The Headlines from FP2….
Hypercar
- Alpine surged to the top during the second 90-minute Friday afternoon free practice session in preparation for the 6 Hours of Fuji, the sixth round of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship
- In dry, cloudy and warm conditions Victor Martins continued his impressive WEC rookie season with a fastest overall time of 1m29.304s in the #36 Alpine A424 Hypercar
- Aston Martin just denied an Alpine 1-2, as the #007 Valkyrie lapped just 0.039s off Martins' pace. Tom Gamble sets the time for the U.S flagged/British based team on the track that he and teammate Harry Tincknell finished a strong fifth at 12-months ago
- The #35 Alpine of Ferdinand Habsburg and Charles Milesi placed third and ensured that the top three were covered by a tiny 0.93s over the 2.835kms track
- Genesis Magma Racing continued to show strong form on its first visit to Fuji Speedway with fourth fastest time for the #19 car driven by Daniel Juncadella, Mathieu Jaminet and Paul-Loup Chatin
- The other Genesis, the #17 car, backed up its stablemates pace as Mathys Jaubert put in a late 1m29.558s lap to claim fifth best lap
- Marco Sorensen and Alex Riberas ensured that two of the Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercars made the top six with a time just 0.018s off the #17 Genesis
- The quickest of the Cadillac V-Series.R Hypercars was the Sebastien Bourdais, Earl Bamber and Jack Aitken crewed entry. They are out to go one better than their collective second position at the Lone Star Le Mans earlier this month, and ended the session seventh.
- The quickest of the Toyotas took eighth place, with the FP1 time topping #8 Toyota TR010 Hypercar of Ryo Hirakawa, Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley hunting down a a second win of the season after taking the opening race spoils at Imola
- The top ten positions was completed by the #93 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 and the #12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA entry
- Two full course yellow periods are called during the session when debris had to be cleared from the circuit at Turn 3
LMGT3
- Ford Mustang led the way in a typically competitive LMGT3 category as Ben Tuck topped the timing screens on a best lap of 1m39.828s
- The American’s best effort was 0.035s better than the #79 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 entry driven by Johannes Zelger, Lin Hodenius and Matteo Cressoni
- Third in class was the #78 Akkodis ASP Lexus, as the Japanese manufacturer aimed for home success and a first win of 2026
- The second of the Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG cars took fourth place with Rui Andrade, Maxime Martin and Martin Berry looking to continue their impressive speed at COTA earlier this month
- Fifth place was captured by the #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus, while the top six was completed by the #34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette
- The title chase leading #33 TF Sport Corvette improved its pace in FP3 and ended eighth, while the pair of Porsches entered as Manthey DK Engineering and The Bend Manthey respectively struggled in 17th and 18th positions
- The third Free Practice session at Fuji Speedway is scheduled to take place at 9.30am local time on Saturday morning
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