The gauntlet has been thrown down and the challenge delivered: the battle for supremacy between Porsche, Aston Martin and Ferrari in the LMGTE categories is going to be fierce!
At the chequered flag for the end of the first 90-minute free practice session for the 6 Hours of Fuji, it was the No.92 Porsche Team Manthey 911 RSR of local Super GT star Frederic Makowiecki (sharing the wheel with Patrick Pilet) which held the top spot in the LMGTE Pro class. He edged out the winners of the last round in the USA, Darren Turner and Stefan Mucke, in the No.97 Aston Martin Vantage V8 by only two hundredths of a second. It’s going to be close all the way! Following closely behind was the GTE championship points leading car of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander – the No.51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia.
The LMGTE Am cars mixed things up with the Pro entrants, and it was an Aston Martin/Porsche fight all the way. The 6 Hours of Circuit of The Americas winners – Pedro Lamy/Paul Dalla Lana/Christoffer Nygaard – set out to prove they are on a roll and headed the time sheets at the close of the session. Their No.98 Aston Martin was only two hundredths of a second ahead of their Danish team mates in the Le Mans class-winning No.95, Kristian Poulsen-David Heinemeier Hansson-Nicki Thiim, who were in turn only marginally ahead of the No.88 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR of Christian Ried-Klaus Bachler-Khaled Al Qubaisi.
The cars will be back on track at 15h30 for a second 90-minute practice session – who will be at the front then? Look on our website for live timing, and for full results click HERE.
Fiona Miller
