It wasn’t a bright start to the morning’s action at Fuji Speedway, but by the end of Free Practices for GT World Challenge Asia and SRO Japan Cup on Friday, the skies finally brightened up.
GT World Challenge Asia Practice 1 began under heavy wet conditions as rain belted down over the circuit just past 11:00 AM, as it had done all morning.
Practice 1 made it only seven minutes before the red flag came out for Tanart Sathienthirakul’s crash between turn two and Coca-Cola Corner. His #911 Absolute Racing Porsche veered off to the left and crashed into the tyre barriers. Tanart was unhurt, though his damaged car would need extensive repair work.
This happened only seconds after Jules Gounon went off at the same spot, clipped a tyre barrier just at the access point, and damaged the right rear of the green #22 Climax Racing Mercedes.
And so would the barriers, but by the time they were put back into place, the track conditions were undrivable for most teams. Eventually, the session was waved off, and the fastest time of FP1 was officially an out-lap from Maxime Oosten in the #89 Team KRC BMW.
Some time past 2:00 PM, and the clouds broke apart during Practice 2 at 4:15 PM, while the track was beginning to dry.
The ever-drying track led to the fastest lap changing hands several times. Alessio Picariello was the first driver to break the one-minute, 40-second barrier with a best lap of 1:39.468 aboard the #1 Absolute Racing Porsche. And on his next lap, he went quicker with a 1:39.125, which was the fastest time in GP2.
Jaylyn Robotham was second-fastest in the #66 Climax Racing Mercedes, followed by Patrick Pilet in the #4 Origine Motorsport Porsche, then Jules Gounon in the rebuilt #22 Climax Racing Mercedes. Markus Winkelhock completed the top five in the #40 FAW Audi Sport in fifth.
Climax Racing had all three of its cars ready to roll – even the #52 following Li Lichao’s crash in Thursday testing – but both the #22 and #52 came out in FP2 with plenty of bare, replacement carbon fibre panels on.
Even the #911 Absolute Racing Porsche was able to get back out after Tanart’s crash in the morning.
After Practice 2, a 30-minute Bronze Session was scheduled, exclusively for the series’ clubman drivers. Origine Motorsports’ two Porsches led the session 1-2, with Yuan Bo in the mint green #87 quickest with a 1:39.022, followed by the purple #4 of championship leader, Lu Wei, with a 1:39.329.
Yuan’s time was, in fact, the fastest lap time of the day in any session, as it was set when the track was at its driest after all the morning rain.
Prince Abu Bakar Ibrahim was third in the #888 Triple Eight JMR Mercedes, followed by the #40 Audi Sport Asia Team Absolute R8 of Huang Ruo Han, and the #296 Absolute Corse Ferrari of Andre Canard.
K-tunes’ Takagi and Nitta lead Japan Cup practices
Much like GT World Challenge Asia, there was little of note from Practice 1 in the morning: It constantly rained, and no GT3 cars set a true representative lap time.
That meant the #39 Toyota Gazoo Racing Indonesia GR Supra of Kazuhisa Urabe was the fastest of all in the soggy first session. Daiki Fujiwara was second in the #82 Sunrise BLVD Porsche.
Of course, conditions improved later in the day, in time for Practice 2. The #98 K-tunes Racing Ferrari of Shinichi Takagi set the best time of the session, with a 1:51.690.
Takagi’s long-time co-driver Morio Nitta went second-fastest in the #96 K-tunes Lexus on a 1:51.868.
Once again, Urabe was the fastest GT4 driver in the #39 TGR-ID GR Supra, his best lap was 1:57.551 – just 27 milliseconds ahead of Fujiwara this time.
Japan Cup teams also took part in a 30-minute Bronze Session after Practice 2.
Tadao Uematsu set the quickest Japan Cup lap of the day in his #55 Team Macchina McLaren, at 1:51.523. That’s faster than Takagi’s best time in Practice 2 and three-tenths up on the #7 Comet Racing Ferrari of Yorikatsu Tsujiko from the same session.
Images © SRO Motorsports Group Asia
