WEC Fuji: Toyota beats Porsche, and rain
Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi were leading when the race was stopped and not restarted. Despite controversy, the win was deserved
Toyota turned up at Fuji with the avowed intent to score a one-two on home ground. The local manufacturer pulled off the desired result with Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima leading the way. The Japanese driver reckoned there was an element of luck to it, but also said they deserved it. He was bang on the money there, because the TS050 HYBRID was the fastest car over the course of a shortened race affected by rain and fog.
The inclement weather turned the Fuji 6 Hours on Sunday into a stop-start affair that was twice red-flagged, the second time for good after four and a half hours of its intended duration. It was also interrupted by no fewer than seven pukka safety cars (including the two to start and restart the race) and one of the virtual variety. This played into Toyota’s hands as it strived to claim a first World Endurance Championship victory since Spa in May, and keep the race for the drivers’ title mathematically open going into the penultimate round at Shanghai next month.
Toyota opted for a different specification of Michelin wet-weather rubber last weekend to Porsche, choosing to race on the deeper-grooved tyre. Not only did that give the TS050 the edge over the German manufacturer’s 919 Hybrid when the conditions were at their wettest, but the more-heavily-treaded rubber heated up quicker than the Porsche’s tyres. This gave the Japanese cars an advantage at the multiple restarts that peppered this race.
“Whenever there was a restart we struggled to warm up the tyres, but once we got going we just got quicker and quicker,” said Neel Jani from the #1 Porsche crew that led the German manufacturer’s challenge together with Andre Lotterer and Nick Tandy. “We were hoping that the race would be resumed
because we would have had a shot at it.”
Had the track conditions continued to improve, then Jani was probably right. If not, then it is unlikely the Porsche would have had that shot.
When the track was at its wettest, after the race was restarted for the first time, the TS050 had the edge on pace. Nakajima took over the lead when Earl Bamber brought the #2 Porsche into the pits for its first stop as the race went green after one lap behind the safety car. Jose Maria Lopez was running second in the Toyota he shared with Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway, while
Jani was third in other 919.
Nakajima’s pace took him away from
Lopez, who was handicapped by windscreen-wiper failure. The leading Toyota also increased the gap to Jani from around 32 seconds to nearly 50 before the next safety car.
Between the solo full-course yellow of the race and the final safety car that led into the red flag, Jani was a match for the Toyotas ahead of him. He was able to close onto Conway’s tail, while the pair edged ever so slightly towards Nakajima.
The track may have been drying, but the low cloud that had reduced visibility and precipitated the first stoppage wasn’t. That resulted in red flag number two, shortly after the race had passed the 70% duration required for full points to be awarded. The cars sat on the grid for over an hour before it was announced that the race would restart for a 10-minute dash to the flag up to the six-hour mark. Five or so minutes after that, with the conditions closing in again, the race was abandoned once and for all.
There was always going to be an element of luck to a victory in a shortened endurance race held in such dreadful conditions. And for Toyota it came when it aborted a pitstop for the leading car, as late as the final corner, as the final red flags came out.
Nakajima had been on track for nearly an hour and a half without stopping. Fuel was clearly required for the #8 Toyota, into which Anthony Davidson was about to climb for the first time, but the question was whether it could have made the finish had the race been restarted.
Toyota was insistent that 10 more minutes of running was possible. “There were still 10 minutes of fuel left in the car,” said Toyota Motorsport Gmbh technical director Pascal Vasselon.
“Even if the race restarted we could have finished [without refuelling].”
The conspiracy theorists had a field day when the decision was taken to cancel the second restart just four minutes before it was due. Toyota, of course, has yet to confirm its participation in the WEC next year and a victory for the home manufacturer was timely.
But Toyota’s claims were entirely plausible. When the red flag came the fourth-place Porsche was in the pits. It had completed approximately one hour and 50 minutes on its previous tankful courtesy of the wet conditions and the multiple yellows.
There was also a scare for the #7 Toyota. The telemetry was indicating a right-rear puncture at the end, but when the tyres were checked after the cars stopped on the start-finish line the pressures were found to be correct. That’s not to say, of course, that Toyota wouldn’t have felt compelled to bring the car in had the race continued.
The #2 Porsche driven by championship leaders Bamber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley had a disappointing Fuji once Bamber came into the pits straight after the initial half-hour stoppage in the second hour.
Not pitting Bamber was a strategic call in case the race was not restarted
“I had no rear grip. It was just a case of trying to bring it home ”
in some kind of repeat of the 2013 Fuji 6 Hours. That one stretched to just 16 laps behind the safety car.
But the tactic ultimately backfired because the Kiwi had to stop at the end of the first restarted lap, just as the race was going green. That meant Bernhard resumed nearly a minute behind the leader. And from there it went from bad to worse for the champions elect.
Bernhard struggled and was put a lap down by Nakajima a further 15 laps into the race. “I just couldn’t switch on the tyres – I had no rear grip,” said the German. “I went across the run-off a couple of times and then it was just a case of trying to bring it home.”
Bernhard and his team-mates only needed to finish ahead of Buemi and Nakajima to seal the drivers’ crown, though the significance of Toyota’s victory wasn’t really about keeping the title open. It brought to an end a run of disappointment dating back to the Le Mans 24 Hours in June.
“In the end we were a little bit lucky that the red flag came when it did, but I think we deserved the victory, because we had good pace,” said Nakajima. “We said before the race that we wanted a one-two and somehow we managed it.”