After the six hours of COTA, what should be expected at the six hours of Fuji

The six hours of COTA was a critical race this season, as it allowed new hope for some teams and crushed the dreams of others. Let’s go over the important changes that happened in this race. Within the LMGT3 class, Manthey EMA pulled further ahead of Team WRT, with their lead going from 1 point ahead to 16 points ahead. However, Manthey EMA is still lagging behind their fellow teammates Manthey PURERxcing.

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There aren’t many teams in the hypercar class due to the high cost of WEC. However, maintaining a car that easily goes over 200mph isn’t something that anyone expects to be cheap. This season, there are four teams: Hertz team JOTA, AF Corse, Proton competition, and a second Hertz team. In this race, AF Corse pulled ahead of the Proton Competition and now has a lead of 9 points. However, they are still far behind Hertz Team JOTA’s #12 car.

A fully-fledged car company won’t struggle with the high monetary cost of running a WEC team as much, so there are far more teams backed by large manufacturers. In this race, Toyota knocked Porsche out of first place down to second; however, Ferrari isn’t too far behind, sitting very comfortably in third place. Alpine is fourth and still 91 points behind the third-place Ferrari.

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Current standings after the six hours of COTA:

LMGT3 Teams

1st Manthey Purerxcing- 118 points

2nd Mantheey EMA- 90 points

3rd Team WRT- 84 points

LMGT3 Drivers

1st Aliaksandr Malykhin- 118 points

1st Joel Sturm- 118 points

1st Klaus Bachler- 118 points

2nd Morris Schuring- 90 points

2nd Richard Lietz- 90 points

2nd Yasser Shahin- 90 points

3rd Augusto Farfus- 84 points

3rd Darren Leung- 84 points

3rd Sean Gelael- 84 points

Hypercar Teams

1st Hertz team Jota- 140 points

2nd Af Corse- 110 points

3rd Proton Competition- 101 points

Hypercar Manufacturers

1st Toyota- 147 points

2nd Porsche- 136 points

3rd Ferrari- 128 points

Hypercar Drivers

1st Andre Lotterer- 125 points

1st Kevin Estre- 125 points

1st Laurens Vanthoor- 125 points

2nd Kamui Kobayashi- 113 points

2nd Nyck de Vries- 113 points

3rd Antonio Fuoco- 113 points

3rd Miguel Molina- 113 points

3rd Nicklaus Nielsen- 113 points

We can expect a good fight going into the six hours at Mt. Fuji. In the LMGT3 class, you can bet that Team WRT will try to crawl into the second-place position and unseat Manthey EMA. However, the Heart of Racing team is only 3 points behind Team WRT, so it is anyone’s game as of right now.

The Hypercar team standings seem all but made up with the 30-point lead the #12 Hertz team JOTA car has; however, with them failing to receive any points at the six hours of COTA, we can perhaps get another miracle, and AF Corse can close the gap down to only 5 points at Mt. Fuji. If they do, they have a shot at first place. I know it seems far-fetched, but it is very possible. In other news, Proton Competition is only 9 points behind AF Corse, so there is a high chance that team Proton could move up to second place.

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The Hypercar manufacturers’ top three seem set in stone, but you can still expect some competition among them. I’m sure that Porsche is hungry to get back the first-place position, and I’m also sure that Toyota is just as eager to hang onto it. In fairness, Ferrari isn’t too far behind either of them. If Alpine is hoping to make the top three, they better start praying, but fourth place should not be hard to keep.

The six hours of COTA shook things up quite a bit this season. Mt. Fuji will be as exciting as ever, but I don’t think you will see a big change in the rankings afterward. The upcoming race will be more of a strategic win for many teams if they do end up placing well.