The sixth round of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship, the Six Hours of Fuji at Fuji Speedway, saw changes come to the two prototype categories with new points leaders establishing themselves at the top with just two rounds to go in the year.
LMP1
Porsche Team's No. 17 crew of Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, and Brendon Hartley claimed the drivers' championship lead at Fuji, enabled by a late-race swap of positions with the team's No. 18 entry that led most of the race.
Audi Sport Team Joest's No. 7 crew of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer, and Benoît Tréluyer had led the championship since the first race and arrived to Fuji with a 10-point lead over Bernhard, Webber, and Hartley but are now trailing by one point. Audi also put team orders to use, swapping their cars' positions in the late stages of the race, allowing the No. 7 past the No. 8 entry.
Because of the minimal gap between the two leading crews, the championship is unlikely to be decided at the penultimate and next round of the year in Shanghai, as the No. 17 Porsche would need a win at Shanghai to secure the title and the No. 7 Audi would need to not finish the race. Or, alternatively, the No. 17 Porsche would have to qualify on pole and win the race while the No. 7 Audi must finish worse than 10th in the prototype classification.
Porsche's No. 18 crew of Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, and Marc Lieb are in third position, 33.5 points behind the team's sister No. 17 car that now leads the points. The swap at Fuji cost them seven points to their championship-leading teammates, yet even more expensive were their late-race issues at COTA where they were on their way to a win and 25 points, yet ended up getting just half a point for finishing outside top-10. If the top-two faced trouble, the No. 18 Porsche crew could enter the championship battle - though as seen at Fuji, they will have to assist the No. 17 Porsche when possible.
It's worth nothing that the No. 8 Audi has been helping their teammates in the last three rounds as their championship hopes are very slim; they are fourth, 50 points from leaders with 52 points available.
In the manufacturers' championship, Porsche scored the maximum result with the one-two finish and pole position. With the pair of Audi R18 e-tron quattros finishing third and fourth, Porsche extended the championship lead by 17 points and heads to Shanghai with a 53-point lead. Toyota is third, 145 points from Porsche and not eligible for the title anymore. Unless the Audis score nine points more than Porsches at Shanghai, Porsche would secure the manufacturers' title in the penultimate race ahead of the finale at Bahrain.
The No. 12 Rebellion Racing entry extended its lead in the privateer LMP1 teams' standings with their Fuji win, with their lead over the second-placed No. 13 Rebellion entry now 11 points. The privateer winner of the last two rounds, the No. 4 Team Bykolles entry, was second at Fuji between the Rebellion entries, yet remains in third place, 26 points from lead.
Nicolas Prost and Mathias Beche of the No. 12 Rebellion entry remain in the privateer LMP1 team drivers' standings lead, though now without Nick Heidfeld sharing the lead as Heidfeld did not participate the Fuji round.
LMP2
The No. 47 KCMG entry came to Fuji with a 14-point lead over the No. 26 G-Drive Racing entry, but the late-race collision with the No. 28 G-Drive Ligier JS P2 caused them not to finish the race while the No. 26 G-Drive entry won from pole and scored 26 points, leading now by 12 points over the KCMG Oreca 05 Nissan. The No. 28 G-Drive Ligier in third place is the third title contender in LMP2, sitting 15 points behind the leading sister car - though the stewards' final decision on the incident with the KCMG car is still pending (expected before the Shanghai weekend) and may affect the No. 28 entry's points earned at Fuji).
As the No. 26 G-Drive entry took the lead in LMP2 teams' standings, its drivers also snagged the lead in the drivers' standings. Roman Rusinov, Julien Canal, and Sam Bird now lead the drivers' standings ahead of KCMG's full-time drivers Matthew Howson and Richard Bradley.
The No. 26 G-Drive entry and its drivers can secure the title at Shanghai if they score 15 points more than the No. 47 KCMG entry and 11 points more than the No. 28 G-Drive entry.
GTE-Pro & Am
GTE-Pro
Porsche Team Manthey's Richard Lietz remains in the LMGTE drivers' standings lead despite only earning a fourth-place finish at Fuji.
Lietz's closest rivals, Davide Rigon and James Calado of the No. 71 Ferrari F458 of AF Corse finished third and started on the class pole at Fuji, reducing the gap by four to seven points.
Fuji winners Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander of the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari caught Lietz by 13 points and are third in standings, 16.5 points from lead.
The GTE-Pro teams' standings slightly differ from the LMGTE drivers' standings, as the No. 91 Porsche Team Manthey entry leads the No. 71 AF Corse entry by two points and the No. 51 AF Corse entry by eight points. The fourth-placed No. 99 Aston Martin Racing entry is already 35 points behind the leader and would need to reduce the gap to 25 points at Shanghai to remain as a title contender at the final race.
GTE-Am
In GTE-Am, the No. 72 SMP Racing entry continues at the top of the GTE-Am teams' standings despite finishing only sixth in class at Fuji.
The gap to the second-placed No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari is still 29 points, so SMP Racing can secure the GTE-Am title at Shanghai.
Similarly, SMP's Aleksey Basov, Viktor Shaitar, and Andrea Bertolini lead the GTE-Am drivers' standings by 29 points over AF Corse's François Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard, and Rui Aguas.
Ferrari scored 11 points more than Porsche at Fuji and leads the LMGTE manufacturers' standings by 13 points. The third manufacturer, Aston Martin, is 81 points from Ferrari.
Next up for the FIA World Endurance Championship is the Six Hours of Shanghai in three weeks' time.
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