WEC title fights close up after epic Fuji weekend

With two rounds remaining in the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship all of the title fights are still in play after a memorable weekend of racing in atrocious weather conditions at Fuji Speedway.

After a third win of the season for the No.8 Toyota Gazoo Racing trio of Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Anthony Davidson, the points' deficit in the FIA World Endurance Drivers Championship has closed up to 39 points. With 52 available to fight for over the last two rounds of the season, Brendon Hartley, Timo Bernhard and Earl Bamber will have to watch their backs as they head to Shanghai next month.

In the World Endurance Manufacturers' Championship Porsche has seen its deficit also reduced, but the German manufacturer still enjoys a huge 73.5pts advantage and is likely to take the silverware in China.

Photo:  Ferrari Media

The LMGTE Pro category witnesses a close battle between Ferrari and Porsche in the GT World Endurance Manufacturers' Championship. The Prancing Horse heads its German rivals by an increased 47 points.

In the GT FIA World Endurance Drivers’ Championship we have new leaders after a very positive weekend for the drivers of the No.51 AF Corse Ferrari  – James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi. The Anglo/Italian alliance took a second straight win and third of the season to seize the initiative from Ford’s Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell who have led since the first race at Silverstone back in April.

In LMP2, the Jackie Chan DC Racing partnership of Oliver Jarvis, Ho-Pin Tung and Thomas Laurent saw their lead halved by the No.31 Vaillante Rebellion duo of Bruno Senna and Julien Canal. Their teammate Nicolas Prost is not in contention for the title after he missed the Nurburgring round in July.  Jackie Chan DC Racing lead Vaillante Rebellion by the same margin in the LMP2 Teams’ title stakes.

The LMGTE Am category is arguably the closest of the season with just six points covering the top three teams. With a single point advantage is the Dempsey Proton Porsche trio of Christian Ried, Matteo Cairoli and Marvin Dienst. They head previous leaders Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda, while the Clearwater Racing squad of Matt Griffin, Weng Sun Mok and Keita Sawa are just five points behind second place. 

In the Teams' standings it is even closer as Clearwater Racing has a slender two point advantage over Dempsey Proton, while Aston Martin Racing is just a point further back - 3 points in total between the Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martin teams!