Peugeot TotalEnergies’ 9X8s ran first and second fastest in Free Practice 1 this morning at the Fuji Speedway to kick off the track action ahead of the FIA WEC’s 100th race.
Loic Duval set the best time for the French brand, which is looking to build on its strong performance at CoTA last time out. The Frenchman’s ultimate best was a 1:30.152 in the 90-minute session aboard the #94.
That lap, set with the trackside temperature increasing, created a gap of 0.458 to the sister #93, which with a Jean-Eric Vergne flyer ended up second and two hundredths of a second faster than the #009 Aston Martin Thor Team Valkyrie.
Like Peugeot, both Aston Martin’s cars showed early speed, with the #007 Valkyrie finishing up fourth. The #5 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 slotted in fifth.
For the championship leaders at Ferrari, it was a quiet session. The #51 499P was 10th quickest, 1.3 seconds off Vandoorne’s best lap.
All but one of the Hypercars set times within two seconds of the #94 Peugeot. The outlier was the Proton Porsche that ended the morning with 39 laps completed and a 1:32.464.
In LMGT3 AKKODIS ASP’s #78 Lexus showed speed with all three of its drivers.
Arnold Robin put the car at the top of the leaderboard in the opening minutes before Finn Gehrsitz and later Ben Barnicoat improved on the Frenchman’s best tour. The Briton’s 1:41.257 in the closing minutes of the session was the fastest lap from the trio.
TF Sport’s #81 Corvette was within a tenth, though, after a 1:41.290 from Charlie Eastwood. The CoTA-winning #95 McLaren was third with a 1:41.641 from Sean Gelael.
FP2 is scheduled to get underway at 14:30 local time later today.
