW #20, which had to resolve a small problem in the pits by returning to the garage temporarily with the front bodywork removed.
In the LMGT3 class, after a start dominated by the #81 Corvette, the #59 McLaren of United Autosports moved ahead, overtaking the TF Sport Z06, while the #85 Lamborghini of the Iron Dames was third with the lively Sarah Bovy who had put on a show at the start, climbing all the way to the podium.
A good comeback also for the #46 BMW of Team WRT, which has yet to see Valentino Rossi, followed by the #92 Porsche of Manthey PureRxcing, also making a comeback, and the #54 Ferrari of AF Corse, the best of the 296 after the #55 of poleman François Heriau had started very badly and was even forced to return to the pits after a few laps to check the right rear suspension.
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