The third free practice session for the World Endurance Championship’s got underway at 10am local time under a sunny sky and cool conditions, Fuji San looking magnificent this morning.
The Toyota #5, Kazuki Nakajima behind the wheel was quickly on the pace in his and Toyota’s home race. His time of 1:24.078 was set in the opening minutes of the session and would be good enough to stand at the checkered flag, this the first session headed by a Toyota since FP2 at Spa in May.
It was just 0.004 off yesterday’s best and four tenths ahead of Audi #8 and the #2 Porsche.
The LMP2 runners were searching for pace through the session and a number of drivers had lazy spins.
While no one sustained damage, the list of spinners was extensive. Ricardo Gonzalez lost the rear of the RGR by Morand Ligier in turn five, Antonio Giovinazzi spun his ESM Ligier at turn six. Finally Nico Lappiere spun the #36 Alpine at turn 15.
The G-Drive Ligier team took the top time on a 1:31.474, Will Stevens shown on the timing screens aboard the Oreca, ahead of the the #30 Extreme Speed Motorsports car (Giovanazzi) and the Strakka Gibson (Kane) which was seven tenths back.
The GTE Pro field was led by the Ford GT #67 of Andy Priaulx (1:38.092) with the Aston Martins finding some pace after trailing at the back of the field during Friday’s session, Darren Turner led the session for quite a while in the #97 but Nicki Thiim set second fastest time in the #95 Vantage (around half a second back from the Ford) despite a spin for the #95 mid way through the session.
The second Ford took third with the faster of the two Ferraris also well within a second of the session leader.
The GTE Am field was led by the #98 Aston Martin Racing car, Pedro Lamy with a time of 1:39.492. The #86 Gulf Racing Porsche took second with an early session effort from Ben Barker. Third was the #83 AF Corse Ferrari (Rui Aguas), 0.9 seconds down on the Aston Martin.
The qualifying sessions get underway at 2:00pm local time.
