Conway, Kobayashi and Lopez win for Toyota; Jackie Chan DC Racing celebrate 1-2
Toyota Gazoo Racing took a home 1-2 finish at the 6 Hours of Fuji today with the No.7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José Maria Lopez taking the victory today.
It is a second victory at Fuji for Conway and Kobayashi following success in 2016, and it is a first WEC win for Lopez.
Despite starting the race from the back of the LMP grid after being penalised in qualifying, the No.7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID executed a thrilling race to carve its way through and take the winner’s trophy and maximum points. 52,800 spectators enjoyed the WEC action at Fuji Speedway this weekend.
The No.8 Toyota of Fernando Alonso, Sébastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima took the flag in second place but kept their championship points lead today.
Kazuki Nakajima started and finished the race which saw Toyota score a sixth victory in seven Fuji FIA WEC races.
The 2018 edition began in difficult wet but drying conditions and included an extended Safety Car period in the first hour with debris on the main straight and then an accident for the No.3 Rebellion Racing R13 driven by Gustavo Menezes.
This period of the race proved vital as Kamui Kobayashi pitted first for a change of tyres. After a tense battle with the No.8 sister Toyota, some mighty double stints by Conway and Lopez in the middle part of the race saw a winning gap forged.
Rounding out the podium was the No.1 Rebellion Racing crew of André Lotterer, Neel Jani and Bruno Senna. The Rebellion R13-Gibson ran as high as second position in the first hour before being demoted by the Toyotas, but coming through to take the non-Hybrid LMP1 honours.
Jenson Button took his best WEC result since making his debut at Le Mans with a fighting fourth position along with teammates Vitaly Petrov and Mikhail Aleshin in the No.11 SMP Racing BR1-AER.
The ByKolles team claimed fifth position after being overtaken in the closing stages by the SMP LMP1.
Jackie Chan DC Racing Celebrate Another 1-2
LMP2 witnessed a faultless display by the Jackie Chan DC Racing squad of the all-Malaysian line-up of Jazeman Jaafar, Weiron Tan and Nabil Jeffri. It was the first ever win for the Malaysian line-up who dominated proceedings.
They led for the majority of the race and led home the sister Jackie Chan DC Racing car of Ho-Pin Tung, Stéphane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry in what was the second consecutive win for the Chinese-entered squad.
Completing the podium was the Signatech Alpine Matmut trio of Nicolas Lapierre, Pierre Thiriet and André Negrão. The French squad, which was confirmed as 24 Hours of Le Mans LMP2 champions last week, saw their standings lead cut to just one point.
Remarkably, just a single point covers Signatech Alpine Matmut and the two Jackie Chan DC Racing cars.
Provisional race results can be found HERE and classifications HERE
