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Augusto Farfus saved the best for last. The Brazilian found himself sixth in the #32 BMW M4 GT3 EVO after a late safety car at the 6 Hours of Fuji, then carved his way back to the front and took the LMGT3 win. It was a proper scrap, settled by a string of bold overtakes in the closing stint. Team WRT had started the car 14th on the grid.
Getting there was messy. Darren Leung and Sean Gelael did the early graft, hauling the M4 up the order and into podium contention before handing over. A slow final stop cost time. Farfus made it irrelevant. “Every time it looked good for us, the safety car came at the wrong time,” he said. “Then, finally, in the last stint, we had another stop that didn’t go our way, but I managed to get through the traffic pretty quickly. I am extremely happy.” It was WRT’s second LMGT3 win of the season after the sister car’s success at Imola.
The Hypercar story ran on a parallel track. Heavy rain wiped out qualifying, which left the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 starting 14th. Kevin Magnussen, Raffaele Marciello and Dries Vanthoor kept it clean and let strategy do the work. A safety car in the final hour opened the door. Vanthoor walked through it and brought the car home third, the squad’s fifth Hypercar podium in six rounds.
The other side of the garage had a rough afternoon. The #20 Shell BMW M Hybrid V8 of René Rast, Robin Frijns and Sheldon van der Linde was shuffled backwards by a series of contacts that were not of its making, eventually finishing 13th. Rast and Frijns arrived in Japan leading the drivers’ standings and left sitting third. BMW M Motorsport held on to second in the manufacturers’ table. The #69 M4 GT3 EVO of Dan Harper, Parker Thompson and Anthony McIntosh led LMGT3 at one stage before a chaotic final stop dropped it to sixth.
Andreas Roos, Head of BMW M Motorsport, took the rough with the smooth. “We have now lost some ground in the championship, but we will keep fighting. Everything is still open,” he said. “We are absolutely delighted with car #32’s LMGT3 victory. It was a very well-deserved success, and it is really great to see the BMW M4 GT3 EVO back in the winner’s circle.” Team principal Vincent Vosse called the Farfus charge “an incredible drive”. Hard to argue.
