Lexus had a perfect Friday at the World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Fuji as both cars claimed P1 in Free Practice 1 and 2 respectively.
The Japanese manufacturer will be hoping for more of the same throughout the weekend at their home track, with Ben Barnicoat and Clemens Schmid topping the charts in FP1 and FP2.
The two Lexus-powered teams sit P4 and P7 in the Teams’ Championship. The #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus car claimed victory recently in Interlagos, marking the manufacturer’s first win in WEC.
A warm Fuji raceway greeted all, and aided the drivers in navigating an uneventful FP1 session.
The best time of FP1 came the way of the #78 squad, with Barnicoat clocking a 1:41.257 in the car he shares with Arnold Robin and Finn Gehrsitz.
Charlie Eastwood followed into P2, with his #81 TF Sport Corvette posting a lap mere hundreths off being fastest. The #81 finished second to the #87 Lexus at Interlagos, and also claimed P3 at Le Mans.
The #95 United Autosports car placed third, fresh off victory at the Circuit of the Americas. Marino Sato’s effort of 1:41.641 was enough at a track he can be considered an expert at. The fellow United Autosports car, the #59, finished nearly two tenths behind its sister.
The team whose penalty awarded United Autosports victory in COTA, the #21 Vista AF Corse, took P4. Davide Rigon, Francesco Castellacci, and Thomas Flohr managed a time just two hundreths behind P3, in the highly competitive field.
Title-chasers #21 Vista AF Corse managed P6, as Simon Mann, Francois Heriau, and Alessio Rovera look to reduce the 19-point gap to the leading squad of the #92 Porsche.
They will be boosted by the fact that Richard Lietz, Riccardo Pera and Ryan Hardwick only managed P10, but just three tenths the difference between the pair.
Akkodis ASP Lexus go fastest again as Schmid tops FP2
Two brief full-course yellows broke the peaceful tone of the weekend during FP2. However, the joy surrounding Lexus was unbroken as the team saw its second car go fastest on Friday.
The #87 of Schmid posted a 1:41.431, putting his team two tenths clear of the #59 United Autosports McLaren as Sebastien Baud posted the best time for his team. The #59 squad will take positives from their Friday showing, with good consistency between the two sessions.
The #78 Lexus took P3, as FP1’s leaders posted a 1:41.692 to demonstrate their own consistency. Should the pace remain strong for the team, they will hope to surpass their season-best result of P4 in Qatar.
The #92 Porsche bounced back from a poor showing in FP1, pipping their AF Corse rivals to P4 by less than a tenth. Their lap of 1:41.697 was also a remarkable five thousandths of a second behind P3.
The #77 Ford Mustang also made progress from FP1, with the squad going one position higher courtesy of their 1:41.755.
Discussion about this post