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USA
Race report

Fuji WEC: Toyota keeps title hopes alive in shortened race

Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Anthony Davidson took the win on Toyota's home soil in the 6 Hours of Fuji round of the FIA World Endurance Championship as the race was shortened by poor weather conditions.

Race winners #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima

Race winners #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima

JEP / Motorsport Images

Podium: race winners Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Toyota Gazoo Racing
Podium: race winner Anthony Davidson, Toyota Gazoo Racing
Podium: race winners Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Toyota Gazoo Racing, second place Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez, Toyota Gazoo Racing, thrid place Neel Jani, Andre Lotterer, Nick TandyPorsche Team
Podium: race winners Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Toyota Gazoo Racing
Cars lined up on the start/finish straight
Cars lined up on the start/finish straight
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050-Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez
#2 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber, Brendon Hartley
#2 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber, Brendon Hartley
#92 Porsche GT Porsche Team 911 RSR: Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre, #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE: James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi
#67 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford GT: Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell
Safety car
#2 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber, Brendon Hartley, #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima

The victory for the #8 Toyota keeps the title race open going into the penultimate round of the series at Shanghai next month.

Points leaders Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber only needed to finish ahead of the #8 Toyota in their Porsche 919 to seal the drivers' crown, but they ultimately trailed home a lap down in fourth, their points gap down to 39 points.

The clock had just ticked past four and a half hours when the stoppage came as low cloud descended on the circuit.

The #8 Toyota was in first place at the time, but due a pitstop.

It was intended for the race to be restarted for the final 10 minutes of the six hours, but the call came from race control with 14 minutes left on the clock that the result would be called.

As 70 percent of the race has been completed, full points were awarded, even for drivers who, like Davidson in the #8 Toyota, didn't get behind the wheel. 

The winning team had an edge on the opposition for much of the race that was interrupted by five safety car periods and one VSC, in addition to a 32-minute red flag period in the second hour.

The #8 in the hands of Nakajima moved to the front when the race resumed after the first stoppage.

The Japanese driver pulled away from teammate Jose Maria Lopez in the sister car in the early stages of the third hour as the Argentine struggled with a windscreen wiper problem.

Nakajima lost the lead when he pitted, but took second from Nick Tandy in the #1 Porsche after the safety car bunched up the field.

He then reclaimed the lead when Lopez, who shared the #7 Toyota with Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway, made the car's third pitstop.

Nakajima was 16s up on Conway, who took over from Lopez, when the safety car was sent out five laps before the red flag.

Conway was fighting off the advances of Neel Jani, Tandy's teammate in the #1 Porsche, when the race was neutralised and then stopped.

Bamber had not pitted in the #2 Porsche when the first red flag was shown, which meant he had to stop for fuel and tyres as the safety car pulled in after the restart.

The time lost by stopping under green-flag conditions relegated Bernhard to fourth, just over a minute down on the leader.

The German driver then struggled in the wet conditions and was lapped by Nakajima early in the third hour.

The Rebellion Racing car driven by Bruno Senna and Nicolas Prost were declared LMP2 winners before the team's third driver Julien Canal could drive.

It led the majority of the race, Senna pulling away from the P2 pack in the opening stages.

Prost was running approximately 15 seconds ahead of the Signatech Alpine driven by Nicolas Lapierre and Andre Negrao when the final safety car came out.

Ferrari leads Porsche duo in GTE Pro

Ferrari took GTE Pro honours after James Calado was able to take the lead in the run-up to the final yellow.

The Briton, paired with Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 AF Corse, finished ahead of Frederic Makowiecki and Richard Lietz.

The #91 Porsche was joined by the #92 sister car on the podium, as third place went to Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre.

The Ganassi Ford of Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell, points leaders prior to the race, had a torrid time, finishing eighth and last in class.

Priaulx was given a one-minute stop-go penalty for running a red light in the pits and then sustained a puncture that sent him into the barriers shortly after an incident with Estre.

The AF Corse Ferrari driven by Miguel Molina, Francesco Castellacci and Miguel Molina took GTE Am honours.

They moved ahead of the long-time class leader, the Clearwater Ferrari driven by Weng Sun Mok and Matt Griffin, when the two cars pitted for what turned out to be the final time.

Race results:

Pos.#DriversCarClassGap
1 8 united_kingdom Anthony Davidson 
japan Kazuki Nakajima 
switzerland Sébastien Buemi 
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 113 Laps
2 7 japan Kamui Kobayashi 
united_kingdom Mike Conway 
argentina Jose Maria Lopez 
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1.498
3 1 germany Andre Lotterer 
switzerland Neel Jani 
united_kingdom Nick Tandy 
Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 2.272
4 2 germany Timo Bernhard 
new_zealand Brendon Hartley 
new_zealand Earl Bamber 
Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 1 lap
5 31 brazil Bruno Senna 
france Julien Canal 
france Nicolas Prost 
Oreca 07 LMP2 3 laps
6 36 france Nicolas Lapierre 
brazil Andre Negrao 
united_states Gustavo Menezes 
Alpine A470 LMP2 3 laps
7 38 united_kingdom Oliver Jarvis 
china Ho-Pin Tung 
france Thomas Laurent 
Oreca 07 LMP2 3 laps
8 28 france François Perrodo 
france Emmanuel Collard 
france Matthieu Vaxiviere 
Oreca 07 LMP2 3 laps
9 24 france Jean-Eric Vergne 
united_kingdom Ben Hanley 
united_kingdom Matt Rao 
Oreca 07 LMP2 3 laps
10 26 russia Roman Rusinov 
france Pierre Thiriet 
united_kingdom James Rossiter 
Oreca 07 LMP2 3 laps
11 51 united_kingdom James Calado 
italy Alessandro Pier Guidi 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE PRO 4 laps
12 91 austria Richard Lietz 
france Frédéric Makowiecki 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 4 laps
13 25 russia Vitaly Petrov 
switzerland Simon Trummer 
mexico Roberto Gonzalez 
Oreca 07 LMP2 4 laps
14 92 denmark Michael Christensen 
france Kevin Estre 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 4 laps
15 66 germany Stefan Mücke 
france Olivier Pla 
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 4 laps
16 71 united_kingdom Sam Bird 
italy Davide Rigon 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE PRO 4 laps
17 97 united_kingdom Darren Turner 
united_kingdom Jonathan Adam 
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE PRO 4 laps
18 95 denmark Marco Sorensen 
denmark Nicki Thiim 
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE PRO 5 laps
19 54 italy Francesco Castellacci 
spain Miguel Molina 
switzerland Thomas Flohr 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 6 laps
20 61 ireland Matt Griffin 
singapore Mok Weng Sun 
japan Keita Sawa 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 6 laps
21 77 germany Christian Ried 
italy Matteo Cairoli 
germany Marvin Dienst 
Porsche 911 RSR (991) LMGTE AM 6 laps
22 86 united_states Mike Hedlund 
united_kingdom Ben Barker 
united_kingdom Nick Foster 
Porsche 911 RSR (991) LMGTE AM 7 laps
23 98 portugal Pedro Lamy 
canada Paul Dalla Lana 
austria Mathias Lauda 
Aston Martin Vantage V8 LMGTE AM 8 laps
24 67 united_kingdom Harry Tincknell 
guernsey Andy Priaulx 
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 17 laps
25 13 brazil Nelson Piquet Jr. 
denmark David Heinemeier Hansson
switzerland Mathias Beche 
Oreca 07 LMP2 28 laps
26 37 china David Cheng 
france Tristan Gommendy 
united_kingdom Alex Brundle 
Oreca 07 LMP2 61 laps

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