In Hypercar, the #8 Toyota Racing of Ryo Hirakawa, Sebastien Buemi, and Brendon Hartley started the weekend with the fastest time in Free Practice 1, before the Alpine Endurance Team entries dominated Free Practice 2 and 3. With qualifying cancelled, Alpine locked out the front row.
Toyota spent much of the six-hour race outside the lead group, with Hartley also spinning after contact at Turn One. The #36 and #35 Alpine entries controlled the opening five hours before a late Safety Car, triggered by an LMGT3 incident, reshaped the race. Toyota stayed out on its existing tyres and short-fuelled the #8, while Alpine stopped for fresh rubber.
At the restart with 20 minutes remaining, Hirakawa held off Victor Martins in the #36 Alpine to take the overall and Hypercar win. The result moves Hirakawa, Buemi, and Hartley to the top of the Drivers' World Championship standings. The #7 Toyota finished P8, while the #38 Cadillac of Jack Aitken, Earl Bamber, and Sebastien Bourdais took P5 overall and in Hypercar.
LMGT3 produced an equally late turnaround. Starting P14 in class, the #32 Team WRT BMW M4 of Gelael, Leung, and Farfus worked through the field before the final Safety Car brought the leaders together. Leung and Gelael produced clean stints before Farfus made the decisive move at the restart, passing Charlie Eastwood's Corvette with under 20 minutes remaining.
Farfus then held off Mattia Drudi in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin to win LMGT3 by 1.062 seconds, finishing P16 overall. The #10 Garage 59 McLaren of Antares Au, Tom Fleming and Marvin Kirchhofer finished P23 overall and P8 in LMGT3, with Fleming taking the Goodyear Wingfoot Award.
The WEC now heads to Barcelona on 16-18 October for the penultimate round of the season, with the Fuji winners Hirakawa, Buemi, and Hartley leading the championship into the final two rounds.
