Cadillac Racing’s Alex Lynn denied Toyota’s chances of a home pole position for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Fuji.
The British driver beat the home hero’s pounce at pole on Cadillac’s sixth Hyperpole appearance in seven race meetings.
For the penultimate time in the 2024 season, 18 Hypercars fought it out on the Fuji Speedway for the coveted pole position with just 0.251 making up the top-five by the end.
As usual, a 12-minute Q1 session was followed by the 10-minute-long Hyperpole session for those who made it into the top-10 threshold.
During the initial Q1 session, the Ferraris were steadily but not commandingly finding their pace with Porsche 963 machinery showcasing promise at the top.
Impressively, the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 of Daniil Kvyat highlighted himself as a contender to get into Hyperpole for the first time as he finished within the threshold at just 0.003 ahead of the #20 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 (Robin Frijns).
Frijns, the Dutchman, narrowly missed out on the Hyperpole shootout as a result.
Furthermore, Antonio Giovinazzi’s #51 and Robert Kubica’s #83 Ferrari 499Ps finished in 12th and 13th so only the #50 of Antonio Fuoco made it into Hyperpole in seventh.
As both factory-run Ferraris did not make it through, both Porsche Penskes and Toyotas fortunately did so.
Kamui Kobayashi was eager as ever to claim a back-to-back Fuji pole position as the Toyota GAZOO Racing team principal did so last year for the #7 GR010 Hybrid.
His #8 teammate and fellow compatriot, Ryo Hirakawa, was even more keen to take the top honours, before Cadillac Racing’s Alex Lynn surged to the top in his #2 V-Series.R to deny a Toyota pole.
The #2 Cadillac driver set a 1:28.901 to go fastest, narrowly followed by Hirakawa’s 1:28.942.
This was the #2’s best qualifying result after taking second at Spa-Francorchamps and second for Le Mans.
Tomorrow, Toyota will chase their 10th WEC Fuji win having won all but the 2015 running of the event.
Dries Vanthoor put a noticeable effort to take third place in the #15 WRT BMW with a 1:29.059 lap time, additionally denying the Toyotas starting on the same row together.
Kobayashi took fourth position with his best time of 1:29.065, followed by Kevin Estre’s #6 Porsche Penske in fifth with his 1:29.152.
Alpine’s #15 A424 driver Charles Milesi finished in sixth place with a 1:29.154 ahead of Fuoco’s 1:29.196.
Matt Campbell of the #5 Porsche Penske entrant claimed eighth place after he set a 1:29.223.
Kyvat eventually finished in ninth place (1:29.582) for his team’s first Hyperpole appearance this season, as Julien Andlauer rounded off the top-10 with his 1:29.589.
The six-hour race will commence tomorrow on Sunday 15 September from 3 am BST or 11 am JST.
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