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Oct
20th

Endurance: Audi claims world championship title in shortened 6 Hours of Fuji

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From press release

Torrential rain at Fuji International Speedway forced the organizers to stop the Fuji round after only 16 laps were ran in three hours. Toyota won, but Audi claimed the World Endurance Championship (WEC) manufacturers' title.

The race was stopped after 3 hours and 46 minutes due to worsening weather conditions and deteriorating light, and the No.7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid of Kazuki Nakajima, Nicolas Lapierre and Alexander Wurz was declared the overall winner.  Half points were awarded to all drivers.

Second place for the No.2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Tom Kristensen, Loïc Duval and Allan McNish was enough to seal the FIA World Endurance Manufacturers' Championship for Audi, although the Drivers' title has yet to be decided. 

Audi, Fuji, WEC
Photo: Audi

Only 16 laps of racing were completed - all behind the Safety Car - and the race was suspended twice by the Race Director for safety reasons.  The No.8 Toyota of Davidson-Buemi-Sarrazin and the No.1 Audi R18 of reigning World Champions Lotterer-Tréluyer-Fässler both suffered from problems during the race. 

The Toyota started from the pit lane after missing the pit exit closure time, and the Audi had to make three unscheduled pit stops to deal with debris in the air intake system but still finished on the lead lap, albeit in 26th place.

The No.12 Rebellion Racing LMP1 Privateer entry of Mathias Beche and Andrea Belicchi filled the third place on the overall podium, the Lola-Toyota finishing just ahead of the LMP2 class winner - the No.35 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan of Bertrand Baguette, Ricardo Gonzalez and Martin Plowman. 

While the closed cockpits of the GTE cars may have offered the drivers some protection in the driving rain at Fuji International Speedway today, the visibility in the middle of the grid was limited to almost nothing due to the spray from the 12 prototypes ahead of the leading LMGTE Pro entry. 

That car was Aston Martin Racing's No.97 Vantage V8 of Darren Turner, Stefan Mücke and Frédéric Makowiecki which was classified as the winner, ahead of the No.51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Fisichella-Bruni and the No.91 Porsche AG Team Manthey 911 RSR of Bergmeister-Pilet. 

Brazilian Bruno Senna, another fan favourite, was this weekend teamed with Christoffer Nygaard and Kristian Poulsen in the No.95 Aston Martin Vantage V8 and their class victory in the LMGTE Am category has extended their lead in the points' classification.  


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