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Motorsport

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WEC Fuji: BMW leads Porsche and Cadillac in tight FP2

Porsche BMW Cadillac WEC Fuji (Facility) Dries Vanthoor Ferrari Toyota Lamborghini Alessio Rovera

BMW, Porsche and Cadillac ended up within two hundredths of each other at the top of the times in second free practice for Sunday’s World Endurance Championship round at Fuji.

Dries Vanthoor led the way for the WRT BMW team from Porsche driver Matt Campbell and Cadillac’s Alex Lynn in the 90-minute FP2 session on Friday afternoon.

Vanthoor posted a 1m29.577s during the opening minutes of the session in the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh before Campbell got down to a 1m29.586s in the #5 Penske-run factory Porsche 963 LMDh to end up just nine thousandths in arrears.

Lynn then lapped the 2.84-mile Fuji Speedway in 1m29.592s aboard the solo Ganassi Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh to end up 0.15s off the pace.

The leading contenders in FP2 all set their times at the beginning of the session when they were on fresh tyres, Vanthoor’s session best representing an improvement of almost exactly a second over the time set by his brother Laurens for Porsche that took top spot in FP1.

Ferrari ended up fourth with the #83 AF Corse-run customer entry, Robert Kubica getting down to a 1m29.904s in the 499P Le Mans Hypercar that won last time out in the WEC at Austin earlier this month.

Ryo Hirakawa claimed fifth on home ground for Toyota with a 1m29.923s aboard the #8 GR010 HYBRID LMH.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Nyck de Vries (Photo by: Andreas Beil)

BMW had two cars in the top six, Robin Frijns ending up on a 1m29.956s in the second of the M Hybrids.

Antonio Giovinazzi took seventh spot for the factory Ferrari squad as the last driver to break 1m30s with a 1m29.975s.

Oliver Rasmussen in the #38 Porsche run by the privateer Jota team claimed eighth ahead of the second Toyota in which Kamui Kobayashi set the time.

The top 10 was rounded out by the second of the Penske Porsches in which Kevin Estre was still three tenths up on team-mate Vanthoor’s morning best.

Alpine took 11th and 13th positions with its pair of Signatech A424 LMDhs, Charles Milesi ending up little more than a tenth ahead of Matthieu Vaxiviere.

Best of the Peugeot 9X8 2024 LMHs was the #93 car in which Mikkel Jensen took 14th spot as the last driver within a second of the pace.

The solo Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 LMDh was down 17th in Daniil Kvyat’s hands.

#55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3: Francois Heriau, Simon Mann, Alessio Rovera (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Alessio Rovera jumped to the top of the charts in LMGT3 in the fastest of the AF Corse-run Ferrari 296 GT3s, the factory driver’s 1m40.682s a couple of tenths faster than bronze-rated Hiroshi Koizumi in the #82 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

The local driver’s 1m40.851s set at the start of the session still stood as second best despite some late improvements.

Franck Perera got down to a 1m40.860s in the Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 to take third.

Track action at Fuji resumes on Saturday with a final, hour-long session of free practice beginning at 10:20 local time before qualifying kicks off at 14:20.

WEC Fuji - FP2 results

1 - 2
Cla	Team	#	Drivers	Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h
1	BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR	15	D. Vanthoor R. Marciello M. Wittmann	BMW M Hybrid V8	53	1'29.577		183.381
2	PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR	5	M. Campbell M. Christensen F. Makowiecki	Porsche 963	44	+0.009 1'29.586	0.009	183.363
3	CADILLAC RACING HYPERCAR	2	E. Bamber A. Lynn	Cadillac V-Series.R	48	+0.015 1'29.592	0.006	183.351
4	AF Corse HYPERCAR	83	R. Kubica R. Shwartzman Y. Yifei	Ferrari 499P	53	+0.327 1'29.904	0.312	182.714
5	Toyota Racing HYPERCAR	8	S. Buemi B. Hartley R. Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	52	+0.346 1'29.923	0.019	182.676
6	BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR	20	S. Van Der Linde R. Frijns R. Rast	BMW M Hybrid V8	54	+0.379 1'29.956	0.033	182.609
7	FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR	51	A. Pier Guidi J. Calado A. Giovinazzi	Ferrari 499P	52	+0.398 1'29.975	0.019	182.570
8	HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR	38	J. Button P. Hanson O. Rasmussen	Porsche 963	53	+0.436 1'30.013	0.038	182.493
9	Toyota Racing HYPERCAR	7	M. Conway K. Kobayashi N. de Vries	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	52	+0.440 1'30.017	0.004	182.485
10	PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR	6	K. Estre A. Lotterer L. Vanthoor	Porsche 963	42	+0.554 1'30.131	0.114	182.254
11	Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR	35	J. Gounon F. Habsburg C. Milesi	Alpine A424	52	+0.761 1'30.338	0.207	181.837
12	HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR	12	W. Stevens C. Ilott N. Nato	Porsche 963	53	+0.829 1'30.406	0.068	181.700
13	Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR	36	N. Lapierre M. Schumacher M. Vaxiviere	Alpine A424	54	+0.904 1'30.481	0.075	181.549
14	PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR	93	M. Jensen N. Müller J. Vergne	Peugeot 9X8 2024	46	+0.945 1'30.522	0.041	181.467
15	FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR	50	A. Fuoco M. Molina N. Nielsen	Ferrari 499P	40	+1.016 1'30.593	0.071	181.325
16	PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR	94	P. di Resta L. Duval S. Vandoorne	Peugeot 9X8 2024	49	+1.255 1'30.832	0.239	180.848
17	Lamborghini Iron Lynx HYPERCAR	63	M. Bortolotti E. Mortara D. Kvyat	Lamborghini SC63	45	+1.259 1'30.836	0.004	180.840
18	Proton Competition HYPERCAR	99	H. Tincknell N. Jani J. Andlauer	Porsche 963	53	+1.641 1'31.218	0.382	180.082
19	Vista AF Corse LMGT3	55	F. Heriau S. Mann A. Rovera	Ferrari 296 GT3	43	+11.105 1'40.682	9.464	163.155
20	TF Sport LMGT3	82	H. Koizumi S. Baud D. Juncadella	Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	46	+11.274 1'40.851	0.169	162.881
21	IRON LYNX LMGT3	60	C. Schiavoni M. Cressoni F. Perera	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2	45	+11.283 1'40.860	0.009	162.867
22	Vista AF Corse LMGT3	54	T. Flohr F. Castellacci D. Rigon	Ferrari 296 GT3	46	+11.347 1'40.924	0.064	162.764
23	AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3	87	T. Kimura E. Masson J. Lopez	Lexus RC F GT3	45	+11.418 1'40.995	0.071	162.649
24	United Autosports LMGT3	95	J. Caygill N. Pino M. Sato	McLaren 720S GT3 Evo	48	+11.458 1'41.035	0.040	162.585
25	United Autosports LMGT3	59	J. Cottingham N. Costa G. Saucy	McLaren 720S GT3 Evo	47	+11.497 1'41.074	0.039	162.522
26	AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3	78	A. Robin C. Schmid K. van der Linde	Lexus RC F GT3	44	+11.566 1'41.143	0.069	162.411
27	Proton Competition LMGT3	88	C. Ried M. Pedersen D. Olsen	Ford Mustang GT3	31	+11.661 1'41.238	0.095	162.259
28	Heart of Racing Team LMGT3	27	I. James D. Mancinelli A. Riberas	Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3	42	+11.663 1'41.240	0.002	162.256
29	D'Station Racing LMGT3	777	C. Mateu E. Bastard M. Sorensen	Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3	44	+11.675 1'41.252	0.012	162.236
30	Manthey EMA LMGT3	91	Y. Shahin M. Schuring R. Lietz	Porsche 911 GT3 R	43	+11.705 1'41.282	0.030	162.188
31	TF Sport LMGT3	81	T. Van Rompuy R. Andrade C. Eastwood	Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R	47	+11.721 1'41.298	0.016	162.163
32	TEAM WRT LMGT3	46	A. Al Harthy V. Rossi M. Martin	BMW M4 GT3	46	+11.810 1'41.387	0.089	162.020
33	IRON DAMES LMGT3	85	S. Bovy R. Frey M. Gatting	Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2	45	+11.861 1'41.438	0.051	161.939
34	Manthey PureRxcing LMGT3	92	A. Malykhin J. Sturm K. Bachler	Porsche 911 GT3 R	47	+12.081 1'41.658	0.220	161.588
35	TEAM WRT LMGT3	31	D. Leung S. Gelael A. Farfus	BMW M4 GT3	45	+12.195 1'41.772	0.114	161.407
36	Proton Competition LMGT3	77	R. Hardwick Z. Robichon B. Barker	Ford Mustang GT3	40	+12.506 1'42.083	0.311	160.916
View full results