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Practice report
WEC Fuji

WEC Fuji: Toyota grabs top spot in truncated final practice

Toyota leads the way as a kerb issue brings early end to FP3

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Toyota edged out Cadillac and Ferrari to top a shortened final practice for this weekend’s World Endurance Championship round at Fuji.

The hour-long session was cut short with 19 minutes left on the clock due to possible damage to kerbs located at the exit of Turn 1.

TV images showed officials arriving at the corner to inspect the kerbs after the session was initially red flagged with 23 minutes remaining. A decision was soon taken to not resume the session, likely to help the marshals repair the barriers in time for the remainder of the day’s schedule.

The fastest time of FP3 was set by Ryo Hirakawa, the Japanese driver getting down to 1m29.621s in the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID just six minutes in to beat the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R of Alex Lynn by just 0.086s.

The Japanese driver’s best effort was about half a tenth slower than the time Dries Vanthoor managed in the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 in FP2, but fractionally quicker than the chart-setting lap from the corresponding session in 2023, which was impacted by overnight rain.

Third place went to Antonio Fuoco in the #50 Ferrari 499P, a further 0.020s down on Lynn, while Alpine was the only other team to break the 90s barrier as Charles Milesi set a best time of 1m29.760s in the #35 A424.

Kamui Kobayashi was fifth in the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid after lapping the circuit in 1m30.055s, just finishing ahead of the factory #51 Ferrari driven by Antonio Giovinazzi and customer #83 AF Corse entry of Robert Kubica.

The best-placed Porsche was the customer #38 Jota 963 of Oliver Rasmussen in eighth, ahead of another privateer entry - the #99 Proton Porsche whose best lap was set by Julien Andlauer.

The top 10 was completed by the #63 Lamborghini SC63 of Daniil Kvyat, who set a best time of 1m30.550s.

The best Peugeot was classified 11th, four spots ahead of the leading BMW driven by Rene Rast.

Ferrari 1-2 in LMGT3

In the LMGT3 class, Francois Heirau set a series of quick times to lead a 1-2 for AF Corse Ferrari.

Bronze-rated Heirau initially laid a benchmark of 1m41.479s before improving to 1m41.206s in the #55 Ferrari 296 GT3 to end up a tenth clear of the sister car of Davide Rigon.

Ferrari’s closest challenger was the #78 ASP Lexus RCF GT3, courtesy of a 1m41.422s effort from Arnold Robin.

United Autosports finished fourth thanks to Joshua Caygill’s time of 1m41.532s in the #95 McLaren 720S GT3, ahead of the points-leading Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3R of Aliaksandr Malykhin.

   
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Cla Team # Drivers Car Laps Time Interval km/h
1
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
8 Switzerland S. Buemi New Zealand B. Hartley Japan R. Hirakawa Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 17

1'29.621

  183.291
2
CADILLAC RACING HYPERCAR
2 New Zealand E. Bamber United Kingdom A. Lynn Cadillac V-Series.R 18

+0.086

1'29.707

0.086 183.116
3
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
50 Italy A. Fuoco Spain M. Molina Denmark N. Nielsen Ferrari 499P 21

+0.106

1'29.727

0.020 183.075
4
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
35 France J. Gounon Austria F. Habsburg France C. Milesi Alpine A424 20

+0.139

1'29.760

0.033 183.008
5
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
7 United Kingdom M. Conway Japan K. Kobayashi Netherlands N. de Vries Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 21

+0.434

1'30.055

0.295 182.408
6
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
51 Italy A. Pier Guidi United Kingdom J. Calado Italy A. Giovinazzi Ferrari 499P 20

+0.501

1'30.122

0.067 182.272
7
AF Corse HYPERCAR
83 Poland R. Kubica Israel R. Shwartzman China Y. Yifei Ferrari 499P 22

+0.646

1'30.267

0.145 181.980
8
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
38 United Kingdom J. Button United Kingdom P. Hanson Denmark O. Rasmussen Porsche 963 21

+0.711

1'30.332

0.065 181.849
9
Proton Competition HYPERCAR
99 United Kingdom H. Tincknell Switzerland N. Jani France J. Andlauer Porsche 963 21

+0.827

1'30.448

0.116 181.615
10
Lamborghini Iron Lynx HYPERCAR
63 Italy M. Bortolotti Switzerland E. Mortara Russian Federation D. Kvyat Lamborghini SC63 19

+0.929

1'30.550

0.102 181.411
11
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
93 Denmark M. Jensen Switzerland N. Müller France J. Vergne Peugeot 9X8 2024 21

+1.037

1'30.658

0.108 181.195
12
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
36 France N. Lapierre Germany M. Schumacher France M. Vaxiviere Alpine A424 20

+1.208

1'30.829

0.171 180.854
13
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
12 United Kingdom W. Stevens United Kingdom C. Ilott France N. Nato Porsche 963 21

+1.437

1'31.058

0.229 180.399
14
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
6 France K. Estre Germany A. Lotterer Belgium L. Vanthoor Porsche 963 22

+1.459

1'31.080

0.022 180.355
15
BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR
20 South Africa S. Van Der Linde Netherlands R. Frijns Germany R. Rast BMW M Hybrid V8 22

+1.755

1'31.376

0.296 179.771
16
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
5 Australia M. Campbell Denmark M. Christensen France F. Makowiecki Porsche 963 22

+1.905

1'31.526

0.150 179.476
17
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
94 United Kingdom P. di Resta France L. Duval Belgium S. Vandoorne Peugeot 9X8 2024 18

+2.103

1'31.724

0.198 179.089
18
BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR
15 Belgium D. Vanthoor Italy R. Marciello Germany M. Wittmann BMW M Hybrid V8 23

+2.390

1'32.011

0.287 178.530
19
Vista AF Corse LMGT3
55 France F. Heriau France S. Mann Italy A. Rovera Ferrari 296 GT3 18

+11.585

1'41.206

9.195 162.310
20
Vista AF Corse LMGT3
54 Switzerland T. Flohr Italy F. Castellacci Italy D. Rigon Ferrari 296 GT3 18

+11.692

1'41.313

0.107 162.139
21
AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3
78
A. Robin
Austria C. Schmid South Africa K. van der Linde
Lexus RC F GT3 17

+11.801

1'41.422

0.109 161.964
22
United Autosports LMGT3
95 United Kingdom J. Caygill Chile N. Pino Japan M. Sato McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 16

+11.911

1'41.532

0.110 161.789
23
Manthey PureRxcing LMGT3
92
A. Malykhin
J. Sturm
Austria K. Bachler
Porsche 911 GT3 R 11

+12.065

1'41.686

0.154 161.544
24
TF Sport LMGT3
82 Japan H. Koizumi
S. Baud
Spain D. Juncadella
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 19

+12.083

1'41.704

0.018 161.515
25
United Autosports LMGT3
59 J. Cottingham N. Costa Switzerland G. Saucy McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 20

+12.086

1'41.707

0.003 161.511
26
Proton Competition LMGT3
88 Germany C. Ried
M. Pedersen
Norway D. Olsen
Ford Mustang GT3 18

+12.124

1'41.745

0.038 161.450
27
TF Sport LMGT3
81 Belgium T. Van Rompuy Portugal R. Andrade Ireland C. Eastwood Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 18

+12.140

1'41.761

0.016 161.425
28
Heart of Racing Team LMGT3
27 United Kingdom I. James Italy D. Mancinelli Spain A. Riberas Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 18

+12.248

1'41.869

0.108 161.254
29
IRON DAMES LMGT3
85 Belgium S. Bovy Switzerland R. Frey Denmark M. Gatting Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 19

+12.398

1'42.019

0.150 161.017
30
Manthey EMA LMGT3
91
Y. Shahin
M. Schuring
Austria R. Lietz
Porsche 911 GT3 R 19

+12.443

1'42.064

0.045 160.946
31
Proton Competition LMGT3
77 United States R. Hardwick Canada Z. Robichon United Kingdom B. Barker Ford Mustang GT3 17

+12.519

1'42.140

0.076 160.826
32
IRON LYNX LMGT3
60 Italy C. Schiavoni Italy M. Cressoni
F. Perera
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 20

+12.580

1'42.201

0.061 160.730
33
TEAM WRT LMGT3
46 United Kingdom A. Al Harthy Italy V. Rossi Belgium M. Martin BMW M4 GT3 17

+12.609

1'42.230

0.029 160.684
34
AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3
87 Japan T. Kimura
E. Masson
Argentina J. Lopez
Lexus RC F GT3 19

+12.645

1'42.266

0.036 160.628
35
D'Station Racing LMGT3
777 France C. Mateu
E. Bastard
Denmark M. Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 19

+12.849

1'42.470

0.204 160.308
36
TEAM WRT LMGT3
31
D. Leung
Indonesia S. Gelael Brazil A. Farfus
BMW M4 GT3 16

+13.683

1'43.304

0.834 159.014

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