6H of Fuji – Toyota dominates the first tests

Victorieux de sept des huit dernières éditions des 6 Heures de Fuji, le Toyota Gazoo Racing a marqué son territoire lors des deux premières séances d’Essais Libres de ce cru 2022. La première session de roulage a ainsi été dominée par la GR010 Hybrid n°8 de Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa in 1:31.171. The sister car (Mike conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez) took second place 0.247 seconds behind, before dominating Free Practice 2 in 1:29.948; 0.225 seconds ahead of #8.

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The Peugeot TotalEnergies were on pace with the Japanese cars during the first session with the #9 8X94 of Loïc duval, Gustavo Menezes, James Rossiter just 0.268 seconds behind the best time. The No. 93 of Paul di Resta, Mikkel Jensen and Jean-Éric Vergne took fourth place at 0.567. The two French Hypercars were a little further behind in terms of time a little later in the day, more than a second (3rd and 5th).

Alpine set back

Slowed down by the Performance Balance, theAlpine A480-Gibson finished more than a second behind, at 1.385 in first practice, barely ahead of the first LM P2, the #83 of AF Corse (François Perrodo, Nicklas Nielsen, Alessio Rovera). Filipe Albuquerque and Alex Lynn managed a funny performance in this category, the two United Autosports teammates achieving exactly the same time in 1:32.866! The Jotas were the fastest in the second timed exercise this Friday with the No. 38 (Roberto Gonzalez, Antonio Felix da Costa, Williams Stevens) ahead of No. 28 (Oliver Rasmussen, Edward Jones, Jonathan Aberdein).

Well that's something you don't see everyday 😅

⏱Both @Albuquick in #22 & @alexlynnracing in #23 have set the EXACT same time in their first outing around Fuji- at ​​1:32:866!#BeUnited #6HFuji pic.twitter.com/T0QrResos8

— United Autosports (@UnitedAutosport) September 9, 2022

Ferrari at ease in LMGTE Pro

Ferrari took the best of Porsche et Corvette en LMGTE Pro avec la n°51 d’Alessandro Pier Guidi et James Calado en 1:37.892, devançant de 0.169 seconde seulement la Porsche n°92 de Michael Christensen et Kévin Estre. Le duo italo-britannique a renouvelé sa performance lors de la deuxième séance en 1:37.682.

Team Project 1 took the best of EL1 with the #46 of Matteo Cairoli, Mikkel Pedersen and Nicolas Leutwiler ahead of both Aston Martin Vantage AMR #777 of D'Station Racing (Satoshi Hoshino, Tomonobu Fujii, Charles Fagg) and #98 of Northwest AMR (Paul Dalla Lana, David Pittard, Nicki Thiim). The Iron Ladies (Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting, Rahel Frey) dominated the second session in 1:39.170 ahead of the #60 Iron Lynx of Matteo Cressoni, Giancarlo Fisichella and Claudio Schiavoni in 1:39.185.

Find the Free Practice 1 rankings HERE

Find the Free Practice 2 rankings HERE