The FIA WEC’s 100th race at the Fuji Speedway on Sunday afternoon delivered the goods, producing constant action and a shock result.
After a frantic six hours of racing, Alpine Endurance Team took its first Hypercar victory since the 2022 6 Hours of Monza, with the No. 35 A424 of Charles Milesi, Ferdinand Habsburg and Paul-Loup Chatin snatching the win after coming out of nowhere with two hours to go.
The A424’s unlikely breakthrough was made possible by a dose of good fortune and a bold strategy call. The team pitted the car just before the full-course yellow ahead of the third and final safety car of the race, which vaulted it up the order to second when the cars ahead were all forced to pit with the race neutralised.
With Chatin out and Milesi in, the No. 35 stayed in the mix for the final third of the race, taking the lead at the final round of stops when the team opted to take just left-side Michelin tires to gain track position.
After, Milesi, who emerged with a 7s lead over the No. 93 Peugeot, held on with aging right side rubber, crossing the line 7.6s ahead of Mikkel Jensen in the first of the two 9X8s.
“The decision came from top management; they wanted to take the risk, and it was the right choice,” Chatin said post-race.
“I have no words, it was unbelievable. In the first stints, we were nearly a lap down, but the team made a comeback, the full-course yellow allowed us to gain positions, and we had good race pace,” Milesi added.
“It was one of those days when you feel great in the car. We will cherish this moment for the rest of our lives. With it being the 100th r ace, if you were going to win a race outside of Le Mans, this is the one.”
Jensen’s performance was also notable at the end, following on from a superb run from Jean-Eric Vergne. The Dane did well to deliver Peugeot its second consecutive podium finish and prevent the hard-charging No. 6 Porsche from taking second after a fiesty battle in the closing minutes of the race.
It wasn’t quite a last-to-first story, but it was still a truly impressive run for the No. 6 Penske-operated 963, which started the race from 17th on the grid and came alive late on. Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre both played a part in hauling the car up the order to keep their title hopes alive, overcoming a rear-clip change for damage and a 5s time penalty for a pit-stop infringement en route to a top-three finish.
Off the podium, the sister No. 5 factory Porsche collected valuable points for the German marque in the manufacturers’ world championship, helping capitalize on a rough day for Ferrari’s three 499Ps.
Peugeot’s No. 94 took fifth, with Soffel Vandoorne making a late move on the polesitting No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac. It was a tough outing for the lead V-Series.R, which dominated the opening phase of the race before losing out to the timing of the safety cars and eventually finishing seventh behind the No. 009 Aston Martin.
James Moy/Getty Images
The WEC’s 100th bout was thrilling from the start and was punctuated by the three safety car periods bunching up the field and shuffling the pack. The most dramatic was the lengthy neutralization at the start of the third hour, following a big incident at Turn 4 involving Raffaele Marciello.
The Swiss, on his out lap in the No. 15 BMW, came up behind the No. 99 Proton Porsche of Nico Pino fast and, in avoidance of the 963’s rear bumper, tapped the brakes and lost control of the car. The rear snapped, sending him veering off the track into the armco barriers at drivers’ left, head-on. The front end of the M Hybrid V8 was destroyed, and the barriers needed attention.
“We had a mis-shift on acceleration, the speed plateaued. It was unfortunate; I wasn’t expecting that to happen. There was space on the inside and the outside. I couldn’t do anything,” Pino told RACER post-race. “There was nothing intentional about it. We had a chat in race control, they said it was intentional, but in the data, you can see there was nothing.”
The timing of the incident meant several front-running cars – including the two JOTA Cadillacs – lost crucial ground. When the race restarted, the Proton Porsche found itself in the lead with Nico Varrone forced to defend from a train of factory cars behind, which he did for multiple laps before the dam burst and he tumbled down the order.
Action was frantic up and down the Hypercar field as Peugeot’s No. 93 9X8 moved to the front with Vergne at the controls, who eventually dived up the inside of Varrone at Turn 10 to get the job done early in the fourth hour.
Later in the hour, the safety car made its final appearance, just before another pit stop cycle, jumbling the order once again. It was called for the No. 007 Aston Martin THOR Valkyrie crashing out when Tom Gamble, on cold tires, twitched at the apex of Turn 3 while passing traffic up the inside and speared Heart of Racing’s LMGT3 Vantage side-on. The Briton was able to get the car moving again, but the damage to the front-end was severe, and the team instructed him to park the car.
That neutralization saw the No. 93 Peugeot retain the lead and brought the No. 35 Alpine into play. It set up a remarkable turn of events for the winning car, which looked down and out after being penalized for contact with the No. 8 Toyota that caused the GR010 to suffer a puncture early in the race.
As for Ferrari, the No. 83 privately-entered 499P snuck into the top 10 at the end after struggling for pace throughout with sidepod damage from a multi-car incident at Turn 10 involving the No. 007 Aston Martin. The two factory cars, meanwhile, finished outside the drivers’ points in 11th and 15th, with the championship-leading No. 51 crew throwing away valuable points with two costly penalties for track limit violations.
