The Mugello circuit in Italy will host the penultimate race of the 2024 European Le Mans Series this weekend. The intense round will see a staggering 43 contenders fight for the top spot on the podium.

European Le Mans Series fans are gearing up for an electrifying&nbsp;2024&nbsp;4 Hours of&nbsp;Mugello with titles still up for grabs. In LMP2, the championship&#39;s head&nbsp;category, the&nbsp;competition is tighter than ever. Robert Kubica, Louis Del&eacute;traz and&nbsp;Jonny Edgar sharing AO by TF&#39;s #14 ORECA&nbsp;07-Gibson currently lead the standings with&nbsp;65 points, a narrow two-point&nbsp;lead on Inter Europol Competition&#39;s #43 ORECA, paving the way for a cutthroat duel to the chequered flag.

In&nbsp;LMP2 Pro/Am, Italian team&nbsp;AF Corse dominates the&nbsp;classification with&nbsp;80 points, well on its way to a second consecutive trophy. Alessio Rovera, Fran&ccedil;ois Perrodo and&nbsp;Matthieu Vaxivi&egrave;re are determined&nbsp;to secure the crown again on their home turf, but&nbsp;Algarve Pro Racing is still in the running with&nbsp;Alex Quinn, Richard Bradley and&nbsp;Kriton Lentoudis looking to take advantage of the slightest error and make up the&nbsp;20 points separating them&nbsp;from first place.

In the LMP3 category, Italian outfit&nbsp;Eurointernational could very well&nbsp;clinch the title after a second win in a row at&nbsp;Spa. Matt Richard Bell and&nbsp;Adam Ali have a 14-point advantage on RLR MSport and a victory at&nbsp;Mugello could see them cap off the season even before the final round.

<h2>Anticipation running high&nbsp;in&nbsp;LMGT3</h2>

The fight for the LMGT3 trophy&nbsp;boils down to one point between&nbsp;the top two cars. Thanks to a solid result at&nbsp;Spa, Swiss team Racing Spirit of L&eacute;man and the #59 Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 lead&nbsp;with&nbsp;53 points, ahead of GR Racing&#39;s #86 Ferrari 296 LMGT3 driven by Italian fan favourites&nbsp;Davide Rigon and&nbsp;Riccardo Pera.

Despite an incident at Spa, Iron Lynx&#39;s #63 Lamborghini is still in the running with 49 points on the board. The Iron Dames team&#39;s all-female driver line-up composed of Michelle Gatting, Rahel Frey and&nbsp;Sarah Bovy will need to deliver an excellent showing to contend&nbsp;for the trophy.

Click for the 2024&nbsp;4 Hours of&nbsp;Mugello&nbsp;<a href="https://storage.googleapis.com/doc-prod/z5ZxJI_gUocHtw-iaLUlXbPP.pdf" target="_blank">entry list</a>.

Qualifying will kick off on&nbsp;28 September at 14:40 and the start of the round will be given on Sunday the 29th at&nbsp;11:30 (all local times). Follow the race live on the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/@EuropeanLeMansSeriesOfficial/streams" target="_blank">official ELMS&nbsp;YouTube channel</a>.

ELMS – Decisive 4 Hours of Mugello coming up

Porsche Penske Motorsport trio André Lotterer, Kévin Estre and Laurens Vanthoor took a significant step closer to title glory in the FIA World Endurance Championship today (15 September), by securing an impressive second victory of the season in the 6 Hours of Fuji.

In front of 68,500 fans around the legendary Japanese circuit, the penultimate round of the campaign was as absorbing as it was unpredictable. From fifth on the grid, the race-winning #6 Porsche 963 Hypercar was a contender from the outset, with Vanthoor displacing both Toyotas in the opening laps before piling the pressure on Marco Wittmann in the second-placed BMW M Hybrid V8.

During the first round of pit visits, the Porsche then leapfrogged the BMW and the Cadillac Racing V-Series.R &ndash; which had led the first 42 laps from pole position &ndash; to seize the initiative. Pit-stop cycles and an inspired Nicklas Nielsen in the #50 Ferrari 499P aside, it was an advantage the #6 car would not subsequently relinquish.

Artfully managing several safety car periods and exploiting an alternative strategy to the majority of the 18-strong Hypercar field, the Porsche crew always looked the most likely to win, with Lotterer getting the better of Nielsen&rsquo;s Ferrari mid-race, and Estre surviving both a lunge from a lapped Ryo Hirakawa and a slippery brake pedal that sent him deep into Turn One in the final hour to stay in front.

The trio&rsquo;s fifth podium of 2024 extended their margin at the summit of the standings to 35 points with only 39 remaining in play. That means just an eighth-place finish in Bahrain &ndash; irrespective of any other result &ndash; will be sufficient to seal the deal.

<h4>The top 5 of the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship for Hypercar Manufacturers:</h4>

1. Porsche &ndash; 161 points 
2. Toyota &ndash; 151 points 
3. Ferrari &ndash; 134 points 
4. Alpine &ndash; 52 points 
5. BMW &ndash; 49 points

<h2>Manthey PureRxcing clinches LMGT3 crown</h2>

Manthey PureRxcing celebrated title glory in the LMGT3 category, as Aliaksandr Malykhin, Joel Sturm and Klaus Bachler produced a determined performance in Japan to put the destiny of the coveted crown beyond reach of any of their rivals.

The Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 crew could manage no better than 14th on the grid in qualifying, but race day would prove to be a different story, as a mixture of strong speed, savvy strategy and fortuitous timing around the safety car interventions carried the title-chasing trio into contention for the race win.

Second place behind the victorious #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari piloted by Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci and Davide Rigon was ultimately enough to secure the championship.

<h4>The top 5 of the FIA ​​Endurance Trophy for LMGT3 teams:</h4>

1. Manthey PureRxcing &ndash; 136 points 
2. Manthey EMA &ndash; 90 points 
3. Team WRT &ndash; 85 points 
4. Heart Of Racing &ndash; 83 points 
5. Team WRT &ndash; 61 points

Full results can be found <a href="https://www.fiawec.com/en/race/result/4868" target="_blank">HERE</a>. 
 
The 2024 WEC campaign will conclude with the Bapco Energies 8 Hours of Bahrain on 31 October &ndash; 2 November.

Extended Highlights I 2024 6 Hours of Fuji I FIA WEC

FIA WEC : les faits de course majeurs des 6 Heures de Fuji 2024

Big in Japan: Porsche trio put one hand on Drivers’ crown at Fuji

The 7th round of the World Endurance Championship takes place in Fuji, Japan. The 6 Hours of Fuji has a particularity: the safari tour, which offers the opportunity for “classic” vehicles to race with certain racing cars that make up the FIA WEC field at moderate speed. A hydrogen vehicle has evolved on the track.

The GR010 Hybrid Hypercars were not the only Toyotas on track at Fuji this weekend. The Toyota Mirai Sport, a Hydrogen car, also stood out on the Japanese circuit to promote hydrogen in Endurance. At the wheel Pierre Fillon, president of the Automobile Club de l&#39;Ouest, an actor involved in the decarbonization of mobility and the deployment of hydrogen in competition, traveled over the 4.5 km of the route and in particular the straight of more than 1.4 km with a vehicle emitting 0% CO2, in the company of Mr. Shimizu, the engineer responsible for this Mirai Sport, and Fr&eacute;d&eacute;ric Lequien, CEO of the FIA WEC.

Today, the 2024 grid uses a fuel developed by TotalEnergies, Excellium Racing 100, a competition fuel produced from waste and residues notably from wine growing and which meets all the requirements of manufacturers, engine manufacturers and the European directive on renewable energies. It offers at least 65% reduction in CO2 emissions, at a minimum, over its life cycle. This fuel is certified 100% sustainable. Motorsport thus demonstrates its involvement in the energy transition and the search for more virtuous solutions.

The experience of the Toyota Mirai Sport illustrates the work carried out by the ACO with the FIA ​​and the manufacturers for the creation of a category dedicated to hydrogen by 2028.

Hydrogen on track at Fuji

On the occasion of the 7th round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, which takes place in Fuji, the stakes for the various 2024 titles obviously concentrate the sporting interests of the entire paddock, the competitors, the fans... In Japan , the future of the discipline is also presented, even told in history, already!

Hydrogen, the ACO&#39;s strategy to decarbonize racing, the commitment of the Japanese manufacturer Toyota to zero-emission mobility are presented in the form of a frieze, summarizing the main dates of this pioneering program: creating a category of Hydrogen prototypes at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship.

In 2023, the 6 Hours of Fuji had already been an opportunity to present to spectators the potential of hydrogen, with educational activities and the exhibition of H2 prototypes, notably the LMPH2G from MissionH24, a collaborative program between the ACO and H24Project, or the Toyota GR H2 Racing Concept.

This year, the emphasis is placed on the various key dates of this pioneering program, very young in terms of the history of motorsport.

It was in 2018 that the Automobile Club de l&rsquo;Ouest officially presented the LMPH2G with H24Project. This laboratory car represented this ambitious and responsible objective: to decarbonize racing by creating a category dedicated to hydrogen prototypes, capable of competing for victory. Since 2018, many steps have been taken. Toyota, a manufacturer involved in the deployment of hydrogen, also has a history rich in lessons with this new technology.&nbsp;

A timeline, a backdrop, presents important moments in the very recent history of hydrogen in Endurance in the Fuji Fan Zone, under the Toyota area.

Masaya Kaji (general commercial director of Toyota Gazoo Racing), Matthieu Bonardel (director of Michelin Motorsport), Pierre Fillon (President of the Automobile Club de l&#39;Ouest) Bernard Niclot (innovation manager for the ACO), Tomoya Takahashi (president of Toyota Gazoo Racing Compagny) and Fr&eacute;d&eacute;ric Lequien (CEO of the FIA WEC) visited this space, witnessing the collaboration necessary between the different actors to accelerate research and fight against carbon emissions.

As a reminder, the start of the 6 Hours of Fuji will be given on Sunday September 15 at 11 a.m. in Japan, 4 a.m. in France.

The ACO and hydrogen are told in a timeline in Fuji with Toyota

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	<img src="/wpphpFichiers/Albums/14/76/2012-6-Heures-de-Spa-Francorchamps-WEC-17-PESCAROLO-TEAM-(FRA)-Dome-S102.5---Judd---LMP1-2012-05-03-DPPI-WEC-SPA-02112803-029_n.jpg" />
	
		Photo : FREDERIC LE FLOC&#39;H - DPPI
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	&nbsp;
<h2 style="text-align: justify;">
	Starting in ninth position, Sebastien Bourdais was sixth in contact with Nick Heidfeld. The driver from Le Mans would not give the wheel of the Dome.</h2>

	Helmeted, gloved, ready... Nicolas Minassian was prepared. But at the third pit stop of the Dome-Judd #17, his teammate Sebastien Bourdais chose to stay behind the wheel. On slick tires, Bourdais could no longer keep pace with the Lola-Toyota driven by Nick Heidfeld, but he tried to hang on minimizing the time spent in the pits. It will however give up the wheel before 18:30 so as not to exceed the limit of 4 hours. Meanwhile, his team-mate relaxes in the Pescarolo Team motorhome.

	&nbsp;

	<a href="mailto:j.hergault@lemans.org">Julien Hergault</a>

	Photo : CIRCUIT DE SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS, 6 HOURS OF SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS WEC, 5th MAY 2012. S&eacute;bastien Bourdais.

24H LE MANS

Quadruple stint for Bourdais !

Starting in ninth position, Sebastien Bourdais was sixth in contact with Nick Heidfeld. The driver from Le Mans would not give the wheel of the Dome.

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The ACO and hydrogen are told in a timeline in Fuji with Toyota

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