The 6 Hours of Fuji was a wild affair from start to finish, with several momentum shifts throughout the contest.
McLaren team United Autosport dominated the opening stanza of the race in LMGT3 but faded as the race wore on to finish 10th and 14th.
TF Sport took its first win of the season in the hands of Tom van Rompuy, Rui Andrade, and Charlie Eastwood.
The #81 Corvette Z06 GT3.R inherited victory after the Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 driven by Francois Heriau, Simon Mann, and Alessio Rovera was penalised for having a mechanic in the working area while the #21 was leaving its pit box.
A five-second penalty dropped Vista AF Corse to second. The team looked like it might hang onto the win having begun the final lap with a lead of more than five seconds, but that shrunk dramatically on the last lap as driver Mann saved fuel.
Shahin was third, 4.888s off the class leaders. They benefitted from some late drama when the #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 suffered steering damage while battling over second place.
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It’s just the second podium with Augusto Farfus and Timur Boguslavskiy in the Team WRT BMW M4 after finishing third in the Qatar 1812 km.
“What a fantastic race result,” said Shahin.
“We really didn’t think we had a chance but a great drive from all three drivers and all the right strategy calls delivered today.”
Australia’s other interest, Martin Berry, was eighth in the #61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 with Maxime Martin and Lin Hodenius. That equaled their season-best result at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
In Hypercar, outright victory went to Alpine in the hands of Ferdinand Habsburg, Paul-Loup Chatin, and Charles Milesi. The #35 Alpine A424 dominated the final hour of the race, winning by 7.682s over Peugeot.
It’s the first Hypercar win for Alpine in the FIA World Endurance Championship and was the best result for Peugeot in the championship with its #93 9X8 driven by Paul Di Resta, Mikkel Jensen, and Jean-Eric Vergne.
Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor were third for Porsche, finishing 8.167s in arrears of the race leaders. They finished just ahead of teammates Julien Andlauer and Mathieu Jaminet in the sister Porsche 963.
In fifth, Aston Martin claimed its best result of the season with Alex Riberas and Marco Sorensen in the Valkyrie. While there were smiles for the #009, the #007 was forced to retire after Tom Gamble collided with the team’s Aston Martin Vantage GT3 entry.
Gamble’s car was damaged beyond repair. Contact left the right front corner hanging off the car. The #27 Aston Martin was able to continue and finished sixth in LMGT3.
The only other retirement in Hypercar was the #15 BMW Team WRT M Hybrid, which crashed when Raffaele Marciello lost control out of Turn 4 on cold tyres.
The 8 Hours of Bahrain on November 8 will close out the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Ferrari leads the ship with Allesandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi, and James Calado on 115 points. The team failed to score at Fuji with a 15th place finish.
With a ninth place finish, Phillip Handon, Robert Kubica, and Ye Yifei closed the gap to just 13 points with 102 to their name going into the finale. Kevin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor sit third on 94 points.
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