The team of Brendon Hartley, Sébastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa have claimed their second win of the season in the World Endurance Championship this weekend at the 6 Hours of Fuji.
It was a one-two finish for the Toyota Gazoo Racing team at the event, the number eight hyper-car of Hartley and co topping the number seven of reigning World Endurance Drivers’ Champions Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, and José Maria López.
Kobayashi was on the pace early to lead the opening 90 minutes whilst Buemi made up ground behind in the second part of his stint.
Team orders came into play come Lap 64, Toyota Gazoo racing switching the cars around for the lead at Turn 10.
Hartley took the wheel through the race mid-stages, inheriting a 6 second lead over their teammate’s.
The Kiwi went about quickly building that lead and punched out some consistent laps, and was helped by setup issues slowing the number seven. The end of Hartley’s stint saw the trio leading by over 30 seconds.
It was left for Hirakawa to bring home the win in front of a home crowd, which he managed to do so comfortably, a gap of 1 minute and eight seconds to their teammate’s behind.
It was the second win of the season for the three after claiming the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Man earlier in the year.
The victory sees the outfit jump to the top of the WEC standings with one round to go, Andre Negrao, the team of Matthieu Vaxiviere and Nicolas Lapierre coming home in third at Fuji to see the teams equal on points heading into the final round in Bahrain.
The 8 Hours of Bahrain will decide the title, the better-placed of the two outfits facing a winner-take-all scenario to claim the 2022 WEC.
Banner Photo: Toyota Gazoo Racing
