A weekend of ‘firsts’ and records at Fuji
There were plenty of celebrations up and down the pitlane at the conclusion of the 6 Hours of Fuji. Here are some of the reasons why.
• Toyota recorded its 6th victory in 7 visits to Fuji. The Japanese manufacturer also took its third 1-2 at its home event – 2014 and 2017 being the other times
• It was a debut WEC win for Argentinian José Maria Lopez in the No.7 Toyota
• Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway’s celebrated their first victory since Fuji in 2016
• The No.11 SMP Racing of Jenson Button, Mikhail Aleshin and Vitaly Petrov recorded its highest placed finish of the season so far
• It was a first WEC victory for Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen after coming so close on several occasions, and also a first win in the world championship for this current model of 911 RSR
• BMW Team MTEK celebrated its first WEC podium as Tom Blomqvist and Antonio Felix Da Costa finished 2nd in LMGTE Pro. Blomqvist, who was standing in for Augusto Farfus, also set the fastest lap of the race in class
• Jazeman Jafaar, Weiron Tan and Nabil Jeffri are the first all-Malaysian line up in the WEC and they took their first win in Fuji. For their Jackie Chan DC Racing team, it was a second consecutive 1-2 finish in LMP2
• The No.92 Porsche GT Team 911 RSR and No.36 Signatech Alpine Matmut A470 Gibson are the only cars to have been classified in the top three (in class) at every Super Season race so far
• New to the WEC this year, German Porsche squad, Team Project 1, took its first LMGTE Am victory in only its 4th race. It was also a first in the WEC for a Norwegian entered driver, Egidio Perfetti
• Lap records fell in three of the four classes. New for 2018 were Anthony Davidson’s qualifying lap of 1:28.011 in the No.31 DragonSpeed ORECA 07 Gibson in LMP2, Nicki Thiim with a new GTE Pro record of 1:35.884 in the No.95 Aston Martin Vantage, and Matt Campbell’s 1:36.992 for GTE Am in the No.77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR
