Toyota leads EL1 at Fuji

The first free practice session for the 6 Hours of Fuji was dominated by the two Toyota TS050 Hybrids.

Published on 12/10/2018 à 06:07

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Interrupted for nearly 30 minutes due to a vibrator but extended accordingly, the first free practice session for the 6 Hours of Fuji, fourth round of the WEC, was dominated by both Toyota TS050 Hybrid.

Although weighed down by 26 kg by the new EoT, the Japanese were more than a second behind the competition, the advantage going to the n°8. At the wheel of the latter, which he shares with Fernando Alonso et Kazuki Nakajima, Sébastien Buemi completed a lap of Fuji Speedway in 1:25. No. 847 of Mike conway-José Maria Lopez-Kamui Kobayashi follows at 0”5.

In the LM P1 Non-Hybrid clan, it was the #1 BR11-AER of Mikhail Aleshin-Jenson Button-Vitaly Petrov which stood out in 1’26”890, 1”043 from the reference mark. But the two Rebellion R13s follow at 0”3 and 0”7. The BR1-Gibson n°10 from DragonSpeed and the CLM P1/01 from ByKolles, on the other hand, are behind by 3"2 and 4"4.

The latter even had difficulty getting rid of the fastest LM P2, a category dominated this morning by the No. 07 Oreca 28 of TDS Racing, entrusted this weekend to Matthieu Vaxivière, François Perrodo and Jean-Eric Vergne. Credited with a time of 1'30"360, she relegated the rest of the pack to more than a second. The top three is completed by two other Oreca, namely the #38 of Jackie Chan DC Racing (Aubry-Richelmi-Tung) and the #31 of DragonSpeed (Maldonado-Davidson-Gonzalez), which is ahead of the Dallara P217 n °29 and theAlpine A470 n°36.

In GTE Pro, despite a very penalizing BoP, the No. 66 Ford GT of Stefan Mücke-Olivier Pla rose to the top of the timesheet in 1'38"555. The American is ahead of both Porsche 911 RSR by Bruni-Lietz and Christensen-Vanthoor. The best Aston Martin Vantage AMR and the BMW M8 GTE are 0”9 and 1”1. The Bavarian, although copiously lightened, still seems to struggle.

Finally, the best time in GTE Am was signed in the final moments by the No. 98 Aston Martin of Dalla Lana-Lamy-Lauda, which precedes the Porsche 911 RSR of the championship leaders, namely the No. 77 fielded by Dempsey-Proton Racing for Julien Andlauer, Matt Campbell and Christian Ried.

The second free practice session is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. French time.