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Edition

Australia
Practice report

Fuji WEC: Hartley tops third practice for Toyota

Ex-Formula 1 racer Brendon Hartley kept the #8 Toyota crew on top in Saturday morning's third practice for this weekend's FIA World Endurance Championship round at Fuji.

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050: Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Brendon Hartley

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050: Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Brendon Hartley

JEP / Motorsport Images

Hartley posted a 1m25.621s early in the one-hour session at the wheel of the quicker of the TS050 Hybrids, bettering teammate Kazuki Nakajima's Friday benchmark by 0.002s.

Jose Maria Lopez was initially half a second off the pace in the sister #7 car, but a subsequent improvement from Kamui Kobayashi - who was vocal about the effect the LMP1 handicap rules had on his car's performance on Friday - narrowed the deficit to 0.206s.

Rebellion Racing's solo R-13, second-fastest in both Friday sessions, was bumped down to third for the first time this weekend, 0.501s off the pace in Gustavo Menezes' hands.

The two Ginetta G60-LT-P1s completed the LMP1 order, with Mike Simpson setting the best time for the factory Team LNT squad of 1m27.039s in the #6 car, 1.418s off the pace and some six tenths clear of Ben Hanley's best effort in the #5 machine.

Racing Team Nederland topped the times in LMP2 courtesy of a 1m20.008s effort from Nyck de Vries, who will test the Toyota TS050 Hybrid in the WEC rookie test.

The TDS Racing-run RTN Oreca was a little under half a second quicker than Anthony Davidson in the JOTA Sport Oreca, the best of the Goodyear-shod cars, while Nicolas Lapierre was third-fastest in the Cool Racing Oreca, almost a second slower than de Vries.

Porsche maintained its supremacy in GTE Pro as Richard Lietz set a 1m37.501s in the Silverstone-winning #91 911 RSR-19.

Aston Martin filled out the next two positions in class, with Nicki Thiim's best time putting the #95 Vantage GTE second ahead of the #97 car by half a second.

Splitting the two Astons overall were no fewer than four GTE Am cars, the fastest of which was the #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche driven by Matt Campbell.

The Australian driver set a 1m37.807s to beat Nicklas Nielsen in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE by two tenths.

Session results:

Cla # Drivers Car Class Time Gap
1 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
Japan Kazuki Nakajima
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'25.621
2 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'25.827 0.206
3 1 Brazil Bruno Senna
United States Gustavo Menezes
France Norman Nato
Rebellion R13 LMP1 1'26.172 0.551
4 6 United Kingdom Charles Robertson
United Kingdom Michael Simpson
United Kingdom Guy Smith
Ginetta G60-LT-P1 LMP1 1'27.039 1.418
5 5 Italy Luca Ghiotto
United Kingdom Ben Hanley
Russian Federation Egor Orudzhev
Ginetta G60-LT-P1 LMP1 1'27.882 2.261
6 29 Netherlands Frits van Eerd
Netherlands Giedo van der Garde
Netherlands Nyck de Vries
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'29.008 3.387
7 38 Mexico Roberto Gonzalez
Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Anthony Davidson
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'29.457 3.836
8 42 France Nicolas Lapierre
Switzerland Antonin Borga
Switzerland Alexandre Coigny
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'29.987 4.366
9 37 China Ho-Pin Tung
France Gabriel Aubry
United Kingdom Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'30.018 4.397
10 22 United Kingdom Philip Hanson
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'30.131 4.510
11 36 France Thomas Laurent
Brazil Andre Negrao
France Pierre Ragues
Alpine A470 LMP2 1'31.206 5.585
12 47 Italy Roberto Lacorte
Italy Andrea Belicchi
Italy Giorgio Sernagiotto
Dallara P217 LMP2 1'31.461 5.840
13 33 United States Mark Patterson
Japan Kenta Yamashita
Denmark Anders Fjordbach
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'31.876 6.255
14 91 Italy Gianmaria Bruni
Austria Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'37.501 11.880
15 95 Denmark Marco Sorensen
Denmark Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 1'37.696 12.075
16 77 Germany Christian Ried
Italy Riccardo Pera
Australia Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'37.807 12.186
17 83 France François Perrodo
France Emmanuel Collard
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'38.034 12.413
18 56 Norway Egidio Perfetti
Denmark David Heinemeier Hansson
Italy Matteo Cairoli
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'38.051 12.430
19 57 United States Ben Keating
Brazil Felipe Fraga
Netherlands Jeroen Bleekemolen
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'38.096 12.475
20 97 United Kingdom Alex Lynn
Belgium Maxime Martin
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 1'38.109 12.488
21 88 Japan Satoshi Hoshino
Belgium Adrien de Leener
Austria Thomas Preining
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'38.238 12.617
22 71 Italy Davide Rigon
Spain Miguel Molina
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'38.298 12.677
23 98 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
United Kingdom Darren Turner
United Kingdom Ross Gunn
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'38.307 12.686
24 70 Japan Motoaki Ishikawa
Monaco Olivier Beretta
Japan Kei Cozzolino
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'38.516 12.895
25 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
United Kingdom Andrew Watson
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'38.543 12.922
26 90 Turkey Salih Yoluc
Ireland Charles Eastwood
United Kingdom Jonathan Adam
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'38.560 12.939
27 51 United Kingdom James Calado
Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'38.585 12.964
28 92 Denmark Michael Christensen
France Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'38.618 12.997
29 62 United Kingdom Bonamy Grimes
United Kingdom Johnny Mowlem
United Kingdom Charles Hollings
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'38.951 13.330
30 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'39.340 13.719

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