Title-chasing Toyota celebrated a 10th home soil success in the 6 Hours of Fuji today (27 September), rolling the dice with a late strategy call to vault to the front of the field in the final hour, as Ryō Hirakawa, Sébastien Buemi and Brendon Hartle-y soared to the summit of the FIA World Endurance Championship standings.
For the majority of the race, it was Alpine Endurance Team that looked set to occupy the top two spots on the podium at Fuji Speedway, after beginning the sixth round of the season from the front row of the grid.
The two French prototypes largely controlled the opening five hours of action, but a late safety car intervention – following a sizeable accident for the #58 Garage 59 LMGT3 McLaren, from which Finn Gehrsitz emerged unscathed – dramatically upended the order.
With the entire field peeling into the pits, Toyota decided to take a gamble. The Japanese automotive giant – the most successful manufacturer in FIA WEC history – elected not to change tyres and to short-fuel Hirakawa in the #8 TR010 Hybrid Hypercar, which had been running in sixth position and had at one point been facing the wrong way after Hartley had found himself tipped into a spin by Harry Tincknell on the approach to Turn One.
Toyota’s closest championship challenger BMW similarly took a risk by leaving Dries Vanthoor on used rubber in the #15 M Hybrid V8, while Alpine adopted a more cautious approach by giving #36 driver Victor Martins an entirely fresh set of Michelins and Charles Milesi two new left-hand-side tyres in the sister #35 A424.
That dropped the pair to third (Milesi) and fifth (Martins), behind Hirakawa and Vanthoor and sandwiching Aston Martin THOR Team’s Marco Sørensen. With just 20 minutes remaining at the re-start, Martins was the man on the move, scything past Sørensen before Milesi strategically let him through. It took a few laps for the French endurance racing rookie to relieve Vanthoor of second, but once he had done so, he swiftly closed onto the tail of Hirakawa.
A pass for the lead looked inevitable, but on home soil, the Japanese driver was in no mood to roll over, with a sublime defence resulting in the #8 crew’s second victory of the 2026 campaign – and Toyota’s first at Fuji in three years. The points gained have also vaulted Hirakawa, Hartley and Buemi to the top of the Drivers’ World Championship table.
“The re-start was really tricky, with the conditions changing and being on cold tyres on a slightly damp track,” Hirakawa reflected. “I was lucky I had a lapped BMW ahead, because that gave me a kind of reference, and I had the other BMW just behind to block the Alpine.
“Even allowing for that, there was quite a lot of pressure and the last couple of laps were particularly stressful, but the team did a great job and kept giving me feedback on where I needed to push and where I needed to defend, so I’m very grateful for that and this win is for all of them. To stand on the top step of the podium in front of all of our fans was amazing. The last two races will be a step into the unknown for us, but I can’t wait!”
The #36 Alpine and #15 BMW rounded out the rostrum-finishers, while in LMGT3, Team WRT’s #32 BMW M4 Evo won out in a frantic late fight with multiple rivals to prevail for the first time this season in the hands of Augusto Farfus, Sean Gelael and Darren Leung.
The campaign will continue with the 6 Hours of Barcelona on 16-18 October.
