Here is the thing about endurance racing: you can do everything right for hours, only to hand the keys away in a single trip down the pit lane. That is exactly what hit the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie at the 6 Hours of Fuji. As the clock ticked past the four-hour mark in this sixth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, Tom Gamble brought the machine in for a pit stop, crossed the pit entry line, and copped a drive-through penalty that effectively shattered any hopes of victory.
Up until that moment, the Aston Martin shared by Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble was the car to beat. Gamble had expertly emerged from the pits ahead of the Alpines that had controlled the start of the race. But the pressure had been mounting. Victor Martins had been wrestling with a lack of overall grip on a soft set of Hypercar Michelins, opening the door for the sister #35 Alpine A424 Hypercar to grab the lead at Turn 1. Martins, sharing his machine with Jules Gounon, remained confident the pace would return, and sure enough, Gounon rejoined right ahead of the Charles Milesi-driven #35 car. They were running nose-to-tail in second and third, hunting the leading Aston Martin.
Then came Gamble's penalty. The Alpines gladly swept back into the lead, with Gounon and Martins running 1-2 as the fifth hour arrived. The #007 Aston Martin tumbled down to seventh position, though the sister Valkyrie of Alex Riberas salvaged some grace by climbing to third, sitting 18-seconds adrift of the leading Alpines. Behind them, Sebastien Bourdais wrestled the #38 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA entry into fourth. He held off the charging #8 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing GR010 HYPERCAR driven by Brendon Hartley, the Kiwi having already treated us to a brilliant battle with Riberas for fourth position earlier in the third hour. Rounding out the top six, Paul-Loup Chatin steered the #19 Genesis Magma entry, marking the Korean manufacturer's finest showing of its rookie season so far.
Down the order, it was pure pain for the championship-leading BMW trio of Robin Frijns, Sheldon van der Linde, and Rene Rast. Rast suffered a puncture following contact with the #51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P at Turn 1, dropping them to the tail of the Hypercar field. The Prancing Horse endured its own nightmare when the #50 car dropped a lap due to a stubborn air jack issue that delayed tyre changes until a temporary fix could be found.
Meanwhile, the LMGT3 battle was an absolute roller coaster across McLaren, BMW, Porsche, and Corvette. After early stints at the front for the #91 Manthey DKR Porsche and the #58 Garage 59 McLaren, the #33 TF Sport Corvette grabbed control for the majority of the third hour thanks to Ben Keating's early graft and Jonny Edgar's steady hand. But divergent tyre strategies in the fourth hour saw the championship points-leading Corvette slip behind the #10 Garage 59 McLaren. Marvin Kirchhoefer took over the lead in the papaya machine, with Edgar chasing hard to protect his drivers' points lead. Hadrien David clawed the #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus up to third, an impressive recovery after an early race penalty for triggering the first corner accident that brought out the first of two Safety Cars. Parker Thompson put the #69 Team WRT BMW into the top six, alongside the #91 Manthey DKR Porsche of Timur Boguslavskiy, whose race was hampered by a yellow flag infringement penalty. Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette also showed strong pace before being undone by two separate penalties—the first for contact, and the second for failing to serve the initial sanction correctly.
