Practice report
WEC Fuji
Fuji WEC: Ferrari leads first practice from Peugeot
Ferrari led a rain-hit opening practice session for this weekend's Fuji round of the World Endurance Championship, locking out the top two positions with its pair of Le Mans Hypercars.
Jamie Klein
Edited: Sep 8, 2023, 3:37 PM
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Antonio Fuoco set a best time of 1m35.649s at the end of the 90-minute session in the #50 Ferrari 499P LMH, a massive 2.6 seconds up on the sister #51 machine as the track rapidly improved late on.
Best of the rest in third was the #94 Peugeot 9X8, followed by the two works Penske Porsche 963s in fourth and fifth, while home favourite Toyota was sixth and seventh with its two GR010 HYBRIDs.
Despite the looming threat of Typhoon Yun-yeung, Friday morning's 90-minute session started on schedule at 11am local time in wet conditions and passed largely without incident.
Almost every Hypercar class manufacturer enjoyed a stint at the top of the times, as the track steadily dried out.
Ferrari took command of the times with a little over 30 minutes to go as James Calado went quickest in the #51 car, with team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi becoming the first driver to breach the 1m40s mark when he set a 1m39.198s with 22 minutes left on the clock.
Fuoco then traded the top time with Giovinazzi as he took over at the wheel of the #50 Ferrari, with Porsche man Michael Christensen briefly snatching the advantage before Fuoco went faster again, posting a 1m37.616s and then a 1m35.649s after switching to slick tyres.
Giovinazzi set the best time in the #51 car of 1m38.258s on wets, just over four tenths up on late improver Gustavo Menezes in the #94 Peugeot.
Christensen's time was eclipsed late on by his opposite number in the sister #6 Porsche, Laurens Vanthoor, who posted a 1m38.729s to go fourth-fastest.
Mike Conway set the best time for Toyota of 1m39.251s in the #7 car, four hundredths quicker than Brendon Hartley in the #8 car in a subdued opening session for the Japanese manufacturer.
Completing the top 10 were the second of the Peugeots, the #93 car in which Paul di Resta set the best time, the solo Cadillac V-Series.R of Alex Lynn and the Proton Competition customer Porsche of Harry Tincknell.
The JOTA Porsche enjoyed a lengthy spell at the top of the times in the opening half of the session when conditions were at their worst, but ended up 11th in the Hypercar class and slower than the team's LMP2 car, which topped that class.
Oliver Rasmussen put in a late flyer of 1m40.781s aboard the #28 ORECA 07 to take the top spot in LMP2, almost two seconds up on nearest rival Filip Ugran in the #9 Prema machine.
United Autosports was third in class courtesy of a late effort from Ben Hanley - standing in for Tom Blomqvist this weekend - in the #23 entry.
Topping the times by an even wider margin in GTE Am was the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Mikkel Pedersen on a 1m43.538s.
That was almost four seconds up on Davide Rigon, who went second-fastest in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE.
A sole full-course yellow was called at the one-hour mark, but this was purely procedural rather than in response to any accident.
FP2 is scheduled to begin at 3.30pm local time, but more rain is forecast for later in the day, casting doubt on whether the session will run as planned.
Fuji WEC - First practice results:
Pos. No. Drivers Car Class time gap 1 50 
Antonio Fuoco
Miguel Molina
Nicklas Nielsen Ferrari 499P HYPERCAR 1'35.649 2 51 Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado
Antonio Giovinazzi Ferrari 499P HYPERCAR 1'38.258 2.609 3 94 
Loïc Duval
Gustavo Menezes
Stoffel Vandoorne Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 1'38.693 3.044 4 6 Kevin Estre
Andre Lotterer
Laurens Vanthoor Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 1'38.729 3.080 5 5 Dane Cameron
Michael Christensen
Frédéric Makowiecki Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 1'38.876 3.227 6 7 Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'39.251 3.602 7 8 
Sebastien Buemi
Brendon Hartley
Ryo Hirakawa Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'39.291 3.642 8 93 Paul di Resta
Mikkel Jensen
Jean-Eric Vergne Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 1'39.309 3.660 9 2 Earl Bamber
Alex Lynn
Richard Westbrook Cadillac V-Series.R HYPERCAR 1'39.584 3.935 10 99 Neel Jani
Gianmaria Bruni
Harry Tincknell Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 1'40.085 4.436 11 28 David Heinemeier Hansson
Pietro Fittipaldi
Oliver Rasmussen Oreca 07 LMP2 1'40.781 5.132 12 38 
Antonio Felix da Costa
Will Stevens
Ye Yifei Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 1'40.953 5.304 13 4 Esteban Guerrieri
Tristan Vautier
Joao Paulo de Oliveira Vanwall Vandervell 680 HYPERCAR 1'41.483 5.834 14 9 
Filip Ugran
Bent Viscaal
Juan Manuel Correa Oreca 07 LMP2 1'42.661 7.012 15 23 Josh Pierson
Ben Hanley
Oliver Jarvis Oreca 07 LMP2 1'42.924 7.275 16 10 
Ryan Cullen
Matthias Kaiser
Gabriel Aubry Oreca 07 LMP2 1'42.984 7.335 17 34 
Jakub Smiechowski
Fabio Scherer
Albert Costa Oreca 07 LMP2 1'43.204 7.555 18 36 Matthieu Vaxivière
Julien Canal
Charles Milesi Oreca 07 LMP2 1'43.218 7.569 19 22 Frederick Lubin
Philip Hanson
Filipe Albuquerque Oreca 07 LMP2 1'43.230 7.581 20 31 
Sean Gelael
Ferdinand Habsburg
Robin Frijns Oreca 07 LMP2 1'43.403 7.754 21 41 Rui Andrade
Robert Kubica
Louis Deletraz Oreca 07 LMP2 1'43.490 7.841 22 77 Christian Ried
Mikkel Pedersen
Julien Andlauer Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'43.538 7.889 23 63 Doriane Pin
Andrea Caldarelli
Daniil Kvyat Oreca 07 LMP2 1'44.139 8.490 24 35 André Negrão
Memo Rojas
Olli Caldwell Oreca 07 LMP2 1'44.816 9.167 25 54 Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Davide Rigon Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'47.198 11.549 26 56 PJ Hyett
Gunnar Jeannette
Matteo Cairoli Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'47.230 11.581 27 83 Luis Perez Companc
Lilou Wadoux
Alessio Rovera Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'47.250 11.601 28 777 Satoshi Hoshino
Casper Stevenson
Tomonobu Fujii Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'47.493 11.844 29 98 Ian James
Daniel Mancinelli
Alex Riberas Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'47.913 12.264 30 21 Hiroshi Koizumi
Simon Mann
Kei Cozzolino Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'48.414 12.765 31 60 Claudio Schiavoni
Matteo Cressoni
Alessio Picariello Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'49.060 13.411 32 86 Michael Wainwright
Riccardo Pera
Ben Barker Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'49.199 13.550 33 85 Sarah Bovy
Michelle Gatting
Rahel Frey Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'49.455 13.806 34 57 Takeshi Kimura
Scott Huffaker
Ritomo Miyata Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'49.706 14.057 35 33 Ben Keating
Nicolas Varrone
Nicky Catsburg Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE AM 1'50.043 14.394 36 25 Ahmad Al Harthy
Michael Dinan
Charlie Eastwood Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'53.388 17.739
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