It’s a Porsche that can take everything… or almost the one that put on a show far and wide at the 6h of Fuji.
At the penultimate event of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship season, cars from the Weissach manufacturer took two victories and closed the accounts in three of the five classifications of the top endurance series.
Those who are still not sure of the rainbow stripes are the Team Penske officials who, in the HYPERCAR class, achieved the second triumph of the year for the trio formed by André Lotterer, Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor, at the wheel of the 963 #6 with which they duelled for a long time against their rivals for the lead already during the opening two hours, before taking control of the situation firmly in the final 120 minutes.
With a remarkable pace that saw them obtain the best average lap times of all, the three standard-bearers of the German-American team now find themselves with a +35 in the drivers’ standings over the Ferrari drivers Molina/Fuoco/Nielsen, while Kobayashi/De Vries have dropped to -37 when 39 points are up for grabs at the 8 Hours of Bahrain.
The #6 Porsche first fought against the Cadillac, then once it had pulled away the V-Series.R crossed swords with the #50 499P, which however paid the price for being grouped behind the Safety Car towards the end and found itself on the same strategy as the others and with a significantly worse pace.
The finale saw the 963 keep the #15 BMW at bay without any particular problems, apart from a long run by Estre in turn 1 due to a rather curious little setback.
#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor
Photo credit: JEP / Motorsport Images
“I think the air conditioning created a lot of condensation, which ended up on the brake pedal and made my foot slip,” the Frenchman revealed. “Once that scare passed, everything went well, apart from when I reached the Toyota #8 which probably had cold tyres after the pit stop and also had one lap less since I was about to lap it.”
“She didn’t want to let me pass and blocked me everywhere, I tried to overtake, but she came back in front of me; the situation heated up and there was also a slight contact in turn 15”.
That said, Estre also emphasizes that when you have an advantage you have to know how to exploit it because the opponents in this series don’t give anything away.
“You can’t count on other people’s bad luck. I think Ferrari was at a disadvantage this weekend; it wasn’t as fast as it probably could have been.”
“Toyota tried many things, adopting a very aggressive and different strategy with two and a half hours to go, with De Vries doing two very short stints on low fuel, which gave us an advantage.”
“But then, with the safety car, I think they lost a lot on the track and couldn’t get back to the pits. At that point you’re in a group and you run more risks. But from our point of view, we put them in this situation of always chasing, us always in front and them trying to beat us. I think that was a key.”
“It seems like people are trying to do everything they can to stop us, but I think we’re stronger this year and somehow they can’t do that, which is good for us. That’s what we’ve done really well this year as a team.”
Podium: #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor
Photo by: Andreas Beil
Lotterer, on the other hand, has taken a weight off his chest that had been hanging over him for too many years, as the German explains: “I’m very happy to have achieved this victory at Fuji, it had been denied to me a few times in my time with Audi, so it had always been a great desire of mine to bring it home”.
“Thanks to my great teammates: Laurens laid the foundations and then I took over, the car was great and we managed to keep a good pace. I only had a small problem with the #50 Ferrari, which was defending itself very well, so I had to take a risk to pass it. But then everything went smoothly.”
“I think the beauty of this team is that we manage to do the best with what is proposed to us, our engineer and all the others are really well prepared with all the scenarios to always choose the right one. We have seen it during the season, even when we had to fight from the back and this shows our strength”.
Vanthoor is doubly happy because he found himself on the podium accompanied by his brother Dries, BMW driver in second place: It’s emotional because it’s a World Championship and I don’t think it happens often to see two brothers on the podium. It’s the dream of a career and I think that at home, my father, my mother, my sister and everyone else are happy, some even cried. It’s definitely a special moment, which I think we will both remember for a long time”.
“We had a good car in the race, we were cautious in Austin Interlagos because we knew we had to manage the championship lead. But here we thought it could be a good weekend for us, so we took advantage of it and tried to gain ground. Luckily I was able to quickly overtake the two Toyotas, which is very important for our title fight. Then we had a good car and a good strategy and we managed to get to the front of the race.”
#5 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Matt Campbell, Michael Christensen, Frederic Makowiecki, #83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, Yifei Ye
Photo credit: JEP / Motorsport Images
The 963s were objectively very strong, so much so that both official cars could have easily been at least in the Top5 if it hadn’t been for the accident at the start which saw the #5 of Frédéric Makowiecki hit by the #83 Ferrari driven by Robert Kubica, having to return to the pits for repairs.
Remaining on the same lap as the leader, the Frenchman began to patiently climb back up the order and his teammates Michael Christensen and Matt Campbell also benefited from a good pace which – combined with a couple of Safety Cars – allowed them to get back into the game.
The Australian, however, had to deal with Kamui Kobayashi’s Toyota, which rammed him and hit him in the final hour, sending the #5 car definitively KO’d with many regrets.
“We fought back from the initial setback, but were caught off guard by a Virtual Safety Car. Then contact with a Toyota took us out of the race altogether. It was still a stellar day for the team, with the sister car taking the win and regaining the lead in the Constructors’ Championship. Now we’re looking forward to Bahrain,” said Campbell.
As mentioned, Porsche is back in the lead in the Constructors’ standings, but its rivals are still within range as Toyota is 10 points behind and Ferrari is 27 points behind, which leaves many possible scenarios open for the final stage in Sakhir.
“This was definitely one of the best races we have had so far with the 963: the strategy was perfect and the pit stops were sensational,” says Urs Kuratle, Director of the LMDh factory programme.
“Now we are back in the running for the World Championship because we have increased our lead in the drivers’ standings and are back in first place in the constructors’ standings. It’s a shame about our #5 car: it was hit twice and we had to retire it early.”
“I couldn’t be more proud of the entire Porsche Penske Motorsport team. We had an amazing day and it’s fantastic that our #6 was able to win. We lead both championships heading into Bahrain. For the #6 crew to take home the win in Japan was an incredible effort.”
WEC Cup Podium: #12 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963: Will Stevens, Callum Ilott, Norman Nato
Photo credit: JEP / Motorsport Images
Jota wins again among private individuals
Moving down the order, crossing the checkered flag in fifth place overall, the trio of Norman Nato, Will Stevens and Callum Ilott gave Jota the title among private teams in the HYPERCAR class.
The crew of the #12 Porsche fought hard throughout the race, climbing back up the order and managing not only to beat AF Corse in the pursuit of the trophy, but also to redeem the lacklustre performance in Austin, full of problems and inconveniences that had forced them to raise the white flag.
“Starting from 16th, things got a bit chaotic on the first lap and then we worked our way up to 5th, not bad for a weekend where we weren’t that strong, especially on a single lap. After struggling in the last two races, this result earned us useful points for the championship,” commented Nato.
Jota founder Sam Hignett said: “Considering our position after qualifying, this was a fantastic result: the strategy of the engineers and the dedication of the drivers allowed us to achieve it. We are delighted to have become Champions for the second season in a row.”
#92 Manthey Purerxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3: Aliaksandr Malykhin, Joel Sturm, Klaus Bachler
Photo credit: JEP / Motorsport Images
Mantehy PureRxcing in LMGT3 History
Manthey PureRxcing takes home the first LMGT3 championship, perfectly framing Porsche’s day of glory.
It seemed like a formality that the title had been won thanks to the excellent performances of Joel Sturm, Alex Malykhin and Klaus Bachler, by far the strongest all year, at least until today.
And in fact, also due to a rather negative Qualifying, the recovery was even more beautiful, with Malykhin very good at managing the tyres after having shown himself worried on Saturday about the performance of his 911 #92, also burdened by the additional ballast imposed by the Success Ballast regulation.
Sturm and Bachler completed the job by attacking headlong until they reached the podium and when the placing seemed to be a good thing in view of the final race in Bahrain, an accident that hit the Porsche #91 of Manthey EMA, its direct rival, combined with the positions lost due to a rear-end collision with the BMW #31 of WRT opened the doors for the German-Lithuanian team to pop the champagne of the title early.
#92 Manthey Purerxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3: Aliaksandr Malykhin, Joel Sturm, Klaus Bachler
Photo credit: JEP / Motorsport Images
“I am very happy and I thank all the team members for making this result possible; a very good strategic decision catapulted us into the lead at the beginning of the race and at the end, we had a really good pace, even if the car was not the fastest due to the 40 kg extra weight”, says Bachler.
“Thanks to a flawless performance, we won the World Championship with second place before the end of the season. For me, personally, a dream came true. Now I will enjoy it and celebrate.”
Nikolas Raeder, CEO of Manthey, rejoices: “I am extremely proud of the team! Once again we turned a race to our advantage with a great strategy and zero mistakes, because we were not the fastest on the track.”
“The three drivers of the #92 also did a perfect job. The season finale in Bahrain will be exciting for us, because we can still take second place with the #91. That would of course round things off beautifully. It would be a great conclusion for us!”
#WEC #Porsche #gloats #stop #stronger
