Toyota scores 1-2 in fog-interrupted 6H Fuji

Toyota Gazoo Racing scored a crucial 1-2 finish on home ground in the FIA WEC 6 Hours of Fuji, tightening the LMP1 Driver's World Championship points gap with two races to go after a stop-start race, shortened by two red flag periods and interrupted by six safety car periods due to heavy rain and thick fog.

Crucially, the winning car – scoring the Japanese marque its fourth win in five years at Fuji – was the No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing TS050 HYBRID of Anthony Davidson (who didn't get to drive) Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima.

The latter pair's title received a substantial boost in taking their third win of the season and first since Spa back in May, after their rivals in the No. 2 Porsche LMP Team 919 that lead the championship finished fourth.

The gap in the LMP1 World Driver's Championship has reduced from 52 points to 39 with two races to go, thus, Buemi and Nakajima live to fight another day. Toyota also kept its Manufacturer's title hopes alive with such a big points haul.

It was a tough race for Brendon Hartley, Earl Bamber and Timo Bernhard in the No. 2 919, in which they finished far back, a lap down after suffering from a lack of pace in the middle portion of the race, struggling to get their car's tires up to temperature as the conditions trackside worsened.

Elsewhere in the LMP1 class, the No. 7 Toyota finished second to make it a perfect result for the Japanese team, ahead of the No. 1 Porsche that took the final podium spot.

It was an interesting race between the No. 7 and No. 1 throughout, the two cars changing places multiple times both on track and in the pits. The No. 1 had to change its nose due to a collision on the opening lap and the No. 7 needed a rare steering wheel and dashboard change due to a leak in the car.

The race was disjointed with multiple stoppages for visibility issues caused by the fog. The race organizers had to bring out the safety car six times (once for an on-track incident) and red flag the race twice, the second stoppage coming with an hour and 40 minutes to go. Crucially, it was just seconds after the teams and drivers had completed 75% of the original race length, meaning the finishers were able to score full points.

It was officially called with 14 minutes left, shortly after a scramble to get the race restarted with 10 minutes remaining that was thwarted by the fog descending once again.

Had it restarted, the winners in the No. 8 may have suffered a crucial blow, as it was due to pit just before the field was neutralized, which would have possibly seen them drop down the order in the final dash to the flag if a splash of fuel was needed.

"It was a really strange race. We were quite competitive from the start; the No. 1 Porsche was good but in the rain we were better," Buemi said. "I'm really happy for the entire team, it's an amazing result."

"It's good for Seb and Kazuki to close the gap in the points," added Davidson, who didn't get to drive in the race. "I put on my helmet two times, but sadly didn't get to drive. This is the second time I've come here and won without driving, and I think Kaz did all the work in that race back in 2013 too!"

In LMP2, the No. 31 Vaillante Rebellion ORECA scored its second victory of the season, Bruno Senna and Nicolas Prost – without the help of Julien Canal who didn't race – controlling much of the race, taking the lead at the start, but were forced to battle hard through the stoppages to secure the win.

"It was a real challenge," Senna commented after the race. "There were many times I couldn't see where I was going, it was tough on the teams, drivers and race officials in a difficult situation to get the show going. It was too difficult and tense at times.

"The team did a good job though – they pushed the strategy and at a certain point we were nowhere, luckily the conditions panned out and we got to the front.

"It was a long tough day, and I'm just happy that everybody made it through OK."

The race in LMP2 was at times a real lottery, as Senna alluded to, with the multiple restarts, and out of sync pit cycles resulting in multiple shifts in position throughout, nobody able to build a comfortable lead.

The key cars in the race for the win though were the eventual winners and the Signatech Alpine, No. 13 Rebellion, TDS Racing and No. 38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECAs.

Eventually finishing second on the road was the Signatech Alpine of Andre Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre and Gustavo Menezes (who didn't get in the car), which fought through the field multiple times, first during Lapierre's opening stint, and later when Negrao was in before the final red flag.

Negrao's performance was one of the highlights in the second half, the Brazilian getting past Ho Pin Tung in the No. 38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA after a lengthy battle, forcing the championship leaders to settle for third.

The result up front means that Oliver Jarvis, Thomas Laurent (who like Menezes and Julien Canal didn't race) and Tung's lead in the LMP2 standings has shrunk to just 10 points over the winning Rebellion crew with Gustavo Menezes a further 15 adrift heading to Shanghai.

Despite having cars finish on the podium, it was a bittersweet result for both Jackie Chan DC Racing and Vaillante Rebellion.

The No. 37 DC Racing ORECA – which looked strong through practice, qualifying and in the opening stages – was forced to retire with a battery voltage issue. The No. 13 Rebellion didn't finish either; it started from pole, spun at Turn 1 at the start, fought back into the top five, only to crash out with two and a half hours left:

Mathias Beche's accident – in which he slammed into the outside wall at the exit of 100R, destroying the ORECA's rear end – came after one of the most bizarre sequences of the race.

It occurred just after a restart, in which Beche ran alongside Jean-Eric Vergne in the No. 24 Manor ORECA down the pit straight, prompting Vergne to weave and hit Beche while they navigated an imposed slow-zone into Turn 1. Beche then clipped Vergne through traffic trying to get past just corners later, which sent him into the barriers and retirement.

Just off the podium was the TDS Racing ORECA, which was in the midst of an incredible recovery drive from Emmanuel Collard when the race was stopped a second time.

The French team will leave disappointed, ruing Francois Perrodo's time in the car when other teams left their pros in all race. Perrodo slipped down the order at the start to the back of the pack due to a moment at Turn 1, too, which made the rest of the race more difficult.

The No. 24 Manor ORECA had another strong top-five finish, with the G-Drive Racing ORECA 07 slipping to sixth after a late spin from Roman Rusinov at Turn 15, which cost them multiple place, and robbed them of a top-five spot.

GTE Pro's title battle has also become tighter after the race at Fuji.

The winning move in the class came late on, when Alessandro Pier Guidi steered the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE to the lead just before the red flag, getting past Frederic Makowiecki in the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR which led much of the race.

The No. 92 Porsche came home third, surviving a collision with the No. 67 Ford GT at Dunlop corner with two hours to go making it a double podium for the German marque.

"Alessandro did such a great job in the car, I didn't drive for that long," Pier Guidi's teammate James Calado said. "It's been a crazy week. I became a father on Tuesday so I have to dedicate this to my daughter and my family back home, who have looked after her while I've been away."

By winning their third straight race, the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari of Calado and Pier Guidi have taken the lead in the class standings by six points over the No. 91 crew of Makowiecki and Richard Lietz, and 14 over the No. 67 Ford which had a disastrous race, headlined by the aforementioned collision.

The No. 67's full-season duo – Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell – leave Japan frustrated and disappointed, and without the lead in the championship. After being in the running for a podium early on, they were forced to serve a minute stop-hold penalty after Priaulx left the pits under a red light, losing them a lap, before he later made contact with Estre at Dunlop Corner.

Trying to get back on the lead lap, Priaulx hit the rear of Estre's Porsche, tapping it into a spin, which caused a second hit to the rear of the Ford. Priaulx then had a puncture at the start of the next lap, which sent him veering into the barriers at Turn 1, ripping off the rear wing, and sending him into the gravel in the outside runoff.

"It's been a terrible race for us, starting with the drive-through," Priaulx explained. "I was following Estre, who was stopping the car mid-corner, then when we hit each other he hit the right rear of the car, and we had a catastrophic tire failure as a result. I'm not sure why we had to have that collision. I need to look at the footage to understand why."

The duo were classified, and scored valuable points, but have lost the lead of the championship.

It was also a tough outing for Aston Martin's two Vantages in Pro, finishing sixth and seventh; the four drivers struggled mightily for pace with the Dunlop wets all weekend.

Spirit of Race's trio of Thomas Flohr, Miguel Molina and Francesco Castellacci, meanwhile, took a hard-fought first WEC win in GTE Am, stealing the lead at the end with a quick stop that resulted in them leapfrogging the Clearwater Ferrari before the second red flag. All three Spirit of Race drivers performed well throughout, and took a deserving win; Flohr in particular had a mistake-free in the tough conditions, his best outing in the WEC to date.

"We all did a great job, and were mistake free, which was key to keeping in the fight," Molina explained. "I'm a member of the Sean Edwards Foundation, and today is four years since he left us, so this one goes out to him.

"It's going to be a good end to the season, as we have made so many improvements recently."

The quick pit work, and thickening fog left Matt Griffin powerless in the Clearwater Racing 488 at the end, the Irishman unable to get back past Molina to score the team its second win of the year.

It will come as a frustrating result, after local favorite Keita Sawa proved the class of the field at the start and Weng Sun Mok pushed on during the middle stint. Nevertheless, it was a crucial result and leaves them in the lead of the Team's Championship once again, and just seven points off the Driver's Championship lead, which Demspey Proton's trio now hold by a single point over the No. 98 AMR drivers.

The Dempsey Proton Porsche leapfrogged the No. 98 Aston Martin Racing trio in the standings by coming home third, ahead of the Vantage of Paul Dalla Lana, Mathias Lauda and Pedro Lamy, which got caught out in a pit cycle and had to serve a 10-second time penalty in the pits for a pit infringement, leaving them in fourth.

Next up for the FIA WEC teams is the 6 Hours of Shanghai, on Nov. 5.