Alpine's No.35 car wins the 6 Hours of Fuji, No.81 Corvette victorious in LMGT3
- DIVEBOMB Endurance Team
- Sep 28
- 7 min read
Updated: Sep 30
Alpine's No.35 car has won the 6 Hours of Fuji, the penultimate round of the FIA World Endurance Championship and took its first victory with the A424. The No.81 Corvette took the victory in the LMGT3 class.
First hour
The 6 Hours of Fuji commenced at 11:00 local time. The Cadillac duo kept their front row lockout advantage in the opening laps. No.93 Peugeot's Paul Di Resta overtook No.009 Aston Martin's Marco Sørensen for third.
Battles in the LMGT3 class had the No.78 Lexus leaving the track, resulting in a yellow flag. Out in front, the United Autosports McLaren was 1-2 in LMGT3, having successfully overtaken the No.10 Aston Martin with the power of teamwork.
Sørensen got back at the Peugeot for third as the Cadillac duo continues to extend their lead in front. Disaster struck the No.007 Aston Martin, colliding with a BMW and the No.83 Ferrari. Not long after, the No.35 Alpine collided with the No.8 Toyota, resulting in a full-course-yellow.
When the green flag was waved, the No.77 Ford received a drive-through penalty. The No.88 Ford moved to the lead after overtaking the No.33 Corvette.
Julien Andlauer in the No.5 Porsche hunted the No.94 Peugeot for sixth and made his move in the LMGT3 traffic. As it turns out, the No.95's excellent start was due to a jump start, resulting in a drive-through penalty.
The Aston Martin Valkyrie duo played teamwork, with the No.007 holding the No.83 Ferrari before the former car allowed its sister car, No.009, to overtake them.
The first hour ended with a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) due to debris on the track. The Hypercars pitted for fuel, with the No.12 car retaining its lead after the No.93 pitted. The No.59 McLaren led the LMGT3 class.
Second hour
The earlier VSC was downgraded, with a safety car sent to the track. When the race resumed, the No.38 car struggled for grip. Sébastien Bourdais went down to fourth after being overtaken by the No.93 and the No.51 Ferrari.
Nyck De Vries in the No.7 Toyota started outside the Top 10, but the Dutchman made an incredible move at Turn 1, overtaking both the No.007 and the No.99 Porsche. The battle for third in LMGT3 intensified with the No.33 car having to defend hard from its rivals.
The No.007 car then received a drive-through penalty for the earlier collision. Meanwhile, the No.5 car was told to stay away from track limits, playing nicely to the charging No.009 car.
The No.8 car received bad news from the race directors with a three-minute stop-and-go penalty for VSC emergency pit stop infringement. On the radio, Sébastien Buemi wondered what he had done wrong as he believed he was within the rules. The team clarified it was their fault, not his.
The No.009 has its eyes set on the No.5 car, and Andlauer desperately defends his spot from the charging Valkyrie. In LMGT3, sitting sixth with the No.10 car, Anthony McIntosh was told to stay patient as the Corvette's grip would likely fall off soon.
The No.59 car enjoyed its lead in front with 20.5 seconds over the No.46 BMW. Unfortunately for the No.92 Porsche, it received a 10-second penalty added to the next stop for the incident at Turn 1.
De Vries moves to ninth, catching the No.36 Alpine by surprise as the veteran platinum-rated José María López jumps into the No.87 Lexus, in a bid to recover lost ground and salvage points in the team's manufacturer's home race.
Third hour
The start of the third hour started with a tragedy with the No.15 BMW went into the wall hard at turn 7-8 and immediately out of the race. It seemed the M Hybrid V8 lost all grip and had no chance of slowing down.
The safety car was deployed with the pit entry closed. Later on, the No.20 BMW pitted for emergency service. Nos.78, 83 and 8 would pit not long after. With the conditions now safe to continue, the No. 51 rapidly chased down the No.12 car.
No.99 later pulled out a 1.2-second lead. De Vries put intense pressure on the No.93 car for second place. The championship-leading No.51 car was put under investigation for a pit stop-related incident.
Nicolás Varrone, in the No.99 car, was instructed by his race engineer to preserve energy rather than continually defend. The No.94 and the No.5 cars battled through traffic, but the latter was then dealt a drive-through penalty for track limits.
The earlier BMW incident was later reviewed by the stewards, and Jean-Éric Vergne made his move on Varrone. The latter frantically reported a steering/grip issue to his pit wall and began to drop back.
There were a couple of leader changes in Hypercar, with the No.99 car stealing it again from the No.93 car. Less than a second separates the top two cars in LMGT3, with the No.59 McLaren defending from the No.85 Iron Dames Porsche.
Varrone couldn't keep it on track and fell into the clutches of the No.7 and the No. 94 cars. The race seems to worsen for the No.38 car, losing a few positions after getting a touch from the No.50 car.
After being patient, Rahel Frey made a successful dive on Sébastien Baud to snatch the lead from the No.59 car. Baud then slipped down to third.
Near the end of the third hour, the No.99 car faced the wrong way due to its issues and was down to 11th. Iron Dames then pitted from the lead.
Disaster struck for the Heart of Racing (THOR) team as its No.007 car collided with the No.27 Vantage, and the former was out of the race. Not long after, an FCY was declared as the Hypercars pitted for fuel.
After three laps behind the safety car, we see the grid shuffling. The No.93 car led the race from the No.35 and the No.009 car. The safety car returned a few laps later, with two hours and four minutes still to go. Already, the LMGT3 field battled for positions.
Fourth hour
The race approached the halfway mark as the No.50 Ferrari battled its way through traffic and took third place from the No.009 Aston Martin. The No.93 Peugeot was still leading the Hypercar field, while No.92 Porsche was in the lead for LMGT3.
The No.51 Ferrari and the No.009 Aston Martin went wide, resulting in both losing top five positions.
Minutes later, Alex Riberas rapidly caught on with the top five and overtook No.6 Porsche for fifth in his No.009 Aston Martin.
Another FCY was then triggered as bits of debris were found at some portions of the track.
It was a short period before the field raced under the green flag once again. Alex Lynn in the No.12 Cadillac did not hesitate and immediately passed over the No.7 Toyota for the top ten spot after following the Japanese car from the tail throughout the FCY.
No.51 Ferrari was under investigation for track limits infringement, which marked the sixth time for the Italian outfit in the race. It was decided to be a drive-through penalty for track limit violation.
Fifth hour
Heading into the penultimate hour, the No.21 Ferrari led the LMGT3 field with over 5.5 seconds ahead of the No.88 Ford. Behind the leader, four cars were caught in an intense battle for the coveted second place.
The No.88 Ford did not manage to defend its place longer, as it eventually dropped down the standings after contact with an unspecified Corvette down at Turn 1.
The No.88 Ford was eventually forced to retire from the race due to a mechanical issue that resulted in contact with the Corvette.
No.93 Peugeot pitted first and retained its lead as the rest followed behind to make their way to the pit lane. Brilliant move from the French manufacturer as it resulted in a 1-2 heading into the final hour.
Despite attempting to grasp the lead longer without giving the chance to a chasing No.6 Porsche, Alpine stunned the grid by snatching the lead after changing only two tyres.
Besides the strategic move, the final wave of pit stops also opened up the opportunity for Alpine to hold on to the lead. Charles Milesi in the No.36 Alpine extended it to an eight-second gap over Mikkel Jensen in the No.93 Peugeot and Laurens Vanthoor in the third-placed No.6 Porsche.
Final hour
Another brief FCY was invited before the green flag was raised again. Further back, the No.7 Toyota and the No.50 Ferrari went head-to-head for seventh place. Toyota defended its leading position over Ferrari well.
Meanwhile, the No.46 BMW was leading the LMGT3 pack, though the lack of fuel may need another visit to the pit lane.
The No.35 Alpine stretched its gap to a comfortable 12 seconds. Minutes later, the No.93 Peugeot was seen catching up to them with nine seconds behind.
Porsche was leading the Hypercar field before a five-second penalty for a pitstop infringement forced them back from the leaders.
With half an hour remaining, the battle for the lead inevitably grew intense.
The No.93 Peugeot ran wide, which cost more time to the leader. At the same time, No.6 Porsche was putting pressure on the Peugeot from behind.
Meanwhile, the No.009 Aston Martin and the No.7 Toyota got into contact at Turn 4, which forced Aston Martin to lag behind the Toyota.
The No.51 Ferrari was out of contention by this time as it received a 30-second stop/go penalty. The No.59 McLaren faced a similar fate from fifth place.
The No.6 Porsche made a brave attempt at the final corner for the runner-up over the No.93 Peugeot, though Peugeot regained that position down the straight.
The last ten minutes saw the LMGT3 leaders running out of gas, as most of their remaining fuel energy was approximately 10%. With three laps to go, they finally pitted for refuelling.
The No.21 Ferrari was on course for a LMGT3 victory while running out of fuel, but it was rewarded with a late-race penalty. This led to the No.81 Corvette taking victory in the class.
Alpine took home a dramatic victory in WEC's 100th race, their first one since the 2022 edition of 6 Hours of Monza.
Heading to the season finale in Bahrain, the gap between leaders Ferrari and Porsche in the Manufacturers' Championship standings has been reduced to 39 points.
Comments