6 HOURS OF FUJI: ALPINE TAKES VICTORY TO EVERYONE'S SURPRISE

The 6 Hours of Fuji, the 100th race in FIA WEC history, delivered thrills right up to the finish, with a podium that resonated to the sound of La Marseillaise. Alpine celebrated a hard-fought victory with the trio Charles Milesi, Paul-Loup Chatin, and Ferdinand Habsburg. Exactly one year ago, on the same track, Alpine had achieved its first podium with the A424 LMDh in the Endurance World Championship. Today, twelve months later, the French team finally secured the top step, finishing ahead of fellow countrymen Peugeot. Jean-Eric Vergne, Mikkel Jensen, and Paul Di Resta took second place, just half a second ahead of the Porsche 963 LMDh driven by Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre. The fight for the championship remains wide open, with the final showdown set for the 8 Hours of Bahrain.

The race featured three safety-car periods, five Full Course Yellows, several incidents, and numerous penalties. The WEC’s 100th race offered a storyline full of twists, culminating in a podium that was far from predictable. In the opening stages, Cadillac appeared in full control. Will Stevens, starting from pole, led the race with Sebastien Bourdais close behind, who spun harmlessly during the formation lap.

Mid-field battles added more excitement, including a light contact between Habsburg and Sebastien Buemi. The Swiss driver suffered a left rear puncture on his Toyota, while Alpine received a five-second penalty. Debris on the track prompted a Virtual Safety Car, followed by a full safety-car deployment.

Despite the chaos, Stevens retained the lead for Cadillac, while Bourdais was overtaken by Di Resta, who moved into third thanks to Peugeot’s flawless pit strategy. The race continued relatively smoothly until the start of the second hour, when Raffaele Marciello, just aboard Kevin Magnussen’s BMW, lost control while trying to avoid Nico Pino’s Porsche 963 LMDh, which inexplicably slowed on the acceleration. Marciello crashed heavily into the barriers at Turn 8, ending his race.

The Virtual Safety Car and later the full safety-car reshuffled the order, with Nico Varrone leading, followed by Vergne in the Peugeot and Nick De Vries in the Toyota, while the Cadillacs slipped out of podium contention. Vergne soon applied pressure on Varrone and took the lead, but another safety-car intervention changed the situation once again. Tom Gamble, exiting the pits on cold tires, lost control of his Aston Martin Valkyrie and collided with Zach Robichon’s Vantage GT3, forcing Gamble to retire.

Peugeot and Alpine benefited from the incident, being the last to pit before the neutralization. At the restart, Jensen and Milesi found themselves in front. Despite an additional five-second penalty, Alpine continued its climb, while Porsche’s Estre joined the fight for victory, creating a thrilling three-way battle.

In the final pit stop, Alpine executed a decisive strategic gamble: only two tires were changed, gaining valuable seconds. Milesi exited the pits ahead of Jensen’s Peugeot, while the Porsche served a five-second penalty for a previous pit-stop infraction. Milesi managed his tires expertly to the finish, claiming victory over the Peugeot, with the Porsche pair of Estre-Vanthoor and Jaminet-Andlauer finishing third and fourth. Fifth place went to the 9X8 LMH of Malthe Jakobsen, Loïc Duval, and Stoffel Vandoorne, marking an emotional farewell for Vandoorne with Peugeot.

Among the GTs, the sole surviving Aston Martin, driven by Marco Sørensen and Alex Riberas, finished sixth, penalized with a drive-through for a Full Course Yellow infraction. Seventh went to the Cadillac of Stevens, Nato, and Lynn; eighth to the Toyota trio of Nyck De Vries, Mike Conway, and Kamui Kobayashi; ninth to the remaining BMW.

Ferrari struggled throughout: the 499P struggled through Fuji’s slow third sector, and the BoP also penalized them on the straights. The first part of the race was decent, but in the latter half both cars dropped back dramatically. The trio Fuoco-Molina-Nielsen finished eleventh, while Pier Guidi, Giovinazzi, and Calado ended fifteenth, receiving two drive-throughs for exceeding track limits. The best Ferrari was the AF Corse car with Kubica, Yifei Ye, and Phil Hanson, finishing tenth despite damage to the side early in the race.

In LMGT3, Ferrari shone once again: Alessio Rovera, Simon Mann, and François Heriau crossed the line first, but a five-second pit-stop penalty handed the victory to Charlie Eastwood, Rui Andrade, and Tom van Rompuy in the TF Sport Corvette, who had executed an impressive comeback.

BMW also performed strongly, with Augusto Farfus, Yasser Shahin, and Timur Boguslavskiy on the podium ahead of Valentino Rossi, Ahmad Al Harty, and Kelvin van der Linde in the M4 GT3. Fifth went to the Porsche 911 GT3 of class leaders Riccardo Pera, Richard Lietz, and Ryan Hardwick.

Sixth was the Ferrari 296 GT3 of Davide Rigon, Francesco Castellacci, and Thomas Flohr, followed by the Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Mattia Drudi, Ian James, and Robichon. Behind them finished the Corvette of Daniel Juncadella, Jonny Edgar, and Ben Keating, and the Mercedes Iron Lynx of Maxime Martin, Martin Barry, and Lin Hodenius. The Lexus of Ben Barnicoat, Arnold Robin, and Finn Gehrsitz completed the top ten. The United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3s and Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3s, despite strong starts, fell off the pace and finished outside the points.

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