WEC Fuji: Toyota stays on top in second practice

The Japanese marque once again locked out the top two places in an incident-free 90-minute session on Friday afternoon, with Kamui Kobayashi setting the fastest time aboard the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID.

Kobayashi set what proved to be the benchmark time of 1m29.948s at the start of the session, going more than a second quicker than Sebastien Buemi had managed in the sister #8 Toyota in the morning.

Brendon Hartley was 0.225s off Kobayashi's pace in the #8 machine, which is Toyota's better-placed car in the drivers' standings.

The quicker of Peugeot's two new 9X8 Le Mans Hypercars, the #94 car, was third-fastest in the hands of Loic Duval.

His best time of 1m31.194s was three tenths quicker than either Peugeot had managed in FP1, but left the French marque 1.246s away from the top spot.

The points-leading Alpine A480 grandfathered LMP1 car was fourth-fastest in the hands of Nicolas Lapierre, 1.414s off the pace, followed by the #93 Peugeot in which Jean-Eric Vergne set the best time.

Jota's pair of ORECA 07s topped the LMP2 division, with Antonio Felix da Costa's early effort of 1m32.351s putting the points-leading #38 car at the head of the order.

The sister #28 car of Ed Jones was just 0.142s back in second, followed by the best of the United Autosports ORECAs, the #22 car, in the hands of Filipe Albuquerque.

Nicklas Nielsen put the Pro/Am AF Corse ORECA fourth-fastest ahead of the WRT ORECA of Robin Frijns in fifth.

#83 AF Corse Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2: Francois Perrodo, Nicklas Nielsen, Alessio Rovera (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Ferrari maintained the advantage in GTE Pro as the #51 488 GTE Evo once again topped the class.

Alessandro Pier Guidi's best time of 1m37.682s put him 0.164s up on the best of the Porsche 911 RSR-19s, the #91 car in which Gianmaria Bruni set the best time in the final few minutes of the session.

The #92 Porsche was third-fastest with Kevin Estre at the wheel, followed by the #52 Ferrari of Miguel Molina and the solo Corvette C8.R of Tommy Milner, who ended up 0.769s off the pace.

Iron Dames Ferrari driver Michelle Gatting was fastest in GTE Am on a 1m39.170s, which was 0.015s faster than both the sister Iron Lynx Ferrari of ex-Formula 1 racer Giancarlo Fisichella and the TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GTE of Marco Sorensen, which set identical times.

Practice for the 6 Hours of Fuji continues on Saturday morning at 10.20am local time (GMT +9) ahead of qualifying at 2.40pm.

WEC 6 Hours of Fuji - Second practice results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'29.948
2	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'30.173	0.225
3	94	Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes James Rossiter	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	1'31.194	1.246
4	36	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	1'31.362	1.414
5	93	Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	1'31.539	1.591
6	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'32.351	2.403
7	28	Oliver Rasmussen Ed Jones Jonathan Aberdein	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'32.493	2.545
8	22	Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Will Owen	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'32.510	2.562
9	83	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'32.642	2.694
10	31	Sean Gelael Robin Frijns Dries Vanthoor	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'32.788	2.840
11	41	Rui Andrade Ferdinand Habsburg Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'32.906	2.958
12	9	Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz Lorenzo Colombo	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'32.978	3.030
13	10	Renger van der Zande Ryan Cullen Sébastien Bourdais	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'33.054	3.106
14	23	Alex Lynn Oliver Jarvis Josh Pierson	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'33.069	3.121
15	34	Jakub Smiechowski Alex Brundle Esteban Gutierrez	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'33.419	3.471
16	1	Lilou Wadoux Paul-Loup Chatin Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'33.773	3.825
17	45	Thomas Steven James Allen Rene Binder	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'33.854	3.906
18	35	Jean Baptiste Lahaye Matthieu Lahaye François Heriau	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'35.512	5.564
19	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'37.682	7.734
20	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'37.846	7.898
21	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'37.892	7.944
22	52	Miguel Molina Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'38.019	8.071
23	64	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE PRO	1'38.451	8.503
24	85	Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Sarah Bovy	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'39.170	9.222
25	60	Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'39.185	9.237
26	33	Ben Keating Henrique Chaves Jr. Marco Sorensen	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'39.185	9.237
27	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'39.267	9.319
28	46	Matteo Cairoli Mikkel Pedersen Nicolas Leutwiler	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'39.335	9.387
29	86	Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'39.346	9.398
30	71	Franck Dezoteux Pierre Ragues Gabriel Aubry	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'39.408	9.460
31	777	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Charlie Fagg	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'39.451	9.503
32	77	Christian Ried Sebastian Priaulx Harry Tincknell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'39.572	9.624
33	98	Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'39.625	9.677
34	56	Takeshi Kimura Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'39.748	9.800
35	88	Fred Poordad Patrick Lindsey Jan Heylen	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'39.832	9.884
36	21	Simon Mann Christoph Ulrich Toni Vilander	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'39.917	9.969
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