What a way to turn a race completely upside down. According to Motorsport.com Italia, a late safety car at the 6 hours of Fuji blew the entire field apart, handing Toyota a stunning and entirely unexpected victory that left Alpine absolutely heartbroken after dominating the sixth round of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship.
Everything flipped with fifty-eight minutes remaining on the clock. A heavy crash at turn one involving the Aston Martin of Mattia Drudi and the McLaren of Finn Gehrsitz sent the #58 720S hard into the left-hand barriers. Thankfully, Gehrsitz emerged completely unhurt from the wreckage, but repairing the guard-rail took time. The neutralization dragged on until twenty minutes were left, opening the pit lane for one final, chaotic stop that caught several runners out in the traffic jam.
True to form, the Toyota Racing pit wall executed a masterclass in the chaos. They called in the #8 TR010 Hybrid of Buemi, Hartley, and Hirakawa—sitting sixth at the time—for a quick energy top-up, just enough to exit right in front of the pack and nurse the remaining charge all the way to the checkered flag. Alpine had dictated the pace for almost the entire race, fighting at the halfway mark with Aston Martin without ever looking vulnerable. Charles Milesi let the sister #36 car through for the faster Victor Martins, who hunted down Dries Vanthoor's M Hybrid V8 before bearing down on Hirakawa. But the Japanese driver kept his cool through heavy traffic and held firm over the final three laps once he had clear air, securing a famous win for the home fans.
Martins and Jules Gounon had to swallow a bitter second place in the #36 Alpine A424, while Milesi and Habsburg crossed the line fourth, unable to get past the #15 BMW of Vanthoor, Marciello, and Magnussen. That #15 crew completed a brilliant charge from the back thanks to flawless WRT strategy. Further back in the top five, the #38 Cadillac-Jota V-Series.R of Aitken, Bamber, and Bourdais held firm, while their teammates in the #12 car driven by Stevens and Nato took seventh after serving a drive-through penalty in the fifth hour for a full course yellow infringement. That penalty also bit the #7 Toyota of Kobayashi, Conway, and De Vries, who finished right behind them. Sandwiched between the Cadillacs in sixth was the #94 Peugeot of Jakobsen, Vandoorne, and Duval after a grueling fight back in the closing scrambles.
It was a dismal day for Ferrari as the #51 of Giovinazzi, Pier Guidi, and Calado limped home ninth. They were the lone surviving official 499P after the #50 of Molina, Nielsen, and Fuoco retired with a technical issue about ninety minutes from the end. Worse still, the #51 lost nearly half a minute during the frantic final stops, getting pushed into its box out of position, while the #83 AF Corse 499P of Kubica, Ye, and Hanson was entirely anonymous in twelfth. Aston Martin and Genesis also let a golden result slip, with the #009 Valkyrie of Sorensen and Riberas rounding out the top ten after running near the front all day, while the #007 of Tincknell and Gamble slumped to fourteenth after a five-second penalty for spinning the #8 Toyota at turn one. GMR-001's day was equally frustrating: the #19 of Jaminet and Juncadella managed only eleventh despite top-five pace, and the #17 of Derani, Lotterer, and Jaubert fell back early before a disastrous gamble for wet tires in the final thirty minutes when mere drops of rain failed to justify treaded rubber. The #20 BMW of Frijns, Rast, and Van Der Linde rounded out a miserable race in thirteenth, trapped a lap down after an early puncture caused real damage.
Over in the LMGT3 class, the drama was just as intense. TF Sport looked poised for a stunning Corvette one-two after the final round of stops, but Augusto Farfus had other ideas. The Brazilian hustled the #32 BMW-WRT M4 LMGT3 EVO he shares with Darren Leung and Sean Gelael straight past the leaders to snatch an unbelievable victory. Right behind him, a fired-up Mattia Drudi drove the wheels off the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin alongside James and Robichon, recovering brilliantly from his earlier clash with Gehrsitz—which had even caused a rear-left puncture—to claim second place.
The Corvettes ultimately settled for third and fifth with Eastwood, Yoluç, and Dempsey in the #34 Z06 and Catsburg, Keating, and Edgar in the #33 machine. Sandwiched between them was the #54 Ferrari-AF Corse driven by Davide Rigon, who brought it home fourth after a charging drive through the final two hours following earlier stints from Castellacci and Flohr. Sixth went to the #69 BMW-WRT of Harper, McIntosh, and Thompson, beating out the Porsche-Manthey #91 of Boguslavskiy, Cottingham, and Guven and the McLaren-Garage 59 #10 of Kirchhofer, Fleming, and Au. Ford's #77 Protom Competition entry and the Lexus pair from ASP ended up empty-handed in terms of podium glory between ninth and eleventh, while the #21 Ferrari of Rovera, Mann, and Hériau hit retirement in the closing stages with broken suspension after contact from a rival, joining the early-delayed #92 Porsche and the #79 Mercedes on the sidelines.
