Toyota Fastest in friday practices

Sep 8

📷 © Courtesy of Toyota Gazoo Racing: Both Toyota GR010 Hybrid top FP2.

Dry track for the afternoon practice of the 6 Hours of Fuji. Sebastien Buemi was the fastest with the #.8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hypercar Hybrid in 1m29.523s, 0.597s ahead of sister #7 Toyota driven by Kamui Kobayashi who chases his third victory on home ground in WEC.

Sébastien Buemi (Driver, car #8): “We were actually very lucky with the weather today compared to what I was expecting. We were able to do both sessions smoothly and it is helpful to have one fully wet and the other fully dry. I feel like it was a positive Friday. We gathered lots of data and we seem to be quite competitive. Now it’s all about improving for tomorrow. We need to work on keeping the degradation of the tyres under control because that will be a big factor for the race.”

📷 © Courtesy of Toyota Gazoo Racing: #7 GR010 Hybrid second in FP2.

Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7): “It’s great to be back here in Japan to drive in front of our home fans and so many colleagues from Toyota. We experienced quite different track conditions today. In the wet we still need to do some work but in the dry we seem pretty good. We need to make some adjustments to the balance, but we did plenty of laps which is positive. Track evolution could be a big factor here in the race because there are a lot of laps and we’ve had a lot of rain. We need to adjust our car and be ready for that. This is only the start of the event so we will keep pushing.”

📷 © Courtesy of Porsche: P3 in FP2 for #38 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963

Antonio Felix da Costa was third best with #38 Hertz Team Jota Porsche 963 in 1m30.584.

Alessandro Pier Guidi got his #51 Ferrari 499P in P4.

📷 © Courtesy of Porsche: #5 Porsche Penske 963 is fifth thanks to Michael Christensen.

#5 Porsche Penske 963 is fifth thanks to Michael Christensen who was the fastest of #5 squad.

Nicklas Nielsen was the fastest of the #50 Ferrari 499P drivers which puts the second Ferrari in P6 of the session. His teammate Antonio Fuoco was the fastest in a wet but drying first free practice session 2.6 seconds ahead of the sister Ferrari 499P driven by Antonio Giovinazzi (second of the session).

The two Peugeot 9X8 are seventh and eight.

📷 © Courtesy of Porsche: Laurens Vanthoor drove the Porsche in P4 during the wet morning practice.

Kevin Estre got his #6 Porsche 969 in P9 during this session after Laurens Vanthoor drove the Porsche in P4 during the wet morning practice.

WRT, JOTA and United Autosport dominate LMP2

Source FIA WEC: LMP2 classification FP2 at Fuji

Louis Deletraz was quickest of the day with points leading #41 WRT entry ahead of #28 Jota Oreca-Gibson with Pietro Fittipaldi on the wheel. Oliver Jarvis' lap in the #23 United Autosports Oreca-Gibson which sits third. #31 WRT car, which won the 2022 6 Hours of Fuji, is fourth with Ferdinand Habsburg driving the fastest lap of the squad.

Ferrari and Porsche in top spot LMGTE AM

Source FIA WEC: LMGTE AM classification FP2 at Fuji

Davide Rigon leads the way in LMGTE Am category for the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo squad ahead of Kei Cozzolino driving #21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo heading Alessio Rovera with the Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari #83 for 0.006s