That, right there, is why you never write off the masters of endurance racing. Sébastien Buemi admitted that Toyota's third triumph of the season in the 6 Hours of Fuji was completely unexpected, and looking at how the race unfolded for the #8 machine, he was not wrong. Coming into the weekend, the manufacturer had not won at the circuit it owns since 2023, and each of the GR010 Hybrid’s predecessors had taken victory on debut at the track. Facing a 72,326-strong home crowd, the pressure was immense.
Things certainly did not look like heading toward a rostrum finish early on. Shared by Ryō Hirakawa, Buemi, and Brendon Hartley, the #8 entry started down in eighth position in the Hypercar category. Buemi made some early progress to advance to sixth, with New Zealander Hartley maintaining that positive momentum to climb to fourth. But the podium still seemed a long way off, especially when Hartley was spun round by Aston Martin’s Harry Tincknell into Turn One shortly into the fifth hour.
We didn’t have the ultimate pace, but for the most part, we had a faultless race—thanks to good execution, no mistakes on-track and an incredible strategy call at the end, we came away with the win.
Then came the chaos and the chance. A late-race safety car, prompted by a collision between LMGT3 protagonists Mattia Drudi and Finn Gehrsitz, offered Toyota an opportunity. As the entire field peeled into the pits, the team made a bold late roll of the dice: they decided to short-fuel the #8 entry and not change any of its tyres. That brilliant gamble vaulted home hero Hirakawa from sixth into the lead. With barrier repairs taking some time to complete, action finally resumed with 20 minutes left on the clock—20 minutes to try to hang on.
On significantly fresher tyres and new Michelin rubber, Alpine’s Martins—who had swiftly scythed through from fifth to second—inexorably hunted his prey. He feinted this way and that over the closing laps, but Hirakawa produced one of the undisputed drives of his career to determinedly hold firm. Despite the onset of rain further complicating his task, the double world champion took the chequered flag less than six tenths-of-a-second in front.
"This is one of our best wins in a long time," Buemi reflected. "I’m really proud of this one, especially because it was completely unexpected. Lately, races seem to have come down to crucial calls, and the team made a great one at the last pit-stop."
Added Hartley: "We didn’t have the ultimate pace, but for the most part, we had a faultless race—thanks to good execution, no mistakes on-track and an incredible strategy call at the end, we came away with the win."
It was a massive swing in the championship fight. The #8 crew supplanted the sister #7 Toyota at the summit of the standings after Le Mans winners Mike Conway, Nyck de Vries, and Kamui Kobayashi suffered a variety of setbacks. De Vries picked up an early puncture and subsequently spun following contact with Ferdinand Habsburg while fighting for the lead, while Kobayashi later received a drive-through penalty for speeding during a Full Course Yellow. The trio ultimately recovered to eighth to stay in the hunt, ten points behind their team-mates, while Toyota extended its advantage over BMW in the Manufacturers’ classification from nine points to 23.
