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Autosport
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Sport
Jamie Klein

WEC Fuji: Ferrari leads first practice from Peugeot

Antonio Fuoco set a best time of 1m35.649s at the end of the 90-minute session in the #50 Ferrari 499P LMH, a massive 2.6 seconds up on the sister #51 machine as the track rapidly improved late on.

Best of the rest in third was the #94 Peugeot 9X8, followed by the two works Penske Porsche 963s in fourth and fifth, while home favourite Toyota was sixth and seventh with its two GR010 HYBRIDs.

Despite the looming threat of Typhoon Yun-yeung, Friday morning's 90-minute session started on schedule at 11am local time in wet conditions and passed largely without incident.

Almost every Hypercar class manufacturer enjoyed a stint at the top of the times, as the track steadily dried out.

Ferrari took command of the times with a little over 30 minutes to go as James Calado went quickest in the #51 car, with team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi becoming the first driver to breach the 1m40s mark when he set a 1m39.198s with 22 minutes left on the clock.

Fuoco then traded the top time with Giovinazzi as he took over at the wheel of the #50 Ferrari, with Porsche man Michael Christensen briefly snatching the advantage before Fuoco went faster again, posting a 1m37.616s and then a 1m35.649s after switching to slick tyres.

Giovinazzi set the best time in the #51 car of 1m38.258s on wets, just over four tenths up on late improver Gustavo Menezes in the #94 Peugeot.

Christensen's time was eclipsed late on by his opposite number in the sister #6 Porsche, Laurens Vanthoor, who posted a 1m38.729s to go fourth-fastest.

#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen (Photo by: Ferrari)

 

Mike Conway set the best time for Toyota of 1m39.251s in the #7 car, four hundredths quicker than Brendon Hartley in the #8 car in a subdued opening session for the Japanese manufacturer.

Completing the top 10 were the second of the Peugeots, the #93 car in which Paul di Resta set the best time, the solo Cadillac V-Series.R of Alex Lynn and the Proton Competition customer Porsche of Harry Tincknell.

The Jota Porsche enjoyed a lengthy spell at the top of the times in the opening half of the session when conditions were at their worst, but ended up 11th in the Hypercar class and slower than the team's LMP2 car, which topped that class.

Oliver Rasmussen put in a late flyer of 1m40.781s aboard the #28 ORECA 07 to take the top spot in LMP2, almost two seconds up on nearest rival Filip Ugran in the #9 Prema machine.

United Autosports was third in class courtesy of a late effort from Ben Hanley - standing in for Tom Blomqvist this weekend - in the #23 entry.

Topping the times by an even wider margin in GTE Am was the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Mikkel Pedersen on a 1m43.538s.

That was almost four seconds up on Davide Rigon, who went second-fastest in the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE.

A sole full-course yellow was called at the one-hour mark, but this was purely procedural rather than in response to any accident.

FP2 is scheduled to begin at 3.30pm local time, but more rain is forecast for later in the day, casting doubt on whether the session will run as planned.

WEC Fuji FP1 results:

 
 
       
Driver Info
 
 
 
   
Cla Team # Drivers Car Laps Time Interval km/h
1
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
50 Italy A. Fuoco Spain M. Molina Denmark N. Nielsen Ferrari 499P 40 1'35.649   171.740
2
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
51 Italy A. Pier Guidi United Kingdom J. Calado Italy A. Giovinazzi Ferrari 499P 41 +2.609 2.609 167.180
3
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
94 France L. Duval United States G. Menezes Belgium S. Vandoorne Peugeot 9X8 40 +3.044 0.435 166.443
4
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
6 France K. Estre Germany A. Lotterer Belgium L. Vanthoor Porsche 963 36 +3.080 0.036 166.382
5
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
5 United States D. Cameron Denmark M. Christensen France F. Makowiecki Porsche 963 40 +3.227 0.147 166.135
6
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
7 United Kingdom M. Conway Japan K. Kobayashi Argentina J. Lopez Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 47 +3.602 0.375 165.507
7
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
8 Switzerland S. Buemi New Zealand B. Hartley Japan R. Hirakawa Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 45 +3.642 0.040 165.440
8
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
93 United Kingdom P. di Resta Denmark M. Jensen France J. Vergne Peugeot 9X8 40 +3.660 0.018 165.410
9
CADILLAC RACING HYPERCAR
2 New Zealand E. Bamber United Kingdom A. Lynn United Kingdom R. Westbrook Cadillac V-Series.R 42 +3.935 0.275 164.954
10
Proton Competition HYPERCAR
99 Switzerland N. Jani Italy G. Bruni United Kingdom H. Tincknell Porsche 963 36 +4.436 0.501 164.128
11
Jota Sport LMP2
28 Denmark D. Heinemeier Hansson Brazil P. Fittipaldi Denmark O. Rasmussen Oreca 07 40 +5.132 0.696 162.995
12
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
38 Portugal A. Felix da Costa United Kingdom W. Stevens China Y. Yifei Porsche 963 41 +5.304 0.172 162.717
13
FLOYD VANWALL RACING TEAM HYPERCAR
4 Argentina E. Guerrieri France T. Vautier
J. De
Vanwall Vandervell 680 39 +5.834 0.530 161.867
14
PREMA RACING LMP2
9 Romania F. Ugran Netherlands B. Viscaal United States J. Correa Oreca 07 39 +7.012 1.178 160.010
15
United Autosports LMP2
23 United States J. Pierson United Kingdom B. Hanley United Kingdom O. Jarvis Oreca 07 37 +7.275 0.263 159.601
16
VECTOR SPORT LMP2
10 Ireland R. Cullen Liechtenstein M. Kaiser France G. Aubry Oreca 07 35 +7.335 0.060 159.508
17
INTER EUROPOL COMPETITION LMP2
34 Poland J. Smiechowski Switzerland F. Scherer Spain A. Costa Oreca 07 38 +7.555 0.220 159.168
18
ALPINE ELF TEAM LMP2
36 France M. Vaxiviere France J. Canal France C. Milesi Oreca 07 40 +7.569 0.014 159.146
19
United Autosports LMP2
22 United Kingdom F. Lubin United Kingdom P. Hanson Portugal F. Albuquerque Oreca 07 38 +7.581 0.012 159.128
20
TEAM WRT LMP2
31 Indonesia S. Gelael Austria F. Habsburg Netherlands R. Frijns Oreca 07 28 +7.754 0.173 158.861
21
TEAM WRT LMP2
41 Portugal R. Andrade Poland R. Kubica Switzerland L. Deletraz Oreca 07 43 +7.841 0.087 158.728
22
Proton Competition LMGTE AM
77 Germany C. Ried
M. Pedersen
France J. Andlauer
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 42 +7.889 0.048 158.654
23
PREMA RACING LMP2
63 France D. Pin Italy A. Caldarelli Russian Federation D. Kvyat Oreca 07 36 +8.490 0.601 157.739
24
ALPINE ELF TEAM LMP2
35 Brazil A. Negrao Mexico M. Rojas United Kingdom O. Caldwell Oreca 07 42 +9.167 0.677 156.720
25
AF Corse LMGTE AM
54 Switzerland T. Flohr Italy F. Castellacci Italy D. Rigon Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 43 +11.549 2.382 153.237
26
PROJECT 1 - AO LMGTE AM
56 United States P. Hyett United States G. Jeannette Italy M. Cairoli Porsche 911 RSR - 19 41 +11.581 0.032 153.192
27
RICHARD MILLE AF CORSE LMGTE AM
83 Argentina L. Perez Companc France L. Wadoux Italy A. Rovera Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 31 +11.601 0.020 153.163
28
D'Station Racing LMGTE AM
777 Japan S. Hoshino United Kingdom C. Stevenson Japan T. Fujii Aston Martin Vantage AMR 34 +11.844 0.243 152.817
29
NORTHWEST AMR LMGTE AM
98 United Kingdom I. James Italy D. Mancinelli Spain A. Riberas Aston Martin Vantage AMR 42 +12.264 0.420 152.222
30
AF Corse LMGTE AM
21 Japan H. Koizumi France S. Mann Japan K. Cozzolino Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 40 +12.765 0.501 151.519
31
IRON LYNX LMGTE AM
60 Italy C. Schiavoni Italy M. Cressoni Belgium A. Picariello Porsche 911 RSR - 19 40 +13.411 0.646 150.621
32
GR RACING LMGTE AM
86 United Kingdom M. Wainwright Italy R. Pera United Kingdom B. Barker Porsche 911 RSR - 19 37 +13.550 0.139 150.429
33
IRON DAMES LMGTE AM
85 Belgium S. Bovy Denmark M. Gatting Switzerland R. Frey Porsche 911 RSR - 19 35 +13.806 0.256 150.078
34
Kessel Racing LMGTE AM
57 Japan T. Kimura United States S. Huffaker Japan R. Miyata Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 40 +14.057 0.251 149.734
35
Corvette Racing LMGTE AM
33 United States B. Keating
N. Varrone
Netherlands N. Catsburg
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R 18 +14.394 0.337 149.276
36
ORT BY TF LMGTE AM
25 United Kingdom A. Al Harthy United States M. Dinan Ireland C. Eastwood Aston Martin Vantage AMR 17 +17.739 3.345 144.872
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