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Practice report

WEC Fuji: Toyota stays on top in second practice

Toyota maintained its position at the head of the leaderboard in second practice for this weekend's Fuji round of the World Endurance Championship.

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid LMP1: Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid LMP1: Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

JEP / Motorsport Images

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.

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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

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

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