WEC – A historic victory for Toyota and Nakajima

Toyota avait pris l’ascendant psychologique sur Audi en prenant la pole aux 6 Heures de Fuji avec Kazuki Nakajima back alongside Nicolas lapierre and Alexander Wurz. The duel against Audi for the lead of the race animated the event from start to finish, the Japanese team which was racing on its ground in Fuji trying to extend the tire stints unlike the R18 n°1 which changed tires at each relay. The fight for victory was uncertain, especially as the petrol LMP1 had to make one more stop than the two Audis chasing it. A contact and a stop & go inflicted on the R18 n°1 will help Toyota cross the finish line as winner with only 11 ahead of the victorious crew in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

After a series of first stints carried out by Alexander Wurz, Nicolas Lapierre took the wheel of the TS030 as it held the lead of the race with a short lead over the no.1 Audi of Tréluyer-Fässler-Lotterer. The Frenchman made a mistake which allowed his compatriot Benoît Tréluyer to take the lead of the race. The advantage returned to Toyota when the #18 R1 was penalized. “It’s a fantastic result for us. This race was exciting, which is a good thing for the discipline and the spectators present today at Fuji Speedway. It was a tough fight against Audi. We decided to keep the tires on for two stints while I was behind the wheel and that saved us some time. It worked well and we kept the lead and then I tried to keep my lead even though the tires were starting to wear out. We knew we were going to have to make one more stop and Kazuki had to attack hard, which he did very well. We had been thinking about this race in Fuji since the start of the season and we won it. »

Kazuki Nakajima becomes the first Japanese since Hitoshi Ogawa in 1992 to win an endurance event in a World Championship. The Japanese celebrates success with Toyota for the first time after the victory of Nicolas Lapierre and Alexander Wurz in Sao Paulo. This success is all the more satisfying as it was achieved with a lead reduced to 11 seconds against the No. 18 R1 which was attacking to regain the lead of the race. “Winning this event was the goal of my career, it’s a wonderful day. I was so excited in the last few laps. My engineer told me by radio that I had to attack because I had to create a gap after my last stop, it was quite difficult. I attacked like crazy and we finally made it. »

Discover the analysis of the 6 Hours of Fuji carried out by our special correspondents in the next issue of AUTOhebdo, available from Tuesday in digital version for iPad, PC and Mac, and from Wednesday on newsstands.