The 2019 6 Hours of Fuji was an endurance sports car race held on the 6th of October 2019, at the Fuji Speedway. It was the 2nd round of the 2019-20 FIA World Endurance Championship.

The race was won overall by the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid, driven by Brendon Hartley, Sébastien Buemi, and Kazuki Nakajima, who had started from pole position. The #8 Toyota won the race in a dominant fashion, taking advantage of the reduced success handicap, compared to the sister #7 car, which had won the season opening round at Silverstone. In the Le Mans Prototype LMP2 class, the race was won by the #29 Oreca 07, run by Racing Team Nederland, and driven by Giedo van der Garde, Frits van Eerd and Nyck de Vries.

In the LMGTE Pro class, the #95 Aston Martin Vantage GTE, run by Aston Martin Racing, and driven by Marco Sørensen and Nicki Thiim emerged victorious, after the duo dominated the second half of the race, to finish 1 lap ahead of the second placed #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19.

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.

Entry list A provisional entry list was released on 5 September 2019, with the number of cars entered shrinking from 31 cars to 30 cars, due to the absence of the #3 Rebellion R13 which had been entered on a race-by-race basis, and was not entered for the flyaway rounds.

Anthony Davidson and Alexandre Coigny returned to the championship, after both drivers withdrew from Silverstone due to injuries sustained, while Paul Di Resta will be replaced by Oliver Jarvis in the #22 United Autosports, as a result of Di Resta's DTM commitments with R-Motorsport. David Heinemeier Hansson, who missed Silverstone for the birth of his child, returns to the #56 Team Project 1, having been replaced by David Kolkmann in the No. 56 Porsche the previous round. A final entry list was later released on 19 September 2019.

Balance of Performance and Success Ballast Changes The success handicap system, which was just introduced to the WEC this season is a way of balancing the top prototype class, following the domination of Toyota the previous season, and operates on a formula based on a coefficient factor of 0.008, which when multiplied by the length of the circuit and the points difference to the last-placed LMP1 car, is used to generate a handicap of seconds per lap.

LMP1 The #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Mike Conway, José María López and Kamui Kobayashi, which had emerged victorious at the 4 Hours of Silverstone season-opener would be made 1.4 seconds slower per lap at the 6 Hours of Fuji. 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 sister #8 car will also be slowed down, albeit by 1 second slower per lap, and 9.5 percent more hybrid energy available to it compared to its sister car. 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. The #5 would receive a weight gain of 34 kg, with the weight increasing from 833 kg to 867 kg. The #1 Rebellion, which finished tenth overall and fourth-best out of the points-scoring LMP1s, will be slowed by 0.03s per lap. Only the #6 Ginetta will be unaffected by any Success handicap, as being the last car to finish in the class, it is used as a reference for the other handicaps.

GTE Am All cars in the class now have their base weight reduced by 20 kg, and will have ballast added from the new base weight. The class-winning #83 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of Emmanuel Collard, Francois Perrodo and Niklas Nielsen has earned the largest weight penalty, receiving a total 30 kg worth of ballast, with 15 kg for winning the race and 15 kg for leading the championship. The same rule has also been applied to the GTE Am podium finishers, with the 2nd placed #98 Aston Martin Vantage GTE and #70 MR Racing Ferrari 488 GTE set to run with a total of 20 kg and 10 kg of ballast in Fuji, respectively.

Qualifying

Qualifying Report

As per WEC Regulations, Qualifying on Saturday, held after FP3 was split into 2 different sessions of 20 minutes each, with the first session being held for the LM GTE categories, and the second session being held for the Le Mans Prototype classes. In Qualifying, teams must nominate two drivers from each crew, who must at least set one timed lap in qualifying, with the reference for the starting grid being calculated on the average of the two fastest lap times (one per driver). In an instance where multiple teams set an identical average time, priority is given to the team who set the average earliest.

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. While Kobayashi had originally been quicker than Hartley, due to a spin by Charlie Robertson, in the #6 Team LNT Ginetta G60-LT-P1, a red flag was brought out towards the end of the session, resulting in Kobayashi's best lap time being deleted. The #6 Ginetta had originally qualified 3rd, due to Simpson's effort, but due to Robertson's spin causing him to be unable to set a lap, the car was shuffled to the back of the LMP1 grid. 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. The #5 Ginetta would qualify 4th, with a 1:26:820 average set by Ben Hanley and Egor Orudzhev.

In LMP2, the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca would score pole position, its first of the season, and the first-ever WEC pole position for Goodyear with Gabriel Aubry and Ho-Pin Tung setting an average of 1:29.302. 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. In 4th place was the #33 High Class Racing, with Anders Fjordbach being another driver to set a late lap following the Red Flag, bringing the #33 to 4th, ahead of the #42 Cool Racing, and #36 Signatech Alpine ELF Orecas. The sole non-Oreca car, the #47 Dallara P217 entered by Cetilar Racing finished the session last in the LMP2 class, with an average of 1:31.342

During the GTE Qualifying Session, the LM GTE Pro class, featured yet another tight qualifying session, with all 6 cars in the class separated by just 0.5 seconds. 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 pair narrowly beat the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of the James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi, who trailed the pair by just 0.041 seconds, with an average of 1:37.397. 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.

In the LM GTE Am class, the #90 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage AMR GTE of Jonny Adam and Salih Yoluc scored pole, with an average of 1:38.821, after the original polesitter, the #57 Team Project 1 of Ben Keating and Felipe Fraga was disqualified from the session. The #57 was disqualified due to an issue with regards to Porsche's door quick release system, which was discovered to not be in compliance with the car's homologation form, during post-qualifying scrutineering, which was later revealed to be a missing fixing screw on one of the side doors. As a result, the car was moved to the back of the grid, and the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, which won the previous race, would start second, with the #98 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR GTE in third.

Qualifying Result Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold. ClassTeamAverage Time1LMP1No. 8 Toyota Gazoo Racing1:25.013−12LMP1No. 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing1:25.803+0.79023LMP1No. 1 Rebellion Racing1:26.163 +1.15034LMP1No. 5 Team LNT1:26.820+1.80745LMP2No. 37 Jackie Chan DC Racing1:29.302+4.28956LMP2No. 22 United Autosports1:29.787+4.77467LMP2No. 38 Jota Sport1:29.792 +4.77978LMP2No. 33 High Class Racing1:30.073+5.06089LMP2No. 42 Cool Racing1:30.087 +5.074910LMP2No. 36 Signatech Alpine Elf1:30.858+5.8451011LMP2No. 29 Racing Team Nederland1:30.935 +5.922 1112LMP2No. 47 Cetilar Racing1:31.342+6.3291213LMGTE ProNo. 91 Porsche GT Team1:37.356+12.3431314LMGTE ProNo. 51 AF Corse1:37.397+12.3841415LMGTE ProNo. 95 Aston Martin Racing1:37.466 +12.4531516LMGTE ProNo. 71 AF Corse1:37.792+12.7791617LMGTE ProNo. 97 Aston Martin Racing1:37.820+12.8071718LMGTE ProNo. 92 Porsche GT Team1:37.935+12.922 1819LMGTE AmNo. 90 TF Sport1:38.821+13.808 1920LMGTE AmNo. 83 AF Corse1:38.850+13.8372021LMGTE AmNo. 98 Aston Martin Racing1:38.917+13.9042122LMGTE AmNo. 56 Team Project 11:39.022 +14.009 2223LMGTE AmNo. 88 Dempsey-Proton Racing1:39.025 +14.0122324LMGTE AmNo. 54 AF Corse1:39.291 +14.2782425LMGTE AmNo. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing1:39.549 +14.5362526LMGTE AmNo. 86 Gulf Racing1:39.610+14.597 2627LMGTE AmNo. 70 MR Racing1:39.628 +14.6152728LMGTE AmNo. 62 Red River Sport1:39.889 +14.8762829LMP1No. 6 Team LNT1:25.889−2930LMGTE AmNo. 57 Team Project 1−−30

Race

Race Report