Alpine Endurance Team will begin tomorrow’s 6 Hours of Fuji (27 September) in the perfect position from which to try to repeat its triumph in last year’s race, locking out the front row of the grid in Japan after the weather-affected cancellation of today’s qualifying sessions.
Following a completely dry Friday – enabling teams to rack up the laps in preparation for Sunday’s sixth round of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship campaign – Saturday dawned wet, and only got wetter.
With the conditions and visibility deteriorating and standing water a concern, the decision was taken to cancel all of the day’s remaining FIA WEC running shortly into LMGT3 qualifying, meaning the grid would be based upon each car’s individual fastest lap from the three free practice sessions.
The quickest times were set in FP2, and the absolute best belonged to Victor Martins in the #36 Alpine A424, after the rising star – an endurance racing rookie this year – topped the timesheets on Friday afternoon. The result represents the French prototype’s first pole in the series’ headlining Hypercar category – and to complete Les Bleus’ joy, the sister #35 car will line up alongside courtesy of last year’s Fuji winner, Charles Milesi, just under a tenth-of-a-second adrift.
“Even though qualifying was cancelled, I think we still deserve pole position, because we have done a good job since the beginning of the weekend,” mused Martins, who is sharing the #36 entry with countryman Jules Gounon this weekend.
“FP1 and FP2 yesterday in the dry showed we have really good single-lap and long-run pace, while FP3 in the wet this morning was good too, enabling us to gained some useful wet-weather experience. We’re happy with the result, and now we need to keep pushing and preparing for a great race tomorrow. If we put everything together, I think we can have a good day.”
Aston Martin THOR Team missed out on a maiden front row start following a penalty for the #007 Valkyrie, due to an accident between Harry Tincknell and Ian James in the #27 Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 during FP3. The two-place drop relegated the striking British Racing Green machine to fourth and elevated the #19 Genesis GMR-001 to third.
The Korean marque – a complete motor racing newcomer this year – celebrated its best-ever grid slots with the #17 Genesis rounding out the top five, ahead of the second Aston Martin Valkyrie (#009) in sixth.
Cadillac – pole-sitter in Japan in each of the past two seasons – will begin tomorrow’s bout from just seventh (#38) and tenth (#12), while the leading three title protagonists will all have work to do from further down the order.
On home soil, Toyota – nine times a winner of the 6 Hours of Fuji – will take the start from just eighth and 13th, with BMW even further back in 14th and 17th and defending world champion Ferrari’s two factory 499Ps 11th and 16th, setting the scene for an intriguing battle on race day.
The 6 Hours of Fuji will get underway at 11:00 local time (GMT+9) tomorrow (Sunday, 27 September).
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