The Heart of Racing achieves best-ever Valkyrie finish with fifth at Fuji
Sørensen earned the highest starting position for THOR Valkyries, securing a second-row starting spot.
Fuji, Japan (29 September 2025) - The Heart of Racing celebrated a milestone weekend in Japan, delivering its best WEC Hypercar result to date at Fuji Speedway for the World Endurance Championship’s penultimate round. The Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage and both Aston Martin THOR Valkyries showed speed in practice and qualifying, but the No. 27 Vantage's seventh place finish does not reflect its true performance.
The Heart of Racing Team’s No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage, driven by Ian James, Zacharie Robichon, and Mattia Drudi, once again gained valuable points with a seventh place finish in Sunday’s six-hour. The Vantage showed quick pace during Saturday’s third practice session, setting the fastest lap time with a 1:40.800-second lap.
James qualified during the 12-minute session, setting the fifth-fastest lap time, which moved the Vantage to the 10-minute HYPERPOLE session. Robichon took the controls for HYPERPOLE, where he secured the fourth fastest lap time for Sunday’s race.
The first two hours were filled with caution periods while James was behind the wheel of the No. 27 Vantage in the top five of the LMGT3 field. Robichon took over and had just taken the lead when the No. 007 Valkyrie, on cold tires, unfortunately knocked the No. 27 Vantage off course. Robichon and Mattia did their best to work their way back through the field, but ultimately crossed the finish line in seventh.
“I think we had a very good race, as a team,” said Robichon. “The timing of one of the cautions ultimately hurt us, it was one of those situations where those that were not in position ended up benefiting from the safety car and those that were in position hurt us. It feels like we’ve been a bit unlucky this year, I guess that’s the way it goes.”
Marco Sørensen and Alex Riberas joined forces in the No. 009 Aston Martin Valkyrie. The duo was quick out of the gate, setting the third-fastest lap time in the first and second practice sessions, and the fourth-fastest lap time in the third practice session.
Saturday afternoon, Sørensen set the fastest lap with a 1:28.935-second lap in the 12-minute qualifying session, moving the No. 009 Valkyrie into the HYPERCAR HYPERPOLE session for the third time this season. Sørensen secured a third-place starting position with a 1:28.705-second lap, marking the Aston Martin THOR Team’s best qualifying position yet.
In the six-hour enduro, Sørensen took the first two stints, overcoming a drive-through penalty to make his way from 18th to fourth before passing the Valkyrie over to Riberas. The Spanish driver drove in the top five for a majority of his stint, even making his way to third for several laps. Sørensen drove the final hour for the No. 009 team, crossing the finish line in fifth. The team’s P5 finish marks a major step forward for the Aston Martin THOR program and sets the tone heading into the final races of the season.
“It was definitely a crazy race, there was just so much going on,” said Sørensen. “There were so many full course cautions and safety cars that it really made the race difficult in so many areas. We did the most we could. There were mistakes here and there, but in the end we had some good pace. We were fighting with the other cars. It’s just a shame because I would say that we could have had a podium. We will try again in Bahrain.”
Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble shared the speed in the No. 007 sister Valkyrie. The duo finished first practice with the fourth fastest lap and followed that up with the overall fastest lap time in the third practice session with a 1:29.492-second lap. Tincknell qualified for the duo, just one spot shy of making HYPERPOLE.
Tincknell and Gamble overcame an early race spin and a drive-through penalty to sit tenth at the halfway mark of the Six Hours of Fuji. Unfortunately, the No. 007 Valkyrie was forced to retire early after making contact with the team’s LMGT3 entry when Gamble lost control of the Valkyrie with just under two and a half hours to go.
The Heart of Racing’s WEC squad will return for its season finale in Bahrain on November 8th. In the meantime, the team will be in action for the IMSA WeatherTech season finale at Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta for the Motul Petit Le Mans in October.
