Spectacular home victory for Toyota at the 2026 6 Hours of Fuji

A tactical masterstroke by Toyota at the sixth race of the 2026 FIA WEC season at Fuji. After a long period of dominance by Alpine, the Toyota TR010 Hybrid driven by Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sébastien Buemi turned the tide in the final minutes of the race to secure a triumph that had seemed impossible. After two years without a win on home soil, this is the Japanese manufacturer’s first victory at Fuji since 2023.

In fact, the race at Fuji seemed set for an Alpine victory. Both A424s started from the front row and dominated large parts of the 6-hour race at will. The lead also changed hands from time to time between the Alpine driven by Jules Gounon and Victor Martins, and that driven by Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi. Yet there was, in truth, no doubt about an Alpine victory.

Then, in the final hour of the race, there was another yellow-flag period – and that’s when both Toyota and BMW played their tactical cards right. The TR010 Hybrid driven by Hartley/Hirakawa/Buemi and the M Hybrid V8 driven by Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor refuelled slightly less than their rivals, resulting in shorter pit stops and allowing them to take the top two places. As the final stint under green flag conditions was in fact only set to last around twenty minutes, the fuel they’d saved was sufficient.

Both Alpines went flat out to catch up with the Toyota and the BMW again. At least the car from Bavaria was caught by the Alpine driven by Gounon/Martins. However, Toyota’s final driver, Hirakawa, held on to the lead right to the finish line and drove to victory. Behind the Alpine, the BMW driven by Magnussen, Marciello and Vanthoor completed the podium.

The Alpine driven by Habsburg and Milesi ultimately finished in fourth place. They were followed by the Cadillac V-Series.R driven by Earl Bamber, Sébastien Bourdais and Jack Aitken, and the Peugeot 9X8 driven by Loïc Duval, Malthe Jakobsen and Théo Pourchaire. In the LMGT3 class, Augusto Farfus, Sean Gelael and Darren Leung took the win in the BMW M4 LMGT3 Evo ahead of Mattia Drudi, Ian James and Zacharie Robichon in the Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3. The next race in the FIA WEC is scheduled for 18 October 2026 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.