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Practice report
WEC Fuji

WEC Fuji: BMW leads Porsche and Cadillac in tight FP2

BMW tops a fiercely competitive second practice at WEC Fuji from Porsche and Cadillac

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Marco Wittmann

#15 BMW M Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8: Dries Vanthoor, Raffaele Marciello, Marco Wittmann

Photo by: Andreas Beil

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

#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

#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
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4
   
   
1
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2
   
Cla Team # Drivers Car Laps Time Interval km/h
1
BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR
15 Belgium D. Vanthoor Italy R. Marciello Germany M. Wittmann BMW M Hybrid V8 53

1'29.577

  183.381
2
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
5 Australia M. Campbell Denmark M. Christensen France F. Makowiecki Porsche 963 44

+0.009

1'29.586

0.009 183.363
3
CADILLAC RACING HYPERCAR
2 New Zealand E. Bamber United Kingdom A. Lynn Cadillac V-Series.R 48

+0.015

1'29.592

0.006 183.351
4
AF Corse HYPERCAR
83 Poland R. Kubica Israel R. Shwartzman China Y. Yifei Ferrari 499P 53

+0.327

1'29.904

0.312 182.714
5
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
8 Switzerland S. Buemi New Zealand B. Hartley Japan R. Hirakawa Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 52

+0.346

1'29.923

0.019 182.676
6
BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR
20 South Africa S. Van Der Linde Netherlands R. Frijns Germany R. Rast BMW M Hybrid V8 54

+0.379

1'29.956

0.033 182.609
7
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
51 Italy A. Pier Guidi United Kingdom J. Calado Italy A. Giovinazzi Ferrari 499P 52

+0.398

1'29.975

0.019 182.570
8
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
38 United Kingdom J. Button United Kingdom P. Hanson Denmark O. Rasmussen Porsche 963 53

+0.436

1'30.013

0.038 182.493
9
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
7 United Kingdom M. Conway Japan K. Kobayashi Netherlands N. de Vries Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 52

+0.440

1'30.017

0.004 182.485
10
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
6 France K. Estre Germany A. Lotterer Belgium L. Vanthoor Porsche 963 42

+0.554

1'30.131

0.114 182.254
11
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
35 France J. Gounon Austria F. Habsburg France C. Milesi Alpine A424 52

+0.761

1'30.338

0.207 181.837
12
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
12 United Kingdom W. Stevens United Kingdom C. Ilott France N. Nato Porsche 963 53

+0.829

1'30.406

0.068 181.700
13
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
36 France N. Lapierre Germany M. Schumacher France M. Vaxiviere Alpine A424 54

+0.904

1'30.481

0.075 181.549
14
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
93 Denmark M. Jensen Switzerland N. Müller France J. Vergne Peugeot 9X8 2024 46

+0.945

1'30.522

0.041 181.467
15
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
50 Italy A. Fuoco Spain M. Molina Denmark N. Nielsen Ferrari 499P 40

+1.016

1'30.593

0.071 181.325
16
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
94 United Kingdom P. di Resta France L. Duval Belgium S. Vandoorne Peugeot 9X8 2024 49

+1.255

1'30.832

0.239 180.848
17
Lamborghini Iron Lynx HYPERCAR
63 Italy M. Bortolotti Switzerland E. Mortara Russian Federation D. Kvyat Lamborghini SC63 45

+1.259

1'30.836

0.004 180.840
18
Proton Competition HYPERCAR
99 United Kingdom H. Tincknell Switzerland N. Jani France J. Andlauer Porsche 963 53

+1.641

1'31.218

0.382 180.082
19
Vista AF Corse LMGT3
55 France F. Heriau France S. Mann Italy A. Rovera Ferrari 296 GT3 43

+11.105

1'40.682

9.464 163.155
20
TF Sport LMGT3
82 Japan H. Koizumi
S. Baud
Spain D. Juncadella
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 46

+11.274

1'40.851

0.169 162.881
21
IRON LYNX LMGT3
60 Italy C. Schiavoni Italy M. Cressoni
F. Perera
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 45

+11.283

1'40.860

0.009 162.867
22
Vista AF Corse LMGT3
54 Switzerland T. Flohr Italy F. Castellacci Italy D. Rigon Ferrari 296 GT3 46

+11.347

1'40.924

0.064 162.764
23
AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3
87 Japan T. Kimura
E. Masson
Argentina J. Lopez
Lexus RC F GT3 45

+11.418

1'40.995

0.071 162.649
24
United Autosports LMGT3
95 United Kingdom J. Caygill Chile N. Pino Japan 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 Switzerland G. Saucy McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 47

+11.497

1'41.074

0.039 162.522
26
AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3
78
A. Robin
Austria C. Schmid South Africa K. van der Linde
Lexus RC F GT3 44

+11.566

1'41.143

0.069 162.411
27
Proton Competition LMGT3
88 Germany C. Ried
M. Pedersen
Norway D. Olsen
Ford Mustang GT3 31

+11.661

1'41.238

0.095 162.259
28
Heart of Racing Team LMGT3
27 United Kingdom I. James Italy D. Mancinelli Spain A. Riberas Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 42

+11.663

1'41.240

0.002 162.256
29
D'Station Racing LMGT3
777 France C. Mateu
E. Bastard
Denmark 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
Austria R. Lietz
Porsche 911 GT3 R 43

+11.705

1'41.282

0.030 162.188
31
TF Sport LMGT3
81 Belgium T. Van Rompuy Portugal R. Andrade Ireland C. Eastwood Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 47

+11.721

1'41.298

0.016 162.163
32
TEAM WRT LMGT3
46 United Kingdom A. Al Harthy Italy V. Rossi Belgium M. Martin BMW M4 GT3 46

+11.810

1'41.387

0.089 162.020
33
IRON DAMES LMGT3
85 Belgium S. Bovy Switzerland R. Frey Denmark 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
Austria K. Bachler
Porsche 911 GT3 R 47

+12.081

1'41.658

0.220 161.588
35
TEAM WRT LMGT3
31
D. Leung
Indonesia S. Gelael Brazil A. Farfus
BMW M4 GT3 45

+12.195

1'41.772

0.114 161.407
36
Proton Competition LMGT3
77 United States R. Hardwick Canada Z. Robichon United Kingdom B. Barker Ford Mustang GT3 40

+12.506

1'42.083

0.311 160.916

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