The 2022 6 Hours of Fuji was an endurance sports car race that was held at Fuji Speedway on 11 September. It was the fifth round of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship.
Entry list
Renger van der Zande stood in for Nico Müller in the #10 Vector Sport Oreca, who had opted to attend the 2022 DTM Spa round.
René Rast and Nick Cassidy also missed the race due to clashes with DTM, with Davide Rigon replacing the latter in the #54 AF Corse 488 GTE.
James Rossiter continued to drive for Peugeot Sport in the #94 9X8 following Kevin Magnussen's commitment to Formula One.
Glickenhaus opted not to attend due to the significant increase in costs associated with shipping.
Schedule
Qualifying
Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold.
Race
Race Report
Hour 1
The start saw both Toyotas leading into the first corner and maintaining the lead towards the end of Lap 1 with the Alpine and Peugeots in tow. The #45 APR, going for an overtaking move locked up the rear wheels, sending the car sideways and making contact with the #28 Jota into Dunlop corner sending both cars off. The #51 Ferrari had managed to snatch the lead from the pole sitting #92 Porsche by Lap 2, while the #45 goes into the garage for repairs, the suspension wishbones shearing the bolts holding it to the tub, keeping it in the garage for a long time - rejoining the race at the 5h24m mark, though earning themselves a 2-minute stop and go penalty for the collision it caused.
By the 4th lap the 2nd place Toyota has extended the lead to the Alpine by 1.8 seconds, with the Peugeots trailing behind already with a 3.5 second deficit to the Alpine. In LMP2, the #31 WRT has established a sizeable lead while #38 Jota, with the #10 Vetor and both United cars following is in a close fight for 2nd place, while the 3 Aston Martins in GTEAm - #33,98 and 777 are also scrambling for 2nd place. Meanwhile, the two Peugeots were very close together with the #94 seemingly looking faster and stuck behind the #93, with Rossiter complaining on radio twice about the car's bouncing issues and being held back by his teammate Vergne killing the tyres, but being denied a switch of positions by the team - though the two cars would eventually swap positions some laps later.
As the #92 dives down the inside of the #51 taking back the GTEPro lead on lap 10, we see the #60 Iron Lynx spinning on the track and successfully recovering without drama. The sister car - #85 Iron Dames has meanwhile made up to 2nd place in class fighting with the #777 D'station - though dropping back to 3rd a while later, with the #98 Northwest leading in front.
The #52 Ferrari does an optimistic lunge on the #91 at turn 1 of lap 12 though being denied the pass, all this time while the Corvette watches at the back of the Pro field, the car's pace taking a hit from the BoP reduction after Monza.
Meanwhile, bad luck for the #10 Vector, the car making slight contact with the #54 AF Corse - an incident that would later see the car getting a 5s penalty added to its next pitstop - dropping out of the fight and all the way down to 15th place. Further bad luck befalls the #64 with the car taking a drive through penalty for abusing track limits.
The close fight in GTEPro continues into lap 19, with the #51 Ferrari catching the slipstream and diving down the inside of the #92 at turn 1, successfully holding off the #92's attacks in the following corners to keep its lead; while the Porsche radio tells Estre to let the Ferrari go - and "not do anything stupid".
With the outside of the track not being filled with gravel like at Monza or Spa, GT drivers have found themselves pushing the track limits to gain an advantage - and many have pushed it too far. The #91 was the next to get a drive through penalty for the same reason as the #64 Corvette, serving it on the 24th lap with Bruni complaining on the radio - As the #92 also gets a warning for track limits abuse, leaving Ferrari the only team in the category without track limits violations so far.