6 Hours of Fuji - Porsche plant their Hypercar flag, Manthey claim their LMGT3 title
The WEC is so on fire this season you wonder how things can get better. For those of us in the States that were able to power through the 10PM start and eventual 4AM finish, we were treated to yet another banger of a race in the 6 Hours of Fuji that saw more of the same drama and cinema that would make Mr. Scorsese stand up and clap for minutes on end.
Let's get into the racing recap with our 3 Up and 3 Down for both classes.
And...ACTION!
Hypercar 3 Up - PPM, BMW, Alpine/Peugeot
No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport -
It's one hand (and just about four fingers) on the trophy for the trio of Kévin Estre, André Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor. The No. 6 became the first Hypercar team to repeat as winners this season, and in doing so they firmly planted themselves on the brink of securing the Hypercar championship heading into the final round in Bahrain, which puts Toyota's years-long dominance at the top on life support (we'll get to them soon). The usual and expected chaos on track throughout the six hours was mostly avoided by the 6 as it danced through the madness and avoided the pitfalls that other teams fell into, such as crashing out or late penalties. Roger Penske and his crew are on the verge of a world title, and save for a retirement/DNF/DQ/abject disaster they'll be crowned champions come the end of 8 hours of desert racing in November.
No. 15 BMW M Team WRT -
Let's go BMW! You just have to be ecstatic for the WRT team and the M Hybrid program overall. Between IMSA and this first season in the WEC the M Hybrid V8 has had a pretty rough go of things staying competitive and fighting for podiums. By virtue of the same luck that PPM saw fall their way, the No. 15 capitalized on the opportunity that came before them. When both TGRs fell by the wayside, and when Ferrari struggled to keep their nose clean AND when the Cadillac just flat binned it into the barrier, the trio of Raffaele Marciello, Dries Vanthoor and Marco Wittmann crossed the finish line in P2, easily their best result of the season. The M Hybrid has struggled in the two most important areas of endurance racing - overall pace and reliability on track. They've been able to run at the top of the pack at times but it's been staying on track in the latter stages of things that's been the problem, they sort of just fade out lap after lap and end up fighting to salvage a points finish. You're only as good as your last race, and P2 looks mighty fine for the M squad.
Alpine AND PEUGEOT -
Putain de merde, c'etait magnifique! I'm going to cheat here and throw both French manufactures on the list for the 3 Up as - GET THIS - all four cars finished in the points! Talk about something you can FEEL GOOD ABOUT. The No. 36 Alpine rounded out the podium in P3 while the No. 35 (following a cruuuushing late penalty) finished P7. The No. 93 PTE crossed the line P4, with the No. 94 ending the day P7. Now, some will point to the BOP and claim how the top manufacturers have been over-adjusted and the back of the pack has been inflated, yet I would reject that because power and performance hasn't necessarily been the hurdle these two teams have faced this season - rather it's been just staying on track or avoiding crippling engine failures/broken hybrid bits. The Alpines have had great pace recently, while the Peugeots will deliver 2-3 hours of solid racing before things just fall apart. I give full marks to both teams and all four cars, and the fact that there is now some evidence that these guys can keep it together and capitalize on the errors of other teams shows that the Hypercar field is even deeper than we previously thought.
Hyper car 3 Down - TGR, Cadillac, Ferrari
Toyota Gazoo Racing -
The ENTIRE Toyota Gazoo Racing program want to put these last two races behind them forever. If we thought COTA was a kick in the balls for the No. 7 and No. 8, what went down at Fuji was a 10,000 pound anvil slamming down on their crotch, dropped from the summit of Mt. Fuji-son. Do we even have to explain what it means for Toyota to race at Fuji? Or how they've won this race a hundred times previously? The 7 clipped the No. 5 PPM with a pretty reckless dive on the inside with 1:20 remaining on the clock, and after working on the car in the pit lane the decision was ultimately made to retire the car. Meanwhile the No. 8 was handed a drive-through penalty for ignoring blue flag rules and racing the No. 6 through the last turns of a lap, ultimately finishing the day P10. In the aftermath, the No. 8 is out of contention for the drivers' title, and the points have flipped back where Porsche (161 vs. 151) now lead in the manufactures' race. Vibes are at an all-time low for the TGR gang, and it's hard to blame them. They've been tagged by BOP adjustments seemingly every race this season, yet they've rolled with the punches and remained in contention against their challengers. But retirements are an absolute killer in a title race, never mind finishing on the fringes of the top 10, and both the 7 and 8 have stumbled the last two times out on track. As a result the odds of the No. 7 pulling off a miracle and securing the drivers championship are now so astronomical that I have a better chance of jumping behind the wheel in Bahrain and putting together a stint to help the cause.
Cadillac Racing
The No. 2 Cadillac Racing team will look back on this season and ask a hundred different ways, 'what if?' After securing their first pole of the WEC season the Caddy put together five-and-a-half hours of tough racing, yet with just about 30 minutes to go on the clock and running inside the top 10, Earl Bamber attempted to split GT traffic and ran up on the outside of an Alpine, hitting the marbles on the road and skidding out hopelessly into the barrier. The damage forced their second retirement of the season (everyone remembers that insane wipeout at Spa) and leaves just one more race to go for this iteration of Cadillac Racing before Team Jota enter the picture next season.
Ferrari No. 50 and 51
As another indication of just how insanely competitive the Hypercar class has developed into, we have Ferrari. Similar to Toyota, these last two races have left the Italian marquee asking questions with just what the hell happened to their title chances. A ninth place finish for the No. 50 and a retirement for the No. 51 leaves the Prancing Pony third place in the manufacturers' race and has set up a scenario where the No. 50 has no margin for error in Bahrain if they wish to pull off a miracle in two months time - best way to paint the picture is a first place finish for the No. 50 and a 10th-or-worse finish for the No. 6. The 499P is a car that can compete for championships, yet this season has seen Ferrari run into issues that would submarine any outfit. If things hold as they are, they'll finish in second place for the second straight year.
LMGT3 3 Up - Manthey, AF Corse, Team WRT
Manthey PureRxcing -
Gib es den Champions - give it up to the champs. Similar to how Corvette Racing capped off the LMGTE era with a dominate campaign, the Manthey boys have blown doors in 2024 with a straight up absurd rap sheet of finishes that reads as followed: 1st/3rd/2nd/10th/1st/2nd/2nd. How can we break this down? Let's see - a pair of wins, six total podiums, and your "worst result" being P10 at Le Mans. When a top 10 finish at the most legendary race in the world is your worst result of the season you just know its been an absolute banger of a year. Congratulations to the German racing outfit for wrapping things up with a race to spare, and something just feels right about a Porshce 911 back at the top as a GT3 world champion.
Vista AF Corse No. 54 -
After an absolute nightmare of an outing in COTA, one that started behind the wall when the green flag dropped and ultimately in a retirement, the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari rebounded with amazing resolve to take first overall in LMGT3 at Fuji for the second-straight year and earning the manufacturer their first GT win of the season. Unlike earlier in the month when the Heart of Racing led things wire-to-wire in Texas, there were multiple GTs that ran up at the front throughout, and the finishing gap between the first four cars to finish was under 10 seconds. It's been an up and down season for the 54 but this is something to feel good about.
Team WRT No. 46 -
In a season that's seen two retirements and one NC finish, the No. 46 crossed the line in P3 to complete the LMGT3 podium and secure their second-best finish of the season. It's bittersweet for the team because (again) it's an indication of just how killer retirements can be in the scope of competing for a championship. The 46 previously finished 4th (Qatar), 2nd (Imola) and 5th (Brazil), yet with their 3 DNFs on their sheet it cut out a massive chunk of potential points they could have used in the title race. If just one or two of those races go a different way we'd be looking at both WRT cars competing for a podium finish as the end of the season heads into Round 8.
3 Down - Proton, Iron Lynx, Akkodis ASP
Proton Competition Fords -
Both the No. 77 and No. 88 struggled to find their place and pace at Fuji, ultimately finishing P15 and P16, respectively. It's been an up-and-down year for the Ponies internationally, with the No. 88 sitting 11th in the standings with 37 points and the No. 77 sitting 15th with just 18 points to their name. Quite easily the P3 class finish for the 88 at Le Mans has been the highlight of their efforts thus far as a team program. With just Bahrain left to go the Proton collective will be fighting for an As-Best-As-You-Can-Hope-For result before turning their attention to 2025 and Year 2 of the Mustang GT3.
Iron Lynx No. 60 -
It's been just a dismal year for the yellow Iron Lynx Lambo, as another outside-the-points finish in P13 this weekend leaves their third-place result back at Spa as their lone bright spot on the season. It's curious because the Iron Dames have ran solid most of the season save for two retirements, but the No. 60 has struggled to be competitive on track. Fuji was more of the same; they finished dead last for qualifying, yet in a certain way finishing just a lap down in the race itself is a positive, you just gotta take the positive from the bad in this situation. You almost have a feeling that the whole Lynx program is running themselves a bit thin with balancing the two GTs as well as the SC63 in Hypercar, and collectively the results as a total unit have teetered between 'meh' and 'blehhh.'
Akkodis ASP Team -
You know the Akkodis team would've loved to secure a good finish at Fuji, yet the RC F again struggled to run consistently across the six hours, with both cars finishing outside the points in P11 and P12. ASP find themselves in a bit of a performance pickle with running this car for the first time this year, and with the new Toyota/Lexus GT3 set for debut in 2026, by the time they really get a hold of the car and how the drivers like it to work on track, their sights might already be set on the totally new ride the following year. We'll see what they can salvage come November 2.
Comments
Post a Comment