Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia
Practice report

Fuji WEC: Buemi puts Toyota on top in final practice

Toyota set the pace in the final session of free practice for this weekend's Fuji round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050-Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Stepane Sarrazin, Kazuki Nakajima

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050-Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Stepane Sarrazin, Kazuki Nakajima

JEP / Motorsport Images

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050-Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Stepane Sarrazin, Kazuki Nakajima
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050-Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Stepane Sarrazin, Kazuki Nakajima
#2 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber, Brendon Hartley
#24 CEFC Manor TRS Team China ORECA 07-Gibson: Matt Rao,  Ben Hanley, Jean-Eric Vergne
#92 Porsche GT Porsche Team 911 RSR: Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre
#98 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage: Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda

Sebastien Buemi posted the fastest time of 1m35.414s aboard the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid right at the start of a one-hour session, again held in wet conditions. 

The time represented the fastest lap of the weekend so far, eclipsing Friday's best from Porsche driver Andre Lotterer by just over one tenth of a second. 

The #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid was eight tenths back from the Toyota on a 1m36.264s set by Earl Bamber. 

Lotterer was third-fastest, a further tenth behind, in the second Porsche, while Mike Conway was sixth tenths back in fourth after a late improvement in the #7 Toyota.  

The Jackie Chan DC Racing squad led the way in LMP2 with a last-minute lap from Alex Brundle in the #37 Oreca-Gibson 07. 

His 1m43.745s just eclipsed Nelson Piquet Jr's 1m43.747s aboard the best of the Rebellion Orecas, while Bruno Senna was third-fastest in the second of the Rebellion entries. 

The two factory-entered Porsche 911 RSRs again led the way in GTE Pro. 

Richard Lietz ended up fastest on a 1m47.724s, six tenths ahead of the sister car with Frederic Makowiecki at the wheel. 

The Porsches bettered the early class best set by Harry Tincknell in the #67 Ganassi Ford GT. 

Qualifying for the seventh round of the WEC season has been brought forward by half an hour to 2pm local time in expectation of heavier rain in the afternoon.

Third practice results:

Pos.#DriversCarClassTimeGap
1 8 united_kingdom Anthony Davidson 
japan Kazuki Nakajima 
switzerland Sébastien Buemi 
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'35.414  
2 2 germany Timo Bernhard 
new_zealand Brendon Hartley 
new_zealand Earl Bamber 
Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 1'36.264 0.850
3 1 germany Andre Lotterer 
switzerland Neel Jani 
united_kingdom Nick Tandy 
Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 1'36.387 0.973
4 7 japan Kamui Kobayashi 
united_kingdom Mike Conway 
argentina Jose Maria Lopez 
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'36.881 1.467
5 37 china David Cheng 
france Tristan Gommendy 
united_kingdom Alex Brundle 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'43.745 8.331
6 13 brazil Nelson Piquet Jr. 
denmark David Heinemeier Hansson
switzerland Mathias Beche 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'43.747 8.333
7 31 brazil Bruno Senna 
france Julien Canal 
france Nicolas Prost 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'44.065 8.651
8 38 united_kingdom Oliver Jarvis 
china Ho-Pin Tung 
france Thomas Laurent 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'44.659 9.245
9 36 france Nicolas Lapierre 
brazil Andre Negrao 
united_states Gustavo Menezes 
Alpine A470 LMP2 1'44.840 9.426
10 25 russia Vitaly Petrov 
switzerland Simon Trummer 
mexico Roberto Gonzalez 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'44.962 9.548
11 26 russia Roman Rusinov 
france Pierre Thiriet 
united_kingdom James Rossiter 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'45.073 9.659
12 24 france Jean-Eric Vergne 
united_kingdom Ben Hanley 
united_kingdom Matt Rao 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'45.664 10.250
13 28 france François Perrodo 
france Emmanuel Collard 
france Matthieu Vaxiviere 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'46.075 10.661
14 91 austria Richard Lietz 
france Frédéric Makowiecki 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 1'47.724 12.310
15 92 denmark Michael Christensen 
france Kevin Estre 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 1'48.358 12.944
16 67 united_kingdom Harry Tincknell 
guernsey Andy Priaulx 
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 1'48.770 13.356
17 51 united_kingdom James Calado 
italy Alessandro Pier Guidi 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE PRO 1'48.904 13.490
18 95 denmark Marco Sorensen 
denmark Nicki Thiim 
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE PRO 1'49.176 13.762
19 66 germany Stefan Mücke 
france Olivier Pla 
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 1'49.285 13.871
20 77 germany Christian Ried 
italy Matteo Cairoli 
germany Marvin Dienst 
Porsche 911 RSR (991) LMGTE AM 1'49.387 13.973
21 71 united_kingdom Sam Bird 
italy Davide Rigon 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE PRO 1'49.452 14.038
22 97 united_kingdom Darren Turner 
united_kingdom Jonathan Adam 
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE PRO 1'50.022 14.608
23 61 ireland Matt Griffin 
singapore Mok Weng Sun 
japan Keita Sawa 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 1'50.078 14.664
24 54 italy Francesco Castellacci 
spain Miguel Molina 
switzerland Thomas Flohr 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 1'50.995 15.581
25 86 united_states Mike Hedlund 
united_kingdom Ben Barker 
australia Nick Foster Jr. 
Porsche 911 RSR (991) LMGTE AM 1'51.388 15.974
26 98 portugal Pedro Lamy 
canada Paul Dalla Lana 
austria Mathias Lauda 
Aston Martin Vantage V8 LMGTE AM 1'51.849 16.435

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article New Judd V10 engine boost for privateer LMP1 entrants
Next article Fuji WEC: Hartley, Bamber take pole for Porsche

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia