2019 6 Hours of Fuji
In the LMGTE Am class, the #90 Aston Martin Vantage GTE, run by TF Sport, and driven by Jonathan Adam, Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluç secured the race victory in a dominant fashion, the pole sitting car holding the lead from start to finish, with the trio managing to maintain a gap exceeding 30 seconds to the 2nd placed car throughout the race.
The changes to slow down the car include reducing the deployable amount of hybrid power the per lap, and the rate of fuel burn, although its minimum weight of 932 kg will be retained.
The #5 Ginetta G60-LT-P1 finished fourth overall at Silverstone and will therefore be made 0.66 seconds slower per lap, although it would receive the 3rd largest performance hit, due to the absence of the #3 Rebellion R13, which was entered on a race-by-race basis, and had scored 3rd overall.
[6] During the LMP Qualifying Session, in the LMP1 class, the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley, and Kazuki Nakajima scored pole position, finishing the session with an average time of 1:25.013, 0.79s clear of the sister #7 car, piloted by Kamui Kobayashi and José María López, with Nakajima beating Lopez by 0.8s in their first runs, while Hartley lapped over seven-tenths quicker than Kobayashi.
In 3rd place, and first of the privateer LMP1s, the sole #1 Rebellion R13 set an average time of 1:26.163, with Gustavo Menezes and Norman Nato 1.15 seconds behind the #8 Toyota in the lead.
Goodyear had looked set to take a front-row lockout, with the sister #38 Jota Sport car of Roberto Gonzalez and Anthony Davidson being in 2nd place during the red flag.
However, this 1-2 was disrupted when Filipe Albuquerque set a late lap, bringing the #22 United Autosports car he shared with Philip Hanson to 2nd.
The pairing of Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz in the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 set a 1:37.320 average, to score the first pole position for the car, in what was just its second race.
The #95 Aston Martin Vantage AMR GTE of Marco Sørensen and Nicki Thiim set a 1:37.466 to finish in 3rd place, rounding off the top 3.
The battle cost both drivers time against the sister #8 Toyota of Sébastien Buemi, who built up a clear advantage in the opening stint, ending hour 1 23 seconds ahead of Kobayashi.
The sister #6 car, meanwhile, would experience a right-rear puncture, before being handed a six-minute stop and hold penalty for a technical infringement in the closing stages of the race.
On an alternate strategy, the RTN car took the lead in the final hour, as the Jackie Chan DCR and Jota cars pitted for the final time, with De Vries having an additional stop to make later than his Goodyear-shod rivals, but the recently crowned FIA Formula 2 champion, and the pit crew of RTN performed it quickly, to maintain a six-second gap to Anthony Davidson in the No.
The 24-year-old then built up a lead of 25 seconds from Davidson, who shared the #38 Jota Sport with Antonio Felix da Costa and Roberto Gonzalez.
Jackie Chan DC Racing's Oreca, also run by the Jota Sport operation, finished third in the hands of Will Stevens, Gabriel Aubry and Ho-Pin Tung.
Tung had set the Jackie Chan car into the lead, following well-executed move on High Class Racing's Mark Patterson, who had taken over from Kenta Yamashita.
In GTE-Pro, the #95 Aston Martin Vantage GTE would secure its first win since the previous year's 6 Hours of Shanghai, after a controlling second-half display, which followed what had been a busy start to the second round of the championship.
Thiim had brought the car to the head of the pack, with a clean dive on his teammate Alex Lynn in the #97 while entering the chicane in the second hour, in what would be the race-deciding move.
Nielsen shared the Silverstone-winning Ferrari with Emmanuel Collard and Francois Perrodo, the trio finishing ahead of the #57 Project 1 car that started from the back of the grid after its post-qualifying penalty.
Ben Keating worked his way through the pack in the opening stages, with the American driver passing the #77 of Christian Ried for third within the first 30 minutes of the race.
