WEC / 6 H. of Fuji - FP1: 0''2 between Toyota and Peugeot

Sebastien Buemi set the fastest lap of the morning session in the No.8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar. 

AF Corse led LMGTE Pro and LMP2, while Team Project 1 sat atop an incredibly close LMGTE Am category. 

The 90-minute session featured just one Full Course Yellow period which was actioned to retrieve debris from Turns 1 and 2. 

The second FP session is due to begin at 15.30 local time this afternoon. 

Hypercar 

• Buemi starts home race off strongly for Toyota Gazoo Racing by setting an early session best lap of 1m31.171s in No.8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar 
• Swiss ace and teammates Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley are chasing the Alpine ELF Team trio of Andre Negrao, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Nicolas Lapierre in the championship points standings and aiming to reduce the 10-point deficit this Sunday 
• Mike Conway places the No.7 Toyota second as he laps 0.247s off Buemi’s best time 
• Peugeot TotalEnergies set third and fourth fastest lap times in FP1 as the No.94 peaks on a 1m31.439s 
• James Rossiter, on his return to Japan where he has spent much of his career, sets the best lap for the leading Peugeot 9X8 
• No.93 Peugeot sits fourth as Paul di Resta accomplishes a 1m31.738s lap 
• Alpine ELF Team fifth as Nicolas Lapierre sets best lap for Les Bleues on a 1m32.556s 

LMGTE Pro 

• Ferrari on top in the early stages of the LMGTE Pro battle with James Calado stopping the clocks on a 1m37.723s in the No.51 AF Corse entered Ferrari 488 GTE Evo 
• Calado’s best is just enough to outpace the two Porsche 911 RSR-19 entries 
• Michael Christensen comes out on top for Porsche in the No.92 machine with a best lap of 1m37.892s 
• The Dane’s quickest lap is just 0.070s faster than the sister Porsche which has its best lap set by a returning Richard Lietz who missed Monza through illness 
• No.52 AF Corse driven by Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco ends session in fourth position. Just 0.398s cover the top four cars in LMGTE Pro 
• Corvette Racing fifth with Nick Tandy peaking on a 1m38.829s lap 

LMP2 

• AF Corse to the fore in LMP2 as Nicklas Nielsen sets the pace with an initial fastest lap of 1m32.624s 
• The Dane heads the pair of United Autosports USA entries as they remarkably set identical times of 1m32.866s! 
• The No.23 car head the No.22 as it set the time first with Alex Lynn’s best effort ahead of Filipe Albuquerque’s 
• The identical time is believed to be the first ever occasion such an occurrence has ever happened in a WEC Free Practice session in the same team 
• No.28 JOTA ends session fourth ahead of the No.31 WRT Oreca-Gibson 

LMGTE Am 

• Team Project 1 Porsche tops the times in LMGTE Pro as Matteo Cairoli continues his 2022 habit of setting fastest free practice times 
• The Italian takes the white and yellow Porsche to a best lap of 1m39.064s to enjoy a slender advantage over the No.777 D’Station Aston Martin 
• Tomonobu Fujii gives local squad, D’Station, cheer as he laps just 0.003s off Cairoli’s best time in incredibly close class 
• Aston Martin place second and third as the N0.98 Northwest AMR car is third. 
• David Pittard, on his first visit to Fuji Speedway, impressed with a 1m39.313s lap 

Free Practice 1 :