Peugeot, Aston Martin and Ferrari in top 10 at Fuji

WECHyperCar

Sep 29

With Cadillac and Toyota scoring double points, Peugeot, with a P6, Aston Martin with a P9 and Ferrari in 10th also some points at Fuji.

Team peugeot TotalEnergies finishes sixth

Starting from 15th with the #94 Peugeot 9X8, Loïc Duval (#94) dropped to 17th. Loïc Duval and later Théo Pourchaire continued to make progress in the #94 despite serving a five-second penalty following contact with a GT car. Thanks to consistent pace and a well-executed strategy, the PEUGEOT 9X8 #94 steadily moved up the order and closed in on the top ten as the race entered its final stages.

With less than two hours remaining, Malthe Jakobsen took over the car and continued the charge. The Dane quickly demonstrated the car’s potential, climbing from 12th to seventh. Following a lengthy Safety Car period with 45 minutes remaining, Jakobsen launched a final sprint, closing on the cars ahead and ultimately securing sixth place at the chequered flag.

Having gained nine positions over the course of the race, the crew of the PEUGEOT 9X8 #94 delivered Team Peugeot TotalEnergies its strongest result of the 2026 FIA WEC season.

Peugeot 94 — 📷 © Peugeot Sport. Peugeot #94

Malthe Jakobsen (PEUGEOT 9X8 #94): “P6 here in Japan is a good result for the team, despite the retirement of the #93. The conditions were challenging throughout the weekend, with qualifying cancelled and the track still damp at the start of the race. We also benefited from the VSC (Virtual Safety Car) and SC (Safety Car) periods, which helped us stay on the lead lap and put ourselves in a position to fight for a strong result at the finish.”

Théo Pourchaire (PEUGEOT 9X8 #94): “Starting from 15th on the grid, it would have been difficult to achieve much more than sixth place, although a top-four finish may have been possible. We made a strong recovery through the field thanks to great stints from Loïc and Malthe, while the team executed an excellent strategy throughout the race. It’s encouraging to come away with our strongest result of the season.” Source: Peugeot Sport

Cadillac #12 seventh

Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA #12 lined up in P10. By hour four, the #.12 was running in P9. With an hour to go, the #12 received a drive through penalty, which had to be served immediately after the latest safety car period, resulting in the car dropping down the field. The #12 took the checkered flag in P7, securing further Championship points and closing the gap to third in the Manufacturers’ Championship.

Cadilac #12 — 📷 © Cadillac Racing. Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA #12

#12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA, Will Stevens: “Overall, I think we can be satisfied with P7. We looked good at points of the race and struggled at other points, and we had a few penalties along the way. With an hour or so to go, it looked like we’d be fighting for P9 or P10 at best, so the fact that we came away with P7 shows that if you keep plugging away and keep pushing, you can recover. From that side, it’s positive to come away with some points even on a tough day. There are still some details for us to work on over the final two races of the year, but hopefully we can keep chipping away and finish the season strongly in Barcelona and Monza.”

#12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA, Norman Nato:“A double points finish with P5 and P7; it’s always good to score points with both cars, so it’s a strong result for everybody. We always want more and have the pace to be fighting for the win so it’s easy not to be happy with P7 today. Now we head to Barcelona and keep pushing for some more strong results.” Source: Cadillac Racing

Toyota #7 ends eighth

Le Mans winners Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries recovered from their own setbacks to finish eighth and stay in the title battle, in second, 10 points behind their team-mates.

The #7 TR010 HYBRID started in 13th with Nyck de Vries’s race disrupted by a puncture inside the first half-hour. A promising fightback was then interrupted by a spin due to contact with the #35 Alpine early in the second hour. Kamui Kobayashi was seventh until a drive-through penalty for speeding under a full course yellow dropped the #7 to 12th but he later made up four positions to finish eighth.

Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7): “Winning at Fuji is very important for us so congratulations to the whole team for this victory, and particularly the car #8 crew who did such a strong race. Everyone worked so hard for this, and we all kept fighting until the very end. For our car, it was a bit of a difficult day and I don’t think we had a clean enough race. We were a little bit off the pace generally, so we were always chasing and that defined our day.”

Mike Conway (Driver, car #7): “A great result in the end for car #8. They deserved that one after a great call on the last stop to jump everyone in the pits. So well done to them. As a team we scored good points today and won in front of our home fans, which always feels great. On our car, the penalty took us out of contention. Unfortunately, that means we lost some ground in the drivers’ championship but there are still two races to go, and we’ll do our best to get back on top.”

Nyck de Vries (Driver, car #7): “This is a great result for the team and I’m super happy that TOYOTA RACING was able to win at home in Japan. I think this makes everyone very, very proud. We scored a few points with our car but of course we hoped for more. I think several things could have gone differently and been done better but that's racing. We need to focus instead on a great team victory and celebrate a very good day for the team.” Source: Toyota Racing

Disappointing P9 for Aston Martin

Tom Gamble and Harry Tincknell with #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie were having a clear shot for a podium as they ran third behind the two leading Alpines at half-distance but a drive-through penalty early in the fourth hour and two further infractions denied them any chance to score points.

Ribereras and Sorensen in sister #009 were also long in the top five, with four laps to go but dropped to ninth.

Ferrari tenth

The Ferraris endured an uphill race and were unable to join the battle for the leading positions.
The reigning World Drivers’ Champions, James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi – who took turns at the wheel in this order – finished tenth, 26.443 seconds behind the leader, with a 10-second penalty applied after the finish for two contacts that occurred during the middle hours.

James Calado 499P #51: “Everything that could go wrong went wrong. The choice of tyres at the start was perhaps not ideal, but we could still have made it work, had it not been for the many restarts after the Safety Car. It was very difficult to get the tyres back up to temperature. Then we had two penalties, which we could not serve in the pits again because of the neutralisation, which cancelled out the gaps and worked against us in this sense. We will quickly put this race behind us and look ahead.” Source: Ferrari

Results