Toyota 1-2 in rain and fog; fifth victory in six years at Fuji Speedway

Toyota HYBRID prototype cars have overcome atrocious weather conditions to finish one-two in the FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Fuji, the make’s fifth victory in the six WEC races held at Fuji Speedway.

Fuji is the home WEC event for Toyota GAZOO Racing and the engines for the 1000hp TS050 Hybrid cars are built at the nearby Higashi-Fuji technical centre.

Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima won their third race of the season, with now three-times Fuji winner Nakajima doing the bulk of the driving in a race affected by both torrential rain and fog.

Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María López finished second, for the team’s second one-two of the season.

The Fuji win had special significance for Toyota, coming on the 20th anniversary of the launch of Prius, the world’s first mass-produced hybrid car.

Toyota GAZOO Racing goes into the penultimate round of the nine-round WEC series in Shanghai next month with an outside chance of taking the manufacturers’ crown and the drivers’ title for Buemi and Nakajima.

Buemi thanked the home fans and team for their support in testing conditions.

“Today Kazuki drove a great race, so I would like to praise him for that,” the Swiss driver said.

“Kazuki did most of the work. Congratulations to the whole team for a great job here.”

Nakajima said the team had targeted a one-two result.

“I am so pleased we achieved it; it is a great result for the whole team. We had a good pace here in wet conditions. It’s my third win here at Fuji and it is particularly special to win in front of home fans who gave us such great support.”