Porsche on pole at Fuji

With the rain expected to intensify, qualifying for the 6 Hours of Fuji was brought forward by 30 minutes. As tradition dictates, the GTs took to the track first. Many drivers have made mistakes, like Michael Christensen (Porsche 911 RSR n°92), Andy Priaulx (Ford GT n°67) or Mike Hedlund (Porsche 911 RSR n°86).

In the end, the Porsche 911 RSR confirmed its performance in free practice. The duo Richard Lietz-Frédéric Makowiecki, thanks to an average time of 1'47"577, took pole position in the GTE Pro. The No. 91 was 0 and 441 ahead of the two Ford GTs, the No. 0 of Priaulx-Tincknell having gained the upper hand over the No. 562 of Mücke-Pla. The best Ferrari, the n°71 from Bird-Rigon, is fourth at 0”618. She is ahead of the second Porsche from Estre-Christensen andAston Martin Vantage n°95 of Thiim-Sorensen, who concedes more than a second to the reference mark.

In GTE Am, the No. 488 Clearwater Racing Ferrari 61 GTE also confirmed its good form, with the Griffin-Mok-Sawa trio taking pole position. Followed by the #77 Porsche of Dienst-Cairoli-Ried (Dempsey-Proton Racing), the #98 Aston Martin Vantage of Lauda-Lamy-Dalla Lana and the #86 Porsche of Hedlund-Barker-Foster (Gulf Racing) .

When the prototypes took to the track, as planned, the rain intensified. On the lands of Toyota, Porsche took its fourth pole position of the season thanks to the No. 2, entrusted during this session to Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley. The two men, authors of an average time of 1'35"160, beat Lotterer-Tandy's sister car by 0"071. The two Germans preceded the two Toyota TS050 Hybrids, which follow at 0”195 and 1”470 respectively. In the Japanese clan, the pair Buemi-Nakajima, who officiates on the No. 8, got the better of Lopez's No. 7-Kobayashi. Too bad, the gap is small and when we know that Buemi was hampered in his best lap, we must say in the Japanese clan that there was a way to do well.

In LM P2, the duel between Jackie Chan DC Racing and Vaillante Rebellion turned to the advantage of the Swiss team. The No. 07 Oreca 13 took pole position thanks to an average time of 1”44”196. Piquet Jr and Heinemeier Hansson were 0 ahead of their teammates Bruno Senna and Julien Canal. Thomas Laurent and Ho-Pin Tung must therefore be content with third place, losing 0 to the best time in the category. L'Alpine A470 #36 is fourth and precedes the second car from Jackie Chan DC Racing and the 07 #26 from G-Drive Racing.

The start of the race is supposed to be given tomorrow at 4 a.m. French time, but with the weather forecast being very threatening, uncertainty reigns.