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