Practice report

Fuji WEC: Hartley tops third practice for Toyota

Ex-Formula 1 racer Brendon Hartley kept the #8 Toyota crew on top in Saturday morning's third practice for this weekend's FIA World Endurance Championship round at Fuji.

Hartley posted a 1m25.621s early in the one-hour session at the wheel of the quicker of the TS050 Hybrids, bettering teammate Kazuki Nakajima's Friday benchmark by 0.002s.

Jose Maria Lopez was initially half a second off the pace in the sister #7 car, but a subsequent improvement from Kamui Kobayashi - who was vocal about the effect the LMP1 handicap rules had on his car's performance on Friday - narrowed the deficit to 0.206s.

Rebellion Racing's solo R-13, second-fastest in both Friday sessions, was bumped down to third for the first time this weekend, 0.501s off the pace in Gustavo Menezes' hands.

The two Ginetta G60-LT-P1s completed the LMP1 order, with Mike Simpson setting the best time for the factory Team LNT squad of 1m27.039s in the #6 car, 1.418s off the pace and some six tenths clear of Ben Hanley's best effort in the #5 machine.

Racing Team Nederland topped the times in LMP2 courtesy of a 1m20.008s effort from Nyck de Vries, who will test the Toyota TS050 Hybrid in the WEC rookie test.

The TDS Racing-run RTN Oreca was a little under half a second quicker than Anthony Davidson in the JOTA Sport Oreca, the best of the Goodyear-shod cars, while Nicolas Lapierre was third-fastest in the Cool Racing Oreca, almost a second slower than de Vries.

Porsche maintained its supremacy in GTE Pro as Richard Lietz set a 1m37.501s in the Silverstone-winning #91 911 RSR-19.

Aston Martin filled out the next two positions in class, with Nicki Thiim's best time putting the #95 Vantage GTE second ahead of the #97 car by half a second.

Splitting the two Astons overall were no fewer than four GTE Am cars, the fastest of which was the #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche driven by Matt Campbell.

The Australian driver set a 1m37.807s to beat Nicklas Nielsen in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE by two tenths.

Session results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'25.621
2	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'25.827	0.206
3	1	Bruno Senna Gustavo Menezes Norman Nato	Rebellion R13	LMP1	1'26.172	0.551
4	6	Charles Robertson Michael Simpson Guy Smith	Ginetta G60-LT-P1	LMP1	1'27.039	1.418
5	5	Luca Ghiotto Ben Hanley Egor Orudzhev	Ginetta G60-LT-P1	LMP1	1'27.882	2.261
6	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'29.008	3.387
7	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'29.457	3.836
8	42	Nicolas Lapierre Antonin Borga Alexandre Coigny	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'29.987	4.366
9	37	Ho-Pin Tung Gabriel Aubry Will Stevens	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'30.018	4.397
10	22	Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Oliver Jarvis	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'30.131	4.510
11	36	Thomas Laurent Andre Negrao Pierre Ragues	Alpine A470	LMP2	1'31.206	5.585
12	47	Roberto Lacorte Andrea Belicchi Giorgio Sernagiotto	Dallara P217	LMP2	1'31.461	5.840
13	33	Mark Patterson Kenta Yamashita Anders Fjordbach	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'31.876	6.255
14	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'37.501	11.880
15	95	Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	1'37.696	12.075
16	77	Christian Ried Riccardo Pera Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'37.807	12.186
17	83	François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'38.034	12.413
18	56	Egidio Perfetti David Heinemeier Hansson Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'38.051	12.430
19	57	Ben Keating Felipe Fraga Jeroen Bleekemolen	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'38.096	12.475
20	97	Alex Lynn Maxime Martin	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	1'38.109	12.488
21	88	Satoshi Hoshino Adrien de Leener Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'38.238	12.617
22	71	Davide Rigon Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'38.298	12.677
23	98	Paul Dalla Lana Darren Turner Ross Gunn	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'38.307	12.686
24	70	Motoaki Ishikawa Olivier Beretta Kei Cozzolino	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'38.516	12.895
25	86	Michael Wainwright Andrew Watson Benjamin Barker	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'38.543	12.922
26	90	Salih Yoluc Charles Eastwood Jonathan Adam	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'38.560	12.939
27	51	James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'38.585	12.964
28	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'38.618	12.997
29	62	Bonamy Grimes Johnny Mowlem Charles Hollings	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'38.951	13.330
30	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'39.340	13.719
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