The #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID of Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez took the chequered flag 39 seconds clear of the sister #8 car shared by Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa and Sebastien Buemi, as the Japanese manufacturer celebrated its ninth WEC win at Fuji in 10 attempts.
Porsche's lead car, the #6 machine of Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer, led for just under four hours and eventually took the final spot on the podium, 47s behind the winning #7 Toyota.
Vanthoor seized the lead at the start of the race as he dived up the inside of the two Toyotas that locked out the front row into Turn 1 with Miguel Molina's #50 Ferrari making an equally impressive jump from seventh to grab second.
The polesitting #7 Toyota then driven by Conway dropped to third, while the #8 Toyota of Buemi slipped even further back to sixth behind the second Ferrari of James Calado and the sole Cadillac of Alex Lynn.
The safety car was deployed almost immediately afterwards, prompted by Luis Perez Companc stopping on track in the #83 Richard Mille Ferrari 488 GTE following a spin at Turn 1.
When the race resumed at the start of lap four, Vanthoor led the way for Porsche, while Conway tried to grab second from Molina, only to run wide and allow the other Ferrari of Calado to get through.
However, Toyota duo Conway and Buemi were able to come back and repass the Ferraris before the end of the opening stint, assuming second and third positions behind the leading Porsche.
Vanthoor was able to gradually extend his lead to 16s in the second hour and the gap had only come down to 11s by the time Estre took over the #6 car in the third hour.
Lopez was able to gradually chip away at Estre’s lead and reached the tail of the Porsche at the beginning of the fourth hour, but the Porsche driver appeared to have things under control.
That was until the two Toyotas of Lopez and Hirakawa swapped positions shortly after a lock-up for the Argentine driver.
Source: Autosport