Sebastien Buemi topped the times in the first session of the FIA WEC’s return to Fuji Speedway on Friday morning, he took the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid around in 1:31.171 on the HyperCar class debut in Japan.
The sister #7 Toyota finished the session a quarter of a second shy of the #8 in the hands of Mike Conway, just clear of the faster of the two Peugeots, the 9X8 bringing a factory Peugeot effort back to Japan for the first time since a successful outing at Suzuka in 1992!
James Rossiter, a man who has spent much of his recent career in Japan was top of the Peugeot shop in the #94
The #93 Peugeot finished the session fourth fastest well clear of the #36 Alpine which finished the session over 1.3 seconds off Buemi’s time.
LMP2 was topped by the #83 AF Corse Oreca of Nicklas Nielsen, a 1:32.624 enough to overhaul the earlier efforts of the United Autosports pair.
The Yorkshire squad remarkably had identical times for both cars, Alex Lynn in the #23 posting his 1:32.866 a little earlier than Filipe Albuquerque in the sister #22.
Renger van der Zande was the only driver not to see track action this morning after feeling unwell. He is expected to be back in the car for FP2.
The #51 AF Corse Ferrari of James Calado topped GTE Pro with a lap in 1:37.723, 0.169 ahead of the #92 Porsche of Michael Christensen with the sister #91 just a few hundredths slower.
The Corvette Racing team were in learning mode for their first visit here and spent the session finding straight-line speed and removing downforce, ending the session just over a second off Calado’s best.
Matteo Cairoli has become a regular in topping GTE AM session and he added another to his tally with a 1:39.064 in the #46 Team Project 1 Porsche, just three thousandths clear of ‘local hero’ Tomonobu Fuji in the #777 D’Station Racing Aston Martin.
David Pittard put the #98 NorthWest AMR Vantage third fastest, just ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella in the #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari.
