Further reactions to the 2026 FIA WEC race at Fuji

It was a truly thrilling race at the sixth round of the FIA WEC at Fuji. Toyota took the win with the TR010 Hybrid driven by Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sébastien Buemi, narrowly ahead of the Alpine A424 driven by Jules Gounon and Victor Martins. BMW completed the podium with the M Hybrid V8 driven by Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor. Here are some further comments from the drivers on the race.

Sébastien Buemi – winner in the Toyota TR010 Hybrid

“This is one of our best wins in a long time. I’m really proud of it, especially because it came completely out of the blue at the start of the final phase of the race. The team made an excellent decision at the final pit stop, which was enough to put us at the front of the field – a brilliant strategic move. And then, of course, Ryō kept everyone behind him and didn’t make a single mistake in difficult conditions. All in all, it was a fantastic victory.”

Kevin Magnussen – third place in the BMW M Hybrid V8

“The podium finish is a brilliant result for us. We didn’t really have the pace to make it onto the podium, and yet here we are. We drove a clean race, and the fantastic work from the pit wall and the pit crew made all the difference. The team did a brilliant job today – congratulations to everyone.”

Jack Aitken – fifth place in the Cadillac V-Series.R

“Another top-five finish. It’s great that we’ve put together a run of consistent results. I think we could have been in the mix for the podium if we’d really squeezed every last bit out of the car today. But it was quite a wild race with lots of interruptions, so it was quite a challenge. The car ran well and we drove a largely error-free race – exactly what we always aim for. It’s just a shame that in the end it wasn’t quite enough for a trophy.”

Malthe Jakobsen – sixth place in the Peugeot 9X8

“Sixth place here in Japan is a good result for the team, despite the retirement of car number 93. Conditions were challenging throughout the weekend: qualifying was cancelled, and the track was still damp at the start of the race. We also benefited from the VSC (Virtual Safety Car) and SC (Safety Car) phases. These helped us stay in the leading group and put us in a good position to fight for a strong result at the finish.”

James Calado – tenth place in the Ferrari 499P

“Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. The tyre choice at the start wasn’t perhaps ideal, but we could still have managed it – had it not been for the numerous restarts following the Safety Car phase. It was very difficult to get the tyres up to temperature again. On top of that, we received two penalties which we couldn’t serve in the pits due to the neutralisation phase; that phase had wiped out the gaps and worked against us in that respect. We’ll put this race behind us quickly and look ahead.”