Toyota scores a double at the 6 Hours of Fuji

Without a Full Course Yellow to report and with mild weather, these 6 Hours of Fuji 2022 were very calm, fifth and penultimate round of the 2022 WEC season. the Toyota dominated the event from start to finish for the Japanese Hypercar's home premiere. Second on the grid, the trio composed of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa lined up in the No. 8 won with a large lead over the sister car of Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez et Mike conway. Far behind, theAlpine A480Andre Negro, Nicolas lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere took the podium. Slowed by troubles, both Peugeot 9X8 nevertheless finished the event in 4th and 5th place in the category while the n°94 of Loïc duval, James Rossiter and Gustavo Menezes were fighting to get on the box. In the Drivers' Championship, the crew of the No. 8 Toyota is tied on points with that ofAlpine ahead of the season finale in Bahrain on November 12.

The WRT team had announced the color: it was “in all-in mode” to aim for victory and stay alive in the race for the LM P2 titles. Mission accomplished for Vincent Vosse's men with the success acquired by the No. 31 shared by Robin Frijns, Sean Gelael and Dries Vanthoor, replacing René Rast for this Japanese round. The JOTAs completed the podium with the #38 of Antonio Felix da Costa, Will Stevens and Roberto Gonzalez ahead of the #28 of Jonathan Aberdein, Edward Jones and Oliver Rasmussen. The #83 AF Corse of François Perrodo, Nicklas Nielsen and Alessio Rovera pockets the LM P2 Pro-Am ranking.

The long-awaited fight in LMGTE Pro ultimately only lasted an hour, enough time for both Ferrari to get rid of the Porsche n°92 shared by Michael Christensen and Kévin Estre and finding their cruising speed. In a squadron for five hours, AF Corse n°51 and n°52 shared the first two places. The top of the ranking logically went to the duo Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado, fighting to retain their title and who increase their advantage at the top of the championship with this victory. Antonio Fuoco and Miguel Molina took second place, Christensen and Estre third. The #91 Porsche (Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz) and the #64 Corvette (Tommy Milner, Nick Tandy) were never in the mix.

The Aston Martin Vantage AMR were above the rest this weekend and the trio Ben Keating, Marco Sørensen, Henrique Chaves built on this domination by winning their second success of the season after the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The #33 of TF Sport beat the Ferrari #85 of the Iron Dames (Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting, Rahel Frey) and another Aston Martin, the #777 of the local team D'Station Racing (Saoshi Hoshino, Tomonabu Fujii, Charles Fagg).

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