The Porsche Penske Motorsport works team finished the 100th race of the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in third and fourth place. This means that it still has championship chances before the finale in Bahrain.

Laurens Vanthoor and Kévin Estre finished third on the podium at Fuji Speedway with the Porsche 963 from 17th on the grid. Julien Andlauer and Mathieu Jaminet followed immediately behind with the sister car. The Porsche customer team Proton Competition collected the lead kilometres and finished twelfth in Japan. In the LMGT3 class, the last safety car phase dashed the hopes of the two 911 GT3s fielded by Manthey for top results. Nevertheless, the Porsche of Manthey 1st Phorm travels to the last race of the season as the leader.

The race

Due to an unfortunate qualifying, the number 6 Porsche 963 had only started the race from 17th position. In the first half hour, however, start driver Laurens Vanthoor was able to make up ten places. After an opponent had slid into the rear of the Belgian's hybrid prototype, an early pit stop including a replacement of the rear wing threw the car back again. Just over an hour later, the next refuelling stop with a change to Kévin Estre took place only shortly before an accident triggered a caution phase – again no advantage. The crew had more luck when another "Full Course Yellow" came to an end two hours before the finish: The Frenchman, now in seventh place, fought his way up to second position in a short time with a furious restart. A five-second penalty for an incorrect pit stop threw the Porsche back to third place when it was handed over to final driver Vanthoor. The Belgian's final attack on the number 93 Peugeot then caused tension once again, but remained unrewarded.

With the sister car, Julien Andlauer was able to quickly make up two places after starting from seventh position. The number 5 Porsche also lost important ground after two and three hours of racing due to safety car phases and a pit drive-through penalty. In the final phase, his French compatriot Mathieu Jaminet moved up from twelfth place to fourth position.

"Yesterday after qualifying, I would have immediately signed for a result with third and fourth place – that's a good and solid result," says Urs Kuratle, Vice President Factory Motorsport LMDh. "We were able to make up important points with regard to second place in the championship compared to Cadillac. The drivers and also the team did an excellent job, even though we incurred unnecessary penalties. Congratulations to Alpine on their first win in the WEC."

"Congratulations to the whole team. We had a difficult day today with a lot of yellow flags and other events that messed up the race," explains Jonathan Diuguid, Executive Director Porsche Penske Motorsport. "With today's result, we were able to postpone the championship decision until the season finale. The crew of our number 6 Porsche did a great job and achieved a podium finish. The number 5 car crossed the finish line just behind. Unfortunately, we received a few time penalties today, so we have to do better in Bahrain."

Proton Competition was able to enjoy a special sense of achievement at Fuji with its Porsche 963: Thanks to a very late second pit stop, the hybrid prototype of Chilean Nico Pino, Argentinian Nico Varrone and Swiss Neel Jani benefited to the maximum from a safety car deployment and moved up to first position after two hours. Even after the race was released, the German Porsche customer team was able to hold its own at the front for several laps. In the end, the trio reached the finish line in twelfth place.

Manthey 1st Phorm has defended its lead in the LMGT3 classification

In the GT3 category of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the two 911 GT3 R cars fielded by Manthey experienced an eventful race. Ryan Hardwick from the USA, Riccardo Pera from Italy and Richard Lietz from Austria initially fell back at the start with the Manthey 1st Phorm-Porsche, but from the third hour of the race onwards they were back in the leading group. Depending on the pit stop rhythm, the trio even defended the lead, but was caught on the wrong foot by the last safety car. With fifth place, it was able to defend its lead in the drivers' standings before the season finale in Bahrain.

The Iron Dames quickly made up for the disadvantage of their 17th place on the grid at the beginning of the race: Start driver Célia Martin from France worked her way up to seventh position in her stint. Her colleagues Rahel Frey from Switzerland and Michelle Gatting from Denmark were even at the front at times with the GT3 race car from Weissach. Due to a pit drive-through penalty and bad luck with the last safety car, they ended up in 13th place.

Drivers' comments after the race

Kévin Estre (Porsche 963 #6): "We started very far back, so third place is a good result – I'm proud of us. Perhaps even a little more would have been within reach, but Peugeot and Alpine were simply too fast on the straights to overtake. We took as many points as possible today."

Julien Andlauer (Porsche 963 #5): "We made good use of our opportunities. The team did a great job, Mathieu Jaminet sat in the car for almost four hours. Unexpectedly, our Porsche understeered a bit at the beginning of the race. As a result, I made mistakes that earned us a drive-through penalty. Nevertheless, we were able to fight our way back to fourth place. In the end, we lacked a bit of pace for a podium result. But together with the sister car, we scored important points for our main goal, the manufacturers' championship. Now we're concentrating on the season finale in Bahrain."

Nico Pino (Porsche 963 #99): "We experienced an intense race today, in which we were lucky in between and were able to take the lead thanks to a safety car period. On the other hand, we also had bad luck, for example due to an emergency refuelling stop under yellow. Overall, we lacked pace, so we couldn't work our way back up in the end. Over the weekend, however, we have again made encouraging progress."

Ryan Hardwick (Porsche 911 GT3 R #92): "Our team did everything in its power to win this run. We were in the lead at times and had everything under control, but the last safety car period came at an extremely inopportune time for us. Our rivals for the championship, on the other hand, were able to benefit from this in terms of pit stops. So we lost ground in the overall standings in an unfortunate way. Now I'm looking forward to the decisive duel in Bahrain, where we want to show our best race of the season."

Célia Martin (Porsche 911 GT3 R #85): "It was up and down for us. At the start, I stayed calm and saved the tyres. Overtaking is very difficult at this track, but we were able to benefit from mistakes and slips by the others. Rahel also delivered a great stint and made up more positions. However, the last safety car cost us a few places, and Michelle couldn't do anything about that – although we would have loved to stay a little closer to our sister car."

Results race

Hypercar class:
1st Chatin/Habsburg/Milesi (FRA/AUT/FRA), Alpine #35, 202 laps
2nd Di Resta/Jensen/Vergne (GBR/DNK/FRA), Peugeot #93, + 7.682s
3rd Estre/Vanthoor (FRA/BEL), Porsche 963 #6, + 8.167s
4th Andlauer/Jaminet (FRA/FRA), Porsche 963 #5, + 16.083s
12th Jani/Pino/Varrone (CHE/CHL/ARG), Porsche 963 #99, + 1m 14.826s

LMGT3 class:
1. Van Rompuy/Andradeh/Eastwood (BEL/ANG/IRL), Corvette #81, 185 laps
2. Heriau/Mann/Rovera (FRA/USA/ITA), Ferrari #21, + 3.010 seconds
3. Shahin/Boguslavskiy/Farfus (AUS/AIN/BRA), BMW #31, + 4.888 seconds
5. Hardwick/Pera/Lietz (USA/ITA/AUT), Porsche 911 GT3 R #92, + 8.697 seconds
13. Martin/Frey/Gatting (FRA/CHE/DNK), Porsche 911 GT3 R #85, + 1 round

All results and championship standings at https://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com.