In post-race scrutineering of the FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Fuji, the #38 JOTA Sport LMP2 team lost their second-place finish as they were disqualified from the race due to a technical infringement.
The car had looked to be in a strong position to take the trio of Anthony Davidson, Roberto Gonzales and Antonio Felix da Costa to their first victory together, but Nyck de Vries‘ outright pace in the #29 Racing Team Nederland saw them forced to settle for second. They had a great fight with the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing car throughout the race and had managed to pass them for what was then the lead, before de Vries jumped them both in the pits, in the closing stages of the race.
The stewards discovered that the “outside neutral switch is unable to disconnect the transmission”, which lead to the JOTA team’s disqualification. The bulletin stated: “At post-race scrutineering the disconnecting of the transmission was not working as it is written in Art. 11.3.2 of LMP2 Technical Regulations.
“The competitor accepted the correct check made by the scrutineers and asked for an additional check with the car battery which was during the race. After this check the disconnecting was still not working.”
JOTA could have opted to appeal the decision, but they decided not to. This means that the #37 Jackie Chan car moves up to P2 and United Autosports claim their first WEC LMP2 podium.
