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Fuji WEC: Porsche leads as rain and crash disrupt Friday practice

Porsche ended up fastest after a pair of wet free practice sessions for this weekend's Fuji round of the World Endurance Championship

The two Porsche 919 Hybrids set the best times of the day in the opening session in the hands of Andre Lotterer and Earl Bamber before a red flag and then heavy rain limited running in the second of the two 90-minute periods.

Lotterer led the way in the morning with a 1m35.527s, which put him just over a tenth of a second up on the 1m35.660s set by Bamber in the sister car.

The best of the Toyota TS050 HYBRIDs was just under half a second back on a 1m35.738s from Jose Maria Lopez.

Sebastien Buemi was a further tenth behind in the second of TS050.

Lopez was at the top of the session-two times in the #7 Toyota on a 1m39.202s when it was red-flagged with 22 minutes on the clock after Vitaly Petrov went off in his Manor LMP2 ORECA-Gibson 07.

Barrier repairs and then an intensification of the rain prevented the session from restarting for nearly 45 minutes.

The #7 Toyota was the only LMP1 car to return to the track for the final 25 minutes of the session.

Alex Brundle was fastest in LMP2 for the Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA squad with a 1m42.735s.

That put Brundle just under half a second up on Matthieu Vaxiviere in the TDS Racing ORECA.

The second of the DC Racing ORECAs was fastest in P2 in session two in the hands of Thomas Laurent on a 1m47.437s.

Petrov had just gone third fastest in class when he hit the barriers at the long Turn 4 right-hander.

The two factory Porsches were quickest in GTE Pro with times set in the opening session.

Michael Christensen's 1m47.365s put him just over two tenths up on team-mate Richard Lietz in the sister Porsche 911 RSR.

Davide Rigon was third fastest in the best of the factory AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTEs, while Miguel Molina was only marginally slower on the way to topping the GTE Am times in his AF entry.

Olivier Pla ended up fastest in GTE Pro for the Ganassi in the afternoon session with a 1m52.658s.

FP1 times

Pos Class Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 LMP1 N.Jani, A.Lotterer, N.Tandy Porsche LMP Team Porsche 1m35.527s - 34
2 LMP1 T.Bernhard, E.Bamber, B.Hartley Porsche LMP Team Porsche 1m35.660s 0.133s 35
3 LMP1 M.Conway, K.Kobayashi, J.M.Lopez Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota 1m36.010s 0.483s 38
4 LMP1 S.Buemi, A.Davidson, K.Nakajima Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota 1m36.105s 0.578s 38
5 LMP2 D.Cheng, A.Brundle, T.Gommendy Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m42.735s 7.208s 40
6 LMP2 F.Perrodo, M.Vaxiviere, E.Collard TDS Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m43.225s 7.698s 37
7 LMP2 H-Pin Tung, O.Jarvis, T.Laurent Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m43.327s 7.800s 38
8 LMP2 M.Rao, B.Hanley, J-E.Vergne CEFC Manor TRS Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m43.533s 8.006s 33
9 LMP2 N.Lapierre, G.Menezes, A.Negrao Signatech Alpine Matmut Alpine/Gibson 1m43.727s 8.200s 28
10 LMP2 R.Rusinov, P.Thiriet, J.Rossiter G-Drive Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m43.912s 8.385s 36
11 LMP2 J.Canal, N.Prost, B.Senna Vaillante Rebellion ORECA/Gibson 1m44.287s 8.760s 34
12 LMP2 M.Beche, D.H.Hansson, N.Piquet Jr. Vaillante Rebellion ORECA/Gibson 1m44.370s 8.843s 37
13 LMP2 R.Gonzalez, S.Trummer, V.Petrov CEFC Manor TRS Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m45.228s 9.701s 32
14 GTE Pro M.Christensen, K.Estre Porsche GT Team Porsche 1m47.365s 11.838s 35
15 GTE Pro R.Lietz, F.Makowiecki Porsche GT Team Porsche 1m47.617s 12.090s 35
16 GTE Pro D.Rigon, S.Bird AF Corse Ferrari 1m47.627s 12.100s 32
17 GTE Am T.Flohr, F.Castellacci, M.Molina Spirit of Race Ferrari 1m47.655s 12.128s 37
18 GTE Pro J.Calado, A.P.Guidi AF Corse Ferrari 1m47.681s 12.154s 37
19 GTE Pro S.Mucke, O.Pla Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford 1m47.881s 12.354s 31
20 GTE Am Mok W.S., K.Sawa, M.Griffin Clearwater Racing Ferrari 1m48.246s 12.719s 28
21 GTE Pro A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford 1m48.710s 13.183s 25
22 GTE Pro N.Thiim, M.Sorensen Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 1m48.834s 13.307s 29
23 GTE Am C.Ried, M.Cairoli, M.Dienst Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 1m49.042s 13.515s 36
24 GTE Pro D.Turner, J.Adam Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 1m49.210s 13.683s 30
25 GTE Am P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 1m50.967s 15.440s 31
26 GTE Am M.Hedlund, B.Barker, N.Foster Gulf Racing Porsche 1m52.439s 16.912s 32

FP2 times

Pos Class Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 LMP1 M.Conway, K.Kobayashi, J.M.Lopez Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota 1m39.202s - 7
2 LMP1 N.Jani, A.Lotterer, N.Tandy Porsche LMP Team Porsche 1m40.523s 1.321s 6
3 LMP1 S.Buemi, A.Davidson, K.Nakajima Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota 1m41.413s 2.211s 6
4 LMP1 T.Bernhard, E.Bamber, B.Hartley Porsche LMP Team Porsche 1m42.783s 3.581s 6
5 LMP2 H-Pin Tung, O.Jarvis, T.Laurent Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m47.437s 8.235s 5
6 LMP2 J.Canal, N.Prost, B.Senna Vaillante Rebellion ORECA/Gibson 1m47.521s 8.319s 8
7 LMP2 R.Gonzalez, S.Trummer, V.Petrov CEFC Manor TRS Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m48.004s 8.802s 8
8 LMP2 R.Rusinov, P.Thiriet, J.Rossiter G-Drive Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m49.152s 9.950s 6
9 LMP2 M.Beche, D.H.Hansson, N.Piquet Jr. Vaillante Rebellion ORECA/Gibson 1m50.604s 11.402s 10
10 LMP2 F.Perrodo, M.Vaxiviere, E.Collard TDS Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m50.920s 11.718s 5
11 LMP2 N.Lapierre, G.Menezes, A.Negrao Signatech Alpine Matmut Alpine/Gibson 1m51.228s 12.026s 8
12 LMP2 D.Cheng, A.Brundle, T.Gommendy Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m52.630s 13.428s 8
13 GTE Pro S.Mucke, O.Pla Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford 1m52.658s 13.456s 16
14 GTE Pro R.Lietz, F.Makowiecki Porsche GT Team Porsche 1m52.710s 13.508s 6
15 GTE Pro M.Christensen, K.Estre Porsche GT Team Porsche 1m52.719s 13.517s 7
16 GTE Am Mok W.S., K.Sawa, M.Griffin Clearwater Racing Ferrari 1m53.381s 14.179s 7
17 GTE Am T.Flohr, F.Castellacci, M.Molina Spirit of Race Ferrari 1m53.407s 14.205s 5
18 GTE Pro A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford 1m53.409s 14.207s 12
19 GTE Pro J.Calado, A.P.Guidi AF Corse Ferrari 1m53.772s 14.570s 4
20 GTE Pro D.Rigon, S.Bird AF Corse Ferrari 1m53.932s 14.730s 10
21 GTE Pro D.Turner, J.Adam Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 1m54.760s 15.558s 11
22 GTE Pro N.Thiim, M.Sorensen Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 1m54.870s 15.668s 5
23 LMP2 M.Rao, B.Hanley, J-E.Vergne CEFC Manor TRS Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m54.899s 15.697s 5
24 GTE Am M.Hedlund, B.Barker, N.Foster Gulf Racing Porsche 1m55.512s 16.310s 4
25 GTE Am C.Ried, M.Cairoli, M.Dienst Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 1m59.453s 20.251s 8
26 GTE Am P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 2m00.394s 21.192s 3


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