6H Fuji after 2 hours: Kobayashi leads for Toyota; BMW heads close GTE Pro fight
Kobayashi triple stint puts No.7 Toyota in front while BMW leads GTE Pro.
The Headlines after 2 Hours at Fuji….
• Toyota run 1-2 as No.7 Toyota Gazoo Racing car of Kamui Kobayashi takes turn in front after two hours
• Pushing hard, Kobayashi survives off-track excursion midway through second hour after starting at back of LMP field
• Kazuki Nakajima led at start but after early Safety Car swaps lead with countryman Kobayashi as two Toyotas run different strategies
• Rebellion Racing car runs third after epic stints from André Lotterer who keeps No.1 car within 38-seconds of leading Toyota.
• Bruno Senna takes over cockpit on his return to the WEC after injury
• No.11 SMP car of Vitaly Petrov sits in fourth position ahead of ByKolles as Tom Dillmann impresses
• Jenson Button in No.11 SMP car took over the lead in first hour after extended Safety Car
• Safety Car deployed after 30-minutes due to debris on pit straight due to puncture for No.70 MR Racing Ferrari driven by Motoaki Ishikawa.
• Safety Car stays out after Gustavo Menezes crashes heavily in No.3 Rebellion Racing entry
• LMGTE Pro sees mixed up strategies which allows BMW Team MTEK to lead with Antonio Felix da Costa in No.82 BMW M8 GTE.
• Harry Tincknell leads the chase BMW in No.67 Ford GT as British driver sits just a few seconds from Da Costa who then hands over to Tom Blomqvist
• Aston Martin Racing place fourth and fifth after losing out in first round of pit stops just after Safety Car
• Nicki Thiim headed Aston 1-2 in first hour but the pair dropped back as strategies differed to other cars
• Porsche place third as Michael Christensen takes over from Estre
- Jackie Chan DC Racing run 1-2 with No.37 of Jazeman Jaafar heading No.38 piloted by Ho-Pin Tung for most of second hour
- Weiron Tan and Gabriel Aubry take over cars to uphold 1-2 positions
- Battle rages for third between TDS and Signatch Alpine Matmut as Matthieu Vaxivière and Nicolas Lapierre run nose to tail in third and fourth
- Lapierre earlier spun away the lead as race went green at start of second hour
- Gulf Racing Porsche driven by Ben Barker takes over lead in LMGTE Am as British team capitalizes on Safety Car pit stop
- Barker fights with Giancarlo Fisichella’s Spirit of Race Ferrari and the Italian makes a move to grab the lead just as third hour approaches. Pair fight spectacularly as third hour comes.
- Michael Wainwright takes over cockpit from Ben Barker at end of second hour and Thomas Flohr replaces Fisichella
- No.88 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR led LMGTE Am with Satoshi Hoshino in early stages but drops to seventh after losing out on Safety Car pit shuffle