Porsche leads at halftime of WEC race in Fuji

Porsche leads the WEC 6-hour race in Fuji at halftime. Andre Lotterer in the #51 Porsche 963 (Lotterer, Estre, Laurens Vanthoor) has regained the lead he had briefly lost against Nicklas Nielsen's #50 Ferrari 499P (Fuoco, Molina, Nielsen). After 120 laps, the two leading cars were separated by around 9 seconds, although the Porsche had one less pit stop due to a different strategy. The #6 had refrained from stopping for fuel during a virtual safety car phase (lap 50).

After his third pit stop, reigning Le Mans winner Nielsen initially stayed just ahead of the onrushing Lotterer, who was able to prevail with better tires. The #6 Porsche, which started from fifth place, was supported by a quick pit stop at the beginning and took the lead from the pole-setter Cadillac #2 (Bamber, Lynn). “Thanks to the pit stop, we were able to overtake two cars,” said three-time Le Mans winner Lotterer. The Porsche trio Lotterer/Estre/Vanthoor lead the World Championship table before the last race of the 2024 season.

Ferrari ace Nielsen provided plenty of action in the Ferrari, which had started from P7, when, after the second safety car phase of the race (parts on the track), he overtook first Sebastien Buemi's and then Mike Conway's Toyota within two laps at the Japanese team's home race with fresh tires.

Cadillac damage after duel with BMW

Raffaele Marciello claimed third place on the grid in the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 (Wittmann, Marciello, Dries Vanthoor) after the first three hours. The Italian-Swiss driver duelled with Earl Bamber's Cadillac on lap 98 and was lucky to emerge unscathed as the winner. The situation was different for the #2 Cadillac, which Alex Lynn had driven to its first pole position on Saturday: Teammate Bamber slashed the right front tire on Marciello's BMW and had to make an unplanned pit stop.

Things didn't go according to plan for the second LMDh BMW with starting number #20 (Rast, Frijns, Sheldon van der Linde): Rene Rast picked up a part of another car lying around after the start and was forced into the pits. “I tried to stay out of all the hustle and bustle and drove wide into Turn 1. But I picked up a part that damaged the flics at the front. We had to pit and lost two laps.”

Michael Christensen was temporarily in fourth place in the #5 Porsche (Campbell, Christensen, Makowiecki) after starting driver Frederic Makowiecki had to pit for repairs following a collision at the start. Austin winner Robert Kubica was the cause of this quadruple crash, which also involved the #35 Alpine and the #51 Ferrari, and received a 30-second pit stop penalty.

Penalty for Mick Schumacher after strong stint

Following behind are the two Toyota GR010 Hybrids and the two Porsche 963s of the customer team Jota, which will take over Cadillac's factory operations in the WEC from 2025. Things did not go as hoped for Mick Schumacher in the #36 Alpine A424 (Schumacher, Lapierre, Vaxiviere): The racing driver's son received a drive-through penalty on lap 86 for a yellow flag offense because he had not slowed down sufficiently. Peugeot driver Jean-Eric Vergne was also caught in this situation.

Bitter for Schumacher, who had taken over the start in the Alpine, supported by the early quadruple crash involving Kubica and stormed forward from P15 to eleventh position. The ex-Formula 1 driver handed the car over in ninth place and after 42 laps was behind teammate Matthieu Vaxiviere, who had to serve the drive-through penalty during his stint and dropped out of the top 10.

The second Alpine was more likely to win, even though starting driver Ferdinand Habsburg was involved in the Kubica incident. The fast Frenchman Charles Milesi was in seventh position, ahead of the #38 Jota Porsche driven by Jenson Button and the #99 Proton customer Porsche. The Cadillac fell back to tenth place due to the puncture.