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Practice report
WEC Fuji

WEC Fuji: Porsche pips Toyota in red-flagged opening practice

Porsche fastest as WEC's penultimate round gets under way in Japan

#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor

#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor

Photo by: Andreas Beil

Porsche led home favourite Toyota in a red-flagged opening practice for this weekend’s World Endurance Championship round at Fuji.

Laurens Vanthoor set a best time of 1m30.581s in the #6 Porsche 963 LMDh at the very beginning of the 90-minute session to head the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID of Ryo Hirakawa by just 0.010s.

Third place went to Antonio Fuoco in the Le Mans 24 Hours-winning #50 Ferrari 499P, but the Italian trailed the leading two cars by almost half a second with a time of 1m31.104s.

Frederic Makowiecki claimed fourth in in the #5 Porsche, the French driver making a relatively late improvement to demote the #7 Toyota of Nyck de Vries to fifth place.

The #83 customer AF Corse Ferrari took sixth in the hands of Yifei Ye, while Stoffel Vandoorne guided the #94 Peugeot 9X8 to a strong seventh place ahead of Ferdinand Habsburg in the best of the Alpines, the #35 A424.

The top 10 was completed by the #12 Jota Porsche of Will Stevens and the #51 Ferrari driven by James Calado.

Cadillac finished a distant 12th with Earl Bamber ending up almost a second off the best time set by Vanthoor. The American marque separated the two BMW entries, the #15 car finishing ahead in 11th place.

The #63 Lamborghini shared by Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kvyat and Edoardo Mortara was classified 17th, only ahead of the #38 Jota Porsche in the Hypercar class.

McLaren quickest in LMGT3

In the LMGT3 class, Marino Sato ended up fastest in the #95 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 with a best lap of 1m40.528s.

However, the sister #59 McLaren driven by Gregoire Saucy caused the only major interruption of the session when he stopped at the Dunlop chicane with 21 minutes left on the clock.

The car could be recovered quickly, with green flag being waved with 14 minutes remaining.

Alessio Rovera set an identical time to Sato in the #55 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 to finish second, with Davide Rigon finishing another two tenths behind in the sister Ferrari to claim third.

The best of the rest was Franck Perera in the #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo with a best effort of 1m40.849s.

   
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Cla Team # Drivers Car Laps Time Interval km/h
1
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
6 France K. Estre Germany A. Lotterer Belgium L. Vanthoor Porsche 963 39

1'30.561

  181.389
2
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
8 Switzerland S. Buemi New Zealand B. Hartley Japan R. Hirakawa Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 43

+0.010

1'30.571

0.010 181.369
3
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
50 Italy A. Fuoco Spain M. Molina Denmark N. Nielsen Ferrari 499P 45

+0.543

1'31.104

0.533 180.308
4
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
5 Australia M. Campbell Denmark M. Christensen France F. Makowiecki Porsche 963 43

+0.567

1'31.128

0.024 180.260
5
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
7 United Kingdom M. Conway Japan K. Kobayashi Netherlands N. de Vries Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 43

+0.585

1'31.146

0.018 180.225
6
AF Corse HYPERCAR
83 Poland R. Kubica Israel R. Shwartzman China Y. Yifei Ferrari 499P 44

+0.721

1'31.282

0.136 179.956
7
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
94 United Kingdom P. di Resta France L. Duval Belgium S. Vandoorne Peugeot 9X8 2024 36

+0.729

1'31.290

0.008 179.940
8
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
35 France J. Gounon Austria F. Habsburg France C. Milesi Alpine A424 46

+0.737

1'31.298

0.008 179.925
9
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
12 United Kingdom W. Stevens United Kingdom C. Ilott France N. Nato Porsche 963 47

+0.744

1'31.305

0.007 179.911
10
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
51 Italy A. Pier Guidi United Kingdom J. Calado Italy A. Giovinazzi Ferrari 499P 39

+0.763

1'31.324

0.019 179.873
11
BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR
15 Belgium D. Vanthoor Italy R. Marciello Germany M. Wittmann BMW M Hybrid V8 51

+0.845

1'31.406

0.082 179.712
12
CADILLAC RACING HYPERCAR
2 New Zealand E. Bamber United Kingdom A. Lynn Cadillac V-Series.R 38

+0.960

1'31.521

0.115 179.486
13
BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR
20 South Africa S. Van Der Linde Netherlands R. Frijns Germany R. Rast BMW M Hybrid V8 45

+1.011

1'31.572

0.051 179.386
14
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
36 France N. Lapierre Germany M. Schumacher France M. Vaxiviere Alpine A424 49

+1.151

1'31.712

0.140 179.112
15
Proton Competition HYPERCAR
99 United Kingdom H. Tincknell Switzerland N. Jani France J. Andlauer Porsche 963 43

+1.168

1'31.729

0.017 179.079
16
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
93 Denmark M. Jensen Switzerland N. Müller France J. Vergne Peugeot 9X8 2024 31

+1.190

1'31.751

0.022 179.036
17
Lamborghini Iron Lynx HYPERCAR
63 Italy M. Bortolotti Switzerland E. Mortara Russian Federation D. Kvyat Lamborghini SC63 45

+1.192

1'31.753

0.002 179.032
18
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
38 United Kingdom J. Button United Kingdom P. Hanson Denmark O. Rasmussen Porsche 963 46

+1.248

1'31.809

0.056 178.923
19
United Autosports LMGT3
95 United Kingdom J. Caygill Chile N. Pino Japan M. Sato McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 42

+9.967

1'40.528

8.719 163.405
20
Vista AF Corse LMGT3
55 France F. Heriau France S. Mann Italy A. Rovera Ferrari 296 GT3 41

+9.967

1'40.528

0.000 163.405
21
Vista AF Corse LMGT3
54 Switzerland T. Flohr Italy F. Castellacci Italy D. Rigon Ferrari 296 GT3 38

+10.232

1'40.793

0.265 162.975
22
IRON LYNX LMGT3
60 Italy C. Schiavoni Italy M. Cressoni
F. Perera
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 41

+10.288

1'40.849

0.056 162.885
23
Proton Competition LMGT3
88 Germany C. Ried
M. Pedersen
Norway D. Olsen
Ford Mustang GT3 36

+10.333

1'40.894

0.045 162.812
24
AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3
78
A. Robin
Austria C. Schmid South Africa K. van der Linde
Lexus RC F GT3 38

+10.350

1'40.911

0.017 162.785
25
TF Sport LMGT3
81 Belgium T. Van Rompuy Portugal R. Andrade Ireland C. Eastwood Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 43

+10.386

1'40.947

0.036 162.726
26
TF Sport LMGT3
82 Japan H. Koizumi
S. Baud
Spain D. Juncadella
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 41

+10.395

1'40.956

0.009 162.712
27
United Autosports LMGT3
59 J. Cottingham N. Costa Switzerland G. Saucy McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 34

+10.452

1'41.013

0.057 162.620
28
D'Station Racing LMGT3
777 France C. Mateu
E. Bastard
Denmark M. Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 42

+10.564

1'41.125

0.112 162.440
29
AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3
87 Japan T. Kimura
E. Masson
Argentina J. Lopez
Lexus RC F GT3 38

+10.609

1'41.170

0.045 162.368
30
Proton Competition LMGT3
77 United States R. Hardwick Canada Z. Robichon United Kingdom B. Barker Ford Mustang GT3 39

+10.629

1'41.190

0.020 162.336
31
IRON DAMES LMGT3
85 Belgium S. Bovy Switzerland R. Frey Denmark M. Gatting Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 40

+10.784

1'41.345

0.155 162.087
32
Manthey EMA LMGT3
91
Y. Shahin
M. Schuring
Austria R. Lietz
Porsche 911 GT3 R 42

+11.144

1'41.705

0.360 161.514
33
Heart of Racing Team LMGT3
27 United Kingdom I. James Italy D. Mancinelli Spain A. Riberas Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 20

+11.170

1'41.731

0.026 161.472
34
TEAM WRT LMGT3
46 United Kingdom A. Al Harthy Italy V. Rossi Belgium M. Martin BMW M4 GT3 34

+11.217

1'41.778

0.047 161.398
35
TEAM WRT LMGT3
31
D. Leung
Indonesia S. Gelael Brazil A. Farfus
BMW M4 GT3 38

+11.439

1'42.000

0.222 161.047
36
Manthey PureRxcing LMGT3
92
A. Malykhin
J. Sturm
Austria K. Bachler
Porsche 911 GT3 R 44

+11.573

1'42.134

0.134 160.835

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