Alpine overturns Toyota lead as Fuji WEC practice opens with tight margins

News Summary

Toyota’s #8 led FP1 at Fuji with Ryō Hirakawa’s 1:29.694
Victor Martins placed the #36 Alpine on top of FP2 with a 1:29.304
Augusto Farfus finished seventh in LMGT3 in FP1 before Ford led the class in FP2

Toyota and Alpine shared the opening day honours at the 6 Hours of Fuji as the FIA World Endurance Championship returned to Japan on Friday.

Home driver Ryō Hirakawa established the initial benchmark by taking the #8 Toyota TR010 Hybrid to the top of FP1. Victor Martins responded during the afternoon, placing the #36 Alpine A424 ahead of Aston Martin and Alpine’s sister car in an extremely close FP2.

Only 0.093s covered the leading three Hypercars in the second session, while Genesis, Aston Martin and Cadillac also showed enough performance to challenge Toyota and Alpine.

Hirakawa puts Toyota on top at home

Hirakawa completed FP1 with a 1:29.694 in the #8 Toyota shared with Sébastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley.

The Japanese driver beat the #12 Cadillac of Will Stevens and Norman Nato by 0.343s. Ferrari’s #50 499P took third, 0.509s behind Toyota, followed by the #38 Cadillac and the #36 Alpine.

Genesis placed its #19 GMR-001 sixth on the manufacturer’s first visit to Fuji, while Aston Martin’s #007 Valkyrie took seventh.

Toyota’s #7 entry, driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Nyck de Vries, finished eighth. The #83 AF Corse Ferrari and championship-leading #51 Ferrari completed the top ten.

The session reinforced Toyota’s traditional strength at its home circuit. The Japanese manufacturer is chasing a tenth WEC victory at Fuji, although the small gaps suggested that the weekend would not become a private Toyota contest.

Alpine leads ultra-close FP2 at Fuji

Alpine moved to the front during the second 90-minute session as Martins completed a 1:29.304 in the #36 A424 shared with Jules Gounon.

Tom Gamble placed the #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie second, only 0.039s behind, while the #35 Alpine of Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi completed the top three at +0.093s.

The #19 Genesis took fourth before André Lotterer, Pipo Derani and Mathys Jaubert placed the #17 Genesis fifth, 0.254s away from Martins.

Aston Martin’s #009 was sixth, ahead of the #38 Cadillac. FP1 leader Toyota fell to eighth with the #8 car, while Peugeot’s #93 and Cadillac’s #12 completed the top ten.

Two Full Course Yellow periods were required to remove debris around Turn 3, but the interruptions did not prevent teams from completing substantial long-run programmes.

McLaren and Ford share LMGT3 honours

McLaren controlled the opening LMGT3 session with a one-two. Finn Gehrsitz led the class in the #58 Garage 59 McLaren, ahead of the sister #10 entry.

Augusto Farfus placed the #32 Team WRT BMW seventh in LMGT3 during FP1, keeping the Brazilian crew within the competitive midfield group.

Ford moved ahead in FP2 as Ben Tuck completed a 1:39.828 aboard the #77 Proton Competition Mustang. The #79 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG finished only 0.035s behind, with the #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus third.

Farfus, Darren Leung and Sean Gelael ended FP2 with a 1:40.763 in the #32 BMW, placing them 14th in LMGT3 and 31st overall.

The third free-practice session takes place on Saturday at 01:30 UK time, followed by qualifying at 06:00. The 6 Hours of Fuji starts on Sunday at 03:00 UK time.

GRANDE PRÊMIO follows the latest news and results from the FIA World Endurance Championship.