Fuji 2 Hour Report: Conway leads for Toyota at Fuji

Hypercar Leader – No.7 Toyota  

• Race starts with high drama as multiple contacts occur at first corner. Among them are No.50 Ferrari (Molina) and No.8 Toyota (Buemi and No.51 Ferrari (Calado) and No.5 Porsche Penske (Christensen)  
• Christensen suffers right rear puncture and pits for replacement under safety car 
• Laurens Vanthoor in No.6 Porsche Penske snatches lead and builds strong buffer over Hypercar field in first stint  
• Belgian hands over to Estre just before third hour arrives to hand lead to No.7 Toyota driven by Mike Conway and No.8 Toyota with Sebastien Buemi at the wheel 
• Vanthoor had earlier pitted early and briefly relinquished the lead as Toyota came to the fore as both Conway and Buemi eventually usurped the Ferraris 
• After the first scheduled stops Vanthoor led with a 15-second advantage over the Toyotas that ran second (No.7) and third (No.8) 
• Hertz Team Jota did run fourth after electing to double stint tires. Antonio Felix da Costa has busy first hour after two off track excursions and contact with LMP2 Jota driven by David Heinemeier Hansson 
• Da Costa forced to take drive-through penalty for the collision and slips to rear of Hypercar field 
• Harry Tincknell in the other customer Porsche 963 run by Proton Competition has strong first two stints and clears the two Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8s  
• He then hunts down Molina's Ferrari in the second hour and runs fourth showing strong pace as eyes the No.51 Ferrari of Calado 
• The No.2 Cadillac V.Series R with Alex Lynn at the wheel shows strongly and is in the top six mix. But pace drops off in second hour and he pits early to hand over to Richard Westbrook 
• No.94 Peugeot leads the No.93 9X8 after brief early race contact between Loic Duval and Mikkel Jensen 
• Floyd Vanwall runs 11th   in final Hypercar class position with Esteban Guerrieri and Tristan Vautier splitting the first stints 
• No.5 Porsche Penske handed 3-minute penalty for pit-stop infraction which was a result of first lap incident 

Pit stop for the leading Hypercar @Team_Penske @PorscheRaces #6. Driver change, fresh tires, fuel and off she goes. #WEC #6HFuji pic.twitter.com/cCx7Dv9d5E

— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) September 10, 2023

LMP2: Leader – No.22 United Autosports 

• No.22 United Autosports Oreca-Gibson started by Filip Albuquerque dominates the opening two hours as he builds large lead from pole 
• Sister United Autosports car started by Joshua Pierson places second goal has a 10-second penalty served at first pit stop for contact at start of race with No.41 WRT car of Rui Andrade 
• Pierson hands over to Oliver Jarvis at second stop who runs in third position as third hour approaches 
• Despite getting spun around in first hour by stablemates in No.38 Jota Porsche, the No.28 LMP2 entry places second as Pietro Fittipaldi claws back some of the deficit via tire gamble but has to make third stop early and drops back down field 
• Team WRT sits third and fourth as No.41 (Kubica) heads No.31 (Frijns). Rui Andrade and Sean Gelael respectively began the race 
• No.9 Prema Racing entry is fifth as Bent Viscaal takes over car from Juan-Manuel Correa who started 
• Rounding out the top six is ​​the No.9 Vector Sport Oreca-Gibson driven by Gabriel Aubry after Ryan Cullen started the race 

SAFETY CAR 🟡

The #83 is stuck in the gravel trap at Turn 1. As the #5 Porsche makes its way back slowly into the pits after an incident on lap 1. #WEC #6HFuji pic.twitter.com/tdxdiQsC1O

— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) September 10, 2023

LMGTE Am: Leader: No.777 From Aston Martin Station 

• D'Station Aston Martin excites local fans as they lead from the start after Tomonobu Fuji pushes to the front on opening lap 
• He builds useful gap before handing over to Satoshi Hoshino at first pit stop 
• But No.54 AF Corse Ferrari looks threatening in second hour as Francesco Castellacci closes in as third hour arrives 
• The No.33 Corvette driven by Ben Keating runs third after tight battles with the Iron Dames Porsche (Sarah Bovy) 
• Bovy ran second in first hour but is overtaken by Keating in second hour 
• Northwest AMR Aston Martin of Ian James starts well and runs in top six before claiming fifth with Ian James completing double stint 
• The top six is ​​completed by the Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo Takeshi Kimura runs a double stint to begin his home race 
• No.83 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari attempts fightback race after first corner spin from Luis Perez Companc. Alessio Rovera takes over at first pit stop