Estre-Lotterer-Vanthoor on road for title

WECHyperCar

Sep 15

📷 © Courtesy of FIA WEC. The Pole Cadillac leading the pack of Hypercars at the 6 Hours of Fuji

With a second victory this season, Estre-Lotterer-Vanthoor with Porsche 963 #6 completed a key milestone for the FIA WEC Endurance Drivers’ Championship title as their contenders Kobayashi-de Vries DNF and Fuoco-Molina-Nielsen ended ninth scoring only two points.

📷 © Courtesy of FIA WEC. Estre-Lotterer-Vanthoor won the 6 Hours of Fuji

Victory for Kévin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and André Lotterer in Porsche 963

At the Fuji Speedway in Japan, Laurens Vanthoor, André Lotterer and Kévin Estre took the flag in first place after a flawless 6-hour race. The trio travels to the final in Bahrain leading the standings, which puts them in an excellent position to take home the WEC championship title.

Thanks to this triumph, Porsche Penske Motorsport has retaken the lead in the FIA World Endurance Manufacturers‘ Championship with the Porsche 963.

📷 © Courtesy of FIA WEC. Estre-Lotterer-Vanthoor won the 6 Hours of Fuji

André Lotterer (Porsche 963 #6): “I’m over the moon about the win! This is tremendous for the championship and very emotional for me: I really wanted to win in Fuji – after so many years living in Japan, this feels like a home race. Today it finally worked out!” Source: Porsche

First podium for BMW M Team WRT

Dries Vanthoor, Marco Wittmann and Raffaele Marciello delivered BMW its first-ever WEC podium with second place in the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8. After topping the timesheets with P1 in the second practice session, the #15 BMW Hypercar, piloted by Dries Vanthoor, secured P3 in overall qualifying. Wittmann had a stellar start, taking P2 after the first corner. Together with teammates Vanthoor and Marciello, they held firm at the front of the pack for most of the race battling for a podium-finish.

📷 © Courtesy of FIA WEC. BMW M Hybrid V8 #15 did lead the race a few laps.

Dries VANTHOOR, driver #15: "An incredible race. The first podium for BMW M Motorsport in the FIA WEC is a fantastic achievement. This is a very special moment for everyone who has worked so hard on this project. Considering where we started this season, and now seeing where we stand, it's a huge progress. Second place is great, but we're not quite where we want to be yet – that's a victory."

Marco WITTMANN, driver #15: "It's a great feeling for us drivers, for the entire team, and for BMW M Motorsport. That we have now achieved our first WEC podium with this project is fantastic. We showed strong performance throughout the weekend – in practice as well as in qualifying – and had a good pace in the race. We drove flawlessly and had a successful start. Looking at where we started and the progress we've made, we can really be proud. The first podium feels incredibly good, and the entire team has done a fantastic job. I'm super happy. Now we want to achieve a similarly strong result in Bahrain to conclude the season."

Raffaele MARCIELLO, driver #15: “It's great for the project and everyone at BMW M Motorsport to have secured the first Hypercar podium in WEC, especially for Vincent Vosse and Andreas Roos, who pushed so hard. We've seen progress throughout the season. After Austin, we thought this track might not be the best for us, but the improvements we made paid off. It's a big boost for us drivers and the team. It's not just about the podium – it's about being able to compete at the front and perform well. That's a great feeling”. Source: BMW M Team WRT

First podium for Alpine Endurance Team

Mick Schumacher did all he needed to seal the first podium for an Alpine A424 in the FIA World Endurance Championship after his teammates Matthieu Vaxiviere and Nicolas Lapierre reduced the gap to the leaders with the #36 car.

📷 © Courtesy of FIA WEC. Mick Schumacher, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Nicolas Lapierre with #36 Alpine A424.

Matthieu Vaxiviere: "I'm pleased with our result today, and all credit to the team after more than a year of development and hard work behind the scenes. We keep improving at every race, and getting our first podium in our debut FIA WEC season with the Alpine A424 is quite an achievement. It will only strengthen our motivation to aim even higher in the future."

Mick Schumacher: "It's a positive result for the team and everyone involved in the project. We deserved this podium after fighting so hard when success wasn’t on our side until now. Fortunately, that wasn't the case today, but we still have to work on our pace. We're heading in the right direction, and we want more. We're all here to win, so let's keep giving it everything we've got."

Nicolas Lapierre: "We're improving from one race to the next, and we confirmed that again today. We're gradually getting closer to the best teams' pace, and we've enjoyed terrific reliability over the last three races. The team did a good job with sound strategic decisions and good stops at the right moments. Even though we still have much work to do for the future, there are many positive points." Source: Alpine Endurance Team

P4 for Peugeot

Mikkel Jensen, Jean-Eric Vergne and Nico Mueller delivered Peugeot its best finish with the #93 Peugeot 9X8 in fourth place. Peugeot finally achieves its target to be among the top 5 with a very favorable BoP.

Starting from 14th position, Jean-Eric Vergne (PEUGEOT 9X8 #93) managed to avoid the chaos on lap two to reach the top ten climbing six spots in the first hour of the race.

In traffic, the second stint was more challenging. After two and three-quarter hours of intense efforts on a track heated to over 40°C, he handed over the PEUGEOT 9X8 to Nico Müller, who fought hard to maintain positions in the top 15.

With 90 minutes to go before the checkered flag, a final Safety Car bunched up the Hypercar field. The PEUGEOT 9X8 #93 was then in 13th positions, with Stoffel Vandoorne at the wheel who crossed the finish line in 4th place, just 3.525 seconds off the podium.

📷 © Courtesy of FIA WEC. Mikkel Jensen, Jean-Eric Vergne and Nico Mueller with the #93 Peugeot 9X8.

Stoffel Vandoorne (PEUGEOT 9X8 #94): "It was a complicated race, with many on-track incidents and numerous interruptions... Loïc had a great start, which put us on a good trajectory. Afterward, we were a bit unlucky with some of the Safety Cars, but overall, this 8th place remains a good result in this highly competitive championship. It’s been a great day for the team!" Source: Peugeot Sport

P5 and P6 for Hertz Team JOTA and title

With fifth place, Hertz Team Jota has clinched an early FIA World Cup title for private Hypercar teams with the #12 Porsche 963 driven by Norman Nato, Callum Ilott and Will Stevens. The trio started from 16th on the grid. The sister car driven by Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button, Phil Hanson and Oliver Rasmussen crossed the finish line in sixth place.

📷 © Courtesy of FIA WEC. Hertz Team JOTA clinch title at Fuji

Norman Nato (Porsche 963 #12): “After starting from P16, things turned a bit chaotic in the first lap and then we worked our way up to fifth place – not bad for a weekend where we weren’t that strong, especially over a single lap. After not being so strong in the last two races, this has earned us decent points towards the championship.”

Jenson Button (Porsche 963 #38): “We should be happy with fifth and sixth place in terms of how we executed the race. In this regard, Fuji was probably our best race as a team this year. No one made mistakes and this time we were lucky. But in general, we don’t have the overall pace. Now we’ll try to improve for the last event in Bahrain.” Source: Porsche