The 6 Hours of Fuji ended with a home win for Toyota Racing. Ryō Hirakawa, Sébastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley took the #8 TR010 Hybrid to victory by 0.591 seconds over the #36 Alpine of Victor Martins and Jules Gounon at Fuji Speedway in Oyama, Japan. FIA WEC says it was the closest top-class finish in series history between two different manufacturers (FIA WEC).
How it was won
Alpine controlled most of the first five hours after starting both A424s from the front row, with Martins’ #36 on pole. The #8 Toyota started eighth (RacingNews365) and at one point was facing the wrong way after Hartley was tipped into a spin at Turn 1.
The race turned with about 55 minutes left, when a heavy crash for the #58 Garage 59 McLaren (Finn Gehrsitz was unhurt) brought out the Safety Car. Toyota expected a long stoppage for barrier repairs, so it put in only the fuel it needed and did not change tyres on the #8. That moved Hirakawa from sixth to the lead (Toyota UK). BMW also kept Dries Vanthoor on used tyres in the #15, while Alpine fitted fresh Michelins to Martins’ car.
The race restarted with about 20 minutes left, in light rain. Martins cut through to second and closed onto Hirakawa’s gearbox, but the Japanese driver defended to the flag on home soil (FIA WEC).
Results snapshot
Hypercar (overall)
| Pos | Car | Team | Drivers | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | #8 | Toyota Racing | Buemi / Hartley / Hirakawa | 203 laps |
| 2 | #36 | Alpine Endurance Team | Gounon / Martins | +0.591s |
| 3 | #15 | BMW M Team WRT | Magnussen / Marciello / Vanthoor | +6.415s |
| 4 | #35 | Alpine Endurance Team | Milesi / Habsburg | +7.699s |
| 5 | #38 | Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA | Bamber / Bourdais | +8.142s |
| 6 | #94 | Peugeot TotalEnergies | Duval / Jakobsen / Pourchaire | +10.176s |
| 7 | #12 | Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA | Lynn / Stevens / Nato | +13.497s |
| 8 | #7 | Toyota Racing | Conway / Kobayashi / de Vries | +14.206s |
LMGT3: The #32 Team WRT BMW M4 of Augusto Farfus, Sean Gelael and Darren Leung won from 14th on the grid. Farfus passed Charlie Eastwood’s Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette in the final 20 minutes and beat the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin by 1.062s, with the #34 Corvette third.
Full classification: FIA WEC race summary.
History & significance
Fuji Speedway, at the foot of Mount Fuji, is Toyota’s home track, and this was the brand’s 10th Fuji victory and its first there in three years. A crowd of 72,326 attended, per FIA WEC. It was the #8 crew’s second win of 2026, making them the first crew to win twice this season, and it moved Buemi, Hartley and Hirakawa to the top of the Drivers’ World Championship. Toyota UK says the team leads the manufacturers’ standings by 23 points with two rounds left. It was a bad day for defending champion Ferrari: the #51 499P was its only car in the points, in 10th.
What’s next
The WEC moves on to the 6 Hours of Barcelona on October 16–18 (FIA WEC event page). Texas endurance fans can look back at September’s Lone Star Le Mans at Circuit of the Americas.