Toyota’s Ryo Hirakawa topped a prematurely red-flagged final free practice session as part of the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Fuji.
A 60-minute practice session enabled teams and drivers to make their final preparations ahead of qualifying for the penultimate race on the 2024 schedule, although it did not end up running to the full scheduled duration.
Conditions were on the warmer side with a track temperature of 36 degrees Celsius, 28 in the air, and 70% humidity at Fuji Speedway.
Ten minutes into the session, a brief full-course-yellow period was declared after there was minor bodywork debris on-track at the final corner Turn 16, also known as Panasonic Corner.
After taking another minor hit on the balance of performance, Toyota remained focussed on targeting their 10th WEC victory at their home venue after commanding last year’s running with a clear 1-2 effort.
Ryo Hirakawa of the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid set the pace early on with a 1:29.621, although afar from 2023 pole-sitter Kamui Kobayashi’s 1:27.794 lap time.
A record six different winners have won the race in the Hypercar category and so the mixture of teams hinted potential qualifying protagonists as the #2 Cadillac V-Series,R, the three Ferrari 499Ps, and the #35 Alpine A424 which finished a personal best of fifth at the Lone Star Le Mans.
With 23 minutes remaining on the clock, a red flag was deployed due to a damaged left-side kerb at the exit of the Turn 1 bend.
With the FIA officials looking to address the issue, the session was ended prematurely.
Hirakawa’s 1:29.621 lap time ended up quickest ahead of Alex Lynn’s #2 Cadillac which was narrowly behind on a 1:29.707.
Third was taken by Antonio Fuoco in the #50 Ferrari AF Corse at a 1:29.727, followed by Charles Milesi of the #35 Alpine and his 1:29.760.
Fifth place was claimed by the other Toyota, the #7 GR010 Hybrid, in which Kobayashi put a 1:30.055 on the time sheets.
In the LMGT3 category, Josh Caygill of the #95 United Autosports McLaren 720S LMGT3 EVO earned a five minute stop-and-go penalty soon after the session turned green at 10.20am local time, when he crossed the white line on the pit entry.
After 30-minutes, Christian Reid of the #88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang was also given the same penalty for not respecting yellow flags at Turn 15.
So far in the weekend, AF Corse Ferrari looked confident as they are the only LMGT3 team to have not finished at least once on the podium for either of their Ferrari 296 LMGT3s.
The pace of the top runners, like in Hypercar, were separated by tenths-of-a-second which implied there will be a tight battle later on for those who want to fight in the top-10 Hyperpole shootout.
In the prematurely ended session, Francois Heriau was quickest in the category by the end of FP3 with a 1:41.206 lap time set in his #55 AF Corse Ferrari.
In second position was the other #55 AF Corse Ferrari with Davide Rigon’s fastest time of 1:41.313, followed in third by Akkodis ASP’s Arnold Robin who drove a 1:41.422 in his #78 Lexus RC F LMGT3.
Caygill took fourth after his fastest lap time of 1:41.532 in the #95 McLaren as Alex Malykhin rounded out the top-five for the #92 Manthey PureRxing Porsche 911 LMGT3.R and his 1:41.686.
Qualifying is set to commence at 6.20 am BST or 2.20 pm JST which will determine the grid for the race start on Sunday 15 September.
