Qualifying report
WEC Fuji
Fuji WEC: Toyota locks out front row for home race
The two Toyotas were separated by just two hundredths of a second as they blocked out the front row for Sunday’s Fuji round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Gary Watkins
Edited: Sep 10, 2022, 11:42 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Kamui Kobayashi took the pole in the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid with a 1m29.234s on his first flying lap.
Brendon Hartley’s first lap in the sister car was a 1m29.285s, before he made a minor improvement to 1m29.254s.
Matthieu Vaxiviere took third position aboard the Alpine A480-Gibson, ending up only two tenths behind the Toyotas on a 1m29.446s.
The two Peugeots were both within a second of the pace in fourth and fifth positions.
A 1m30.000s from Jean-Eric Vergne in the #93 Peugeot 9X8 gave him fourth place, while Loic Duval ended up on a 1m30.152s in #94.
- Watch all WEC races, including this weekend's 6 Hours of Fuji, live on Motorsport.tv
Antonio Felix da Costa took LMP2 pole for the JOTA squad with a 1m31.649s aboard the #38 Oreca 07-Gibson LMP2.
That put him half a second up on the pack after the first runs, but the gap was narrowed after all the leading runners went for further runs on a second set of tyres.
Da Costa was unable to improve his time, but Nicklas Nielsen got down to a 1m31.929s in the AF Corse Pro/Am Oreca to take second position.
Robin Frijns had qualified third in the #31 WRT Oreca on a 1m32.059s but had his laptime scratched for a track limits violation, dropping him to fourth behind Ferdinand Habsburg in the sister #41 Realteam by WRT car.
Porsche tops GTE Pro qualifying
Michael Christensen took pole position for Porsche in GTE Pro.
The Dane grabbed the top spot on his first flying lap with a 1m36.371s aboard the #92 Porsche 911 RSR, which ended up nearly two tenths clear of James Calado in the fastest of the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evos.
Calado’s 1m36.566s gave him a similar margin over the second Porsche qualified by Gianmaria Bruni, who posted a 1m36.800s.
Miguel Molina took fourth spot in the second of the Ferraris with a 1m36.851s set on his third flying lap.
Corvette's Nick Tandy brought up the rear of the five-car GTE Pro class on a 1m37.127s.
Ben Keating claimed a third pole of the season in GTE Am aboard the TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GTE, pipping Sarah Bovy in the Iron Dames Ferrari by just five hundredths of a second.
Keating set a 1m39.309s, which compared with Bovy’s 1m39.371s.
Franck Dezoteux took third in the AF-run Spirit of Race Ferrari.
The Fuji 6 Hours, the penultimate round of this year’s WEC, begins at 11:00 local time on Sunday.
Hypercar and LMP2 results*:*
Cla # Drivers Car Class Avg Time Gap 1 7 Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'29.234 2 8 Sébastien Buemi
Brendon Hartley
Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'29.254 0.020 3 36 Andre Negrao
Nicolas Lapierre
Matthieu Vaxiviere
Alpine A480 HYPERCAR 1'29.446 0.212 4 93 Paul di Resta
Mikkel Jensen
Jean-Eric Vergne
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 1'30.000 0.766 5 94 Loic Duval
Gustavo Menezes
James Rossiter
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 1'30.152 0.918 6 38 Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa
Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'31.649 2.415 7 83 François Perrodo
Nicklas Nielsen
Alessio Rovera
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'31.929 2.695 8 41 Rui Andrade
Ferdinand Habsburg
Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'32.143 2.909 9 31 Sean Gelael
Robin Frijns
Dries Vanthoor
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'32.210 2.976 10 10 Renger van der Zande
Ryan Cullen
Sébastien Bourdais
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'32.297 3.063 11 22 Philip Hanson
Filipe Albuquerque
Will Owen
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'32.337 3.103 12 23 Alex Lynn
Oliver Jarvis
Josh Pierson
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'32.342 3.108 13 28 Oliver Rasmussen
Ed Jones
Jonathan Aberdein
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'32.439 3.205 14 9 Robert Kubica
Louis Deletraz
Lorenzo Colombo
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'32.479 3.245 15 1 Lilou Wadoux
Paul-Loup Chatin
Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'32.529 3.295 16 34 Jakub Smiechowski
Alex Brundle
Esteban Gutierrez
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'32.800 3.566 17 45 Steven Thomas
James Allen
Rene Binder
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'32.879 3.645 18 35 Jean Baptiste Lahaye
Matthieu Lahaye
François Heriau
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'33.155 3.921 View full results
GTE results:
Cla # Drivers Car Class Avg Time Gap 1 92 Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'36.371 2 51 Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'36.566 0.195 3 91 Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'36.800 0.429 4 52 Miguel Molina
Antonio Fuoco
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'36.851 0.480 5 64 Tommy Milner
Nick Tandy
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE PRO 1'37.127 0.756 6 33 Ben Keating
Henrique Chaves Jr.
Marco Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'39.309 2.938 7 85 Rahel Frey
Michelle Gatting
Sarah Bovy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'39.371 3.000 8 71 Franck Dezoteux
Pierre Ragues
Gabriel Aubry
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'39.461 3.090 9 777 Satoshi Hoshino
Tomonobu Fujii
Charlie Fagg
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'39.710 3.339 10 46 Matteo Cairoli
Mikkel Pedersen
Nicolas Leutwiler
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'39.796 3.425 11 54 Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Davide Rigon
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'39.809 3.438 12 56 Takeshi Kimura
Ollie Millroy
Ben Barnicoat
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'39.853 3.482 13 77 Christian Ried
Sebastian Priaulx
Harry Tincknell
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'39.874 3.503 14 88 Fred Poordad
Patrick Lindsey
Jan Heylen
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'40.052 3.681 15 86 Michael Wainwright
Riccardo Pera
Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'40.271 3.900 16 21 Simon Mann
Christoph Ulrich
Toni Vilander
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'40.418 4.047 17 60 Claudio Schiavoni
Matteo Cressoni
Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'40.683 4.312 18 98 Paul Dalla Lana
David Pittard
Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM View full results
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Fuji WEC: Toyota completes practice clean sweep
Next article Duval: Toyota too far ahead for Peugeot, but Alpine beatable
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Gary Watkins
Ford steps up WEC preparations with second test car
WEC
WEC
Ford steps up WEC preparations with second test car
Latest news
Why Jorge Martín was not penalised for jump start in Indonesia
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Indonesian GP
48 min
Why Jorge Martín was not penalised for jump start in Indonesia
Palou pushes IndyCar’s IR-28 chassis to the limit in rugged Sebring test
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 58 min
Palou pushes IndyCar’s IR-28 chassis to the limit in rugged Sebring test
Why McLaren cannot fix its F1 car handling until 2027
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
1 h
Why McLaren cannot fix its F1 car handling until 2027
Christian Horner clears air on “dream job” Ferrari rumours and sets return terms
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
1 h
Christian Horner clears air on “dream job” Ferrari rumours and sets return terms
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe