Early championship win and defence of LMGT3 one-two lead at the Six Hours of Fuji for Manthey

WEC

Manthey PureRxcing and Manthey EMA finish the six-hour race in Japan in second (#92) and 14th (#91) place
Bachler, Malykhin and Sturm are crowned LMGT3 World Champions with second place
Manthey EMA continues to defend the one-two lead for Manthey in the team and drivers' standings

Fuji. With second place and the sixth podium finish of the season, the Manthey PureRxcing crew have sealed the LMGT3 World Championship title before the season finale of the FIA WEC. Klaus Bachler (Austria), Alex Malykhin (Great Britain) and Joel Sturm (Germany) improved by twelve positions over the six-hour race distance, making them the first LMGT3 World Champions in the history of the WEC. A puncture an hour before the chequered flag threw the number 91 Porsche of Richard Lietz (Austria), Yasser Shahin (Australia) and Morris Schuring (Netherlands) back to 14th place. While Manthey PureRxcing is now out of reach at the top of the LMGT3 team and drivers' standings, the Manthey EMA crew, which remains in second place, has the chance to seal the championship double victory at the WEC season finale in Bahrain.

The two bronze pilots from Manthey EMA (#91) and Manthey PureRxcing (#92) started the penultimate round of the Endurance Championship in Japan from 15th and 14th positions after a difficult qualifying session the day before. Alex Malykhin made up two positions on the first lap of the 4.563-kilometre Fuji Speedway, which was just the beginning of a charge through the field into the points in the LMGT3 class. Shahin also worked his way forward during the first few hours of the race, which were characterised by several safety car periods, and handed the Porsche 911 GT3 R over to Morris Schuring in ninth place, just under two hours after the start. In a field repeatedly reshuffled as a result of various pit stop strategies and numerous changes of position, Schuring and Richard Lietz, who took over for the last two hours of the race, repeatedly drove into the top ten.

But with just over an hour on the clock, tyre damage resulting from a collision caused by an LMDH car and the unscheduled pit stop that followed cost the crew important positions and the chance of championship points. As a result, Manthey EMA finished the Six Hours of Fuji in 14th place. The second half of the race went better for the sister car with starting number 92: the Porsche from Manthey PureRxcing, which had temporarily taken the lead earlier, crossed the finish line in second place after a total of only six pit stops and a flawless performance by Klaus Bachler and Joel Sturm. This not only secured the driver trio of Bachler, Malykhin and Sturm their sixth podium finish of the season, but also the World Championship title in the LMGT3 class ahead of time.

With 136 championship points, Manthey PureRxcing is out of reach at the top of the LMGT3 team and driver standings. This means the debut victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship class introduced in 2024. Despite the point-less race for Manthey EMA, the team remains in second place with 90 points. This means that Manthey still has the chance of a one-two victory in the LMGT3 championship in Bahrain.

"I'm very proud of our entire team. We've once again managed to decide a race in our favour through an extremely good strategy and flawless implementation, as we weren't the fastest on the track. On top of that, the three drivers of the 92 car did everything right as well. This meant that we were able to win the LMGT3 championship title at Fuji. However, the season finale in Bahrain will still be exciting for us, because we can still clinch second position in the championship with car number 91. That would, of course, be an amazing result for us," summarises Nicolas Raeder, Managing Director Manthey Racing GmbH, summing up the Fuji race weekend.

The WEC season finale in Bahrain will take place in a month and a half from 31 October to 2 November. The eight-hour race will take place at the Bahrain International Circuit. Before that, Manthey will compete in the penultimate race as well as the season finale of the DTM.

Quotes on the Six Hours of Fuji:

Richard Lietz, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91: “Unfortunately, the race in Fuji didn't go well for us. After starting from 15th place on the grid, we were able to make up some positions, but a puncture caused by contact that wasn't our fault ultimately cost us the race and we only finished in 14th place. Nevertheless, we can still finish the season in second place in the championship in Bahrain, so we're focusing on that now. Congratulations to the sister car on winning the title early.”

Morris Schuring, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91: “The six hours of Fuji, a race in which everything that could go wrong did go wrong for us. Very unfortunate for us. Nevertheless, we are of course happy for the crew of the 92 and hope for better results in Bahrain.”

Yasser Shahin, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91: “It was a difficult race that didn’t end favorably for us today. Unfortunately, a contact with a Hypercar took us out of the race and championship. We are still in the fight for P2 in the LMGT3 championship and look forward to the last round in Bahrain.”

Klaus Bachler, Porsche 911 GT3 R #92: “I'm over the moon. A big thank you to the whole team. We had a perfect race. A strategic move at the start put us well forward, we were able to take advantage of that and our strategy worked perfectly. We had a great, consistent car, even though we had to carry 40 kilos more. We finished second with no mistakes and have won the world championship with one race to go before the end of the season. Without the whole team and my fellow drivers, this would not have been possible. This is a dream come true for me – so we'll celebrate now.”

Alex Malykhin, Porsche 911 GT3 R #92: “It was a difficult race for us, as we started from 14th place, and that just means a high risk, because so much is happening behind, in front of and all around you. We had very good communication with our engineer about how to deal with the different situations and cars. This allowed us to overtake many, but we did not take any unnecessary risks. We were lucky with the safety car period and were able to get into the top three – we haven't had much luck this season, but this time it really played into our hands as we didn't have as much pace. Joel and Klaus did a great job again. In the end, we took second place and with it the title in the LMGT3 class.”

Joel Sturm, Porsche 911 GT3 R #92: „We executed this race perfectly. I don't think we could have done it any better – the strategy was perfect, and we executed it well. To start from 14th place and then win the championship here in Fuji early – it couldn't have gone any better. We are all very pleased and are looking forward to the last race in Bahrain.”

Results Six Hours of Fuji:

LMGT3 Class
1. Castellacci /Flohr/Rigon (IT/CH/IT), VISTA AF CORSE, Ferrari 296 LMGT3 #54
2. Bachler/Malykhin/Sturm (AT/GB/DE), Manthey PureRxcing, Porsche 911 GT3 R #92
3. Al Harthy/ Martin/Rossi (OM/BE/IT), TEAM WRT, BMW M4 LMGT3 #46

14. Lietz/Schuring/Shahin (AT/NL/AU), Manthey EMA, Porsche 911 GT3 R #91

Quotes on the Six Hours of Fuji:

Results Six Hours of Fuji:

Impressions