"We weren't fast enough" - Robin Frijns on BMW's Fuji result

Robin Frijns pictured in the BMW WRT garage | Credit: BMW Group

It was a tough race for the BMW M Hybrid V8's, a sentence that could probably reflect their World Endurance Championship season as a whole so far.

The pace wasn't there to begin with on Friday morning, with the two cars 14th and 15th in the weekends opening session - roughly a second and a half off the pace set by the Peugeot's. It was more off the same in FP2.

They showed improvement in Saturday's final hour of practice, with the No.20 in sixth and the No.15 in 11th. Maybe there would be some points scoring opportunities in store for the WRT run outfit.

In a tight qualifying session, Dries Vanthoor managed to be just a tenth of a second away from making it into Hyperpole, but that was enough to leave him 13th on the grid. His teammate in the No.20 - Sheldon van der Linde - managed to sneak into the top 10.

A 1:28.8 for the South African in Hyperpole was good enough for P5 on the grid, a very respectable slot for a team that had struggled on Friday.

It didn't all come together in the race however. A drive-through penalty set them back, and ultimately they did not have the pace to finish higher than ninth.

"From the first practice session, we didn’t have the pace we had hoped for. We managed to improve, but in the end, we weren’t fast enough." said Robin Frijns, driver of the No.20 machine.

"In the race, we had a bit of bad luck and a drive-through penalty, but we were still in a decent position. However, we couldn’t hold onto it due to our lack of pace."

The No.20 Shell liveried BMW M Hybrid V8 Hypercar | Credit: BMW Group

Head of BMW M Motorsport Andrea Roos added; "After our first podium in FIA WEC here a year ago, we had hoped for much more than ninth place. Unfortunately, we had some bad luck during the race with yellow flags and safety cars. On top of that, the No.20 car received a drive-through penalty. Ultimately, we also lacked that final bit of pace needed to achieve a top result."

The No.15 didn't have an easy time either, Kevin Magnussen was spun around early on, and Raffaele Marciello later hit the wall at high speeds trying to avoid a slowing No.99 Porsche. The hefty collision meant the end of their race.

"It’s very unfortunate that we had to end the race this way." said Marciello. "Overall, it was a tough weekend, and we lacked some pace. Still, after the early contact, we made up ground in the race and could have scored some points, especially since several cars ahead of us had penalties or incidents. Now we’re focusing on the season finale in Bahrain."

Roos added "I feel sorry for the No.15 crew who were involved in two collisions through no fault of their own."

On the other side of the garage though, it was all smiles for the two LMGT3 crews. Neither the No.31 or No.46 showed strong pace during the weekend, with the former starting 14th and the latter 11th. No Hyperpole appearance for the BMW M4 GT3 Evo.

But in the race, unlike their Hypercar counterparts, the tides turned in their favour. They both worked their way up the order early on, and found themselves in good positions in the dying laps as strategic gambles played out.

The No.46 managed to come home in fourth, after a closely fought battle with the championship leading No.92 Porsche, and the No.31 took to the podium with their third placed finish.

The podium finishing No.31 BMW M4 GT3 Evo | Credit: BMW Group

"There is great joy over another podium for the BMW M4 GT3 EVO. Third and fourth places are the result of fantastic team performances. Congratulations to Augusto Farfus, Timur Boguslavskiy, and Yasser Shahin on the podium finish. Our goal now is to deliver a strong season finale in Bahrain with all our cars." said Roos.

Driver Augusto Farfus praised how the team handled the weekend's challenges; "Given the pace we had this weekend, we didn’t expect to move so far forward in the race but we did an excellent job. We had to overcome a few hurdles, but the team handled them brilliantly."

His co-driver Timur Boguslavskiy credited the third place to his teammates, not entirely happy with his own performance; "We weren’t the fastest in the race, but we still earned third place. We were close in Austin, and this time it finally worked out. I’m not entirely satisfied with my own performance, but Augusto and Yasser did an amazing job."

An underwhelming weekend for the BMW Hypercars, but a very solid result for the pair of GTs. Both sides however are now focused on the season finale in Bahrain, where they will hope to cap off the season with a good showing.