Toyota snatches Fuji from Alpine with a short fill as Hirakawa holds off Martins by 0.591 seconds

Toyota won the 6 Hours of Fuji in the pit lane. Ryo Hirakawa took the chequered flag 0.591 seconds ahead of Victor Martins in the number 36 Alpine, after the number 8 Toyota jumped from sixth to first in the pit stops under the final safety car. Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Hirakawa started eighth, on a grid set by practice times after rain wiped out qualifying, and leave Fuji leading the drivers’ championship.

The number 15 BMW of Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor finished third, 6.415 seconds behind, with the second Alpine fourth. In LMGT3 the number 32 Team WRT BMW of Darren Leung, Sean Gelael and Augusto Farfus won by 1.062 seconds.

Five hours of Alpine, then a McLaren on the main straight

For most of the afternoon this was Alpine’s race. The two A424s ran first and second after two hours, and the official classification after five hours still had the number 36 of Jules Gounon and Martins in front, 2.154 seconds clear of the number 35 of Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg. The number 009 Aston Martin Valkyrie was third at that point and the number 8 Toyota sixth, just under 20 seconds off the lead.

With just under an hour to go, the number 58 Garage 59 McLaren and the number 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin collided on the start-finish straight. Finn Gehrsitz walked away from the McLaren, which was out, and the safety car came out for the last time.

A 72 percent fill and no new tyres

That safety car decided the race. According to Sportscar365, Toyota filled the number 8 to only 72 percent of its energy allocation and BMW gave the number 15 76 percent. Neither car took new tyres, and the two short stops put them first and second for the restart. Alpine fitted fresh tyres on the number 36, and Martins rejoined fifth.

The fresh rubber nearly paid off. Martins fought his way back to second by the flag and finished 0.591 seconds short of Hirakawa. After six hours and 203 laps, the first three were covered by 6.415 seconds.

Behind them the number 38 Cadillac of Earl Bamber, Sébastien Bourdais and Jack Aitken was fifth, the number 94 Peugeot sixth and the number 12 Cadillac seventh. The number 009 Aston Martin of Alex Riberas and Marco Sørensen, third with an hour to go, dropped to ninth.

The number 8 takes the lead, the number 20 leaves Fuji without a point

The drivers’ championship arrived at Fuji as a tie: 75 points for Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries in the number 7 Toyota, and 75 for Robin Frijns and René Rast in the number 20 BMW. Both left disappointed. The number 7 finished eighth for four points, after a drive-through penalty for a virtual safety car infringement reported by Dive Bomb. The number 20, which started last in class, was already a lap down after two hours and finished 13th, one lap behind, with nothing.

That hands the lead to the other Toyota. According to the official FIA WEC standings Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa now have 89 points, ten more than the number 7 crew on 79. Frijns and Rast drop to third on 75, with Sheldon van der Linde, who scored nothing at Imola, on 65. Toyota leads the manufacturers’ championship with 169 points to BMW’s 146. Two rounds remain: Barcelona on 18 October and Monza on 8 November. The full tables are on our WEC standings page.

WRT wins LMGT3 by a second, Catsburg keeps the Corvette in front

The LMGT3 finish was nearly as close. The number 32 BMW crossed the line 1.062 seconds ahead of the number 27 Aston Martin of Ian James, Zacharie Robichon and Mattia Drudi, which carried on after its collision with the McLaren. The number 34 Racing Team Turkey Corvette of Peter Dempsey, Salih Yoluç and Charlie Eastwood was third, 4.676 seconds behind the winner. RacingNews365 reported after the race that the stewards were looking at contact involving the class winner and the third-placed car, so the LMGT3 order can still change.

The number 77 Proton Mustang, first on the grid, finished ninth in class. Nicky Catsburg’s number 33 TF Sport Corvette was fifth, and TF Sport still leads the LMGT3 teams’ standings with 86 points, 24 ahead of the number 27 Heart of Racing car. Lin Hodenius and the number 79 Iron Lynx Mercedes were classified 13th in class, nine laps down.

Seven cars were not classified. The number 88 Proton Mustang and the number 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes went out on the opening lap, the number 23 Heart of Racing Aston Martin retired after 37 laps and the number 93 Peugeot after 67. The number 50 Ferrari stopped on track just after four hours, the number 58 McLaren was out after the late collision, and the number 21 Vista AF Corse Ferrari was not classified after 184 laps.

Result: Hypercar

Result: LMGT3

Provisional classification from the FIA WEC timekeepers. It already includes two 5-second time penalties for the number 51 Ferrari for causing collisions and a 20-second penalty for the number 17 Genesis for a tyre pressure infringement. Gap is the gap to the class winner. NC = not classified.

Our surprise: Toyota won the race Alpine controlled

Alpine topped Friday afternoon practice and the wet Saturday session, started from the front row and led for most of the race, and still went home without the win. That is not bad luck so much as a choice: fresh tyres against track position, with less than an hour left. Toyota and BMW gambled on fuel and it worked for both. For the title, the bigger story is the number 20. A BMW crew that won at Spa and was second at Le Mans scored nothing on the day the Toyotas scored 29 between them, and a tie has become a 14-point deficit to the leader with two races to go.

Can Frijns and Rast still win the title after a pointless Fuji, or is this now a fight between the two Toyotas? Tell us in the comments.

Barcelona is next, three weeks from now

The championship moves to Barcelona for round seven on 18 October. Catch up on the weekend in our Fuji practice results and the starting grid set by practice times, read how a hydraulic failure cost Toyota at COTA, or see how the Hypercar class works and why Balance of Performance decides so much. Every result of the season is on our FIA WEC 2026 results page, and the RNT live blog follows every session.