The No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 set the fastest time in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s first practice session of the weekend at Fuji Speedway, Laurens Vanthoor completing a 1m30.561s early on to put himself and his championship-leading teammates quickest by a hundredth of a second.
Toyota’s No. 8 GR010 HYBRID ended up second on the timing screens in Hypercar with a 1m30.571s from Ryo Hirakawa, while Ferrari’s Le Mans-winning No. 50 499P made it three manufacturers in the top three.
Completing the top five were the sister factory Porsche and Toyota’s No. 7 car, which ended up fourth and fifth, with marginally faster laps in the hot, humid weather than the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari which won last time out at COTA. Peugeot’s No. 94 sister car ended up seventh, with the fastest of the Alpine A424s — the No. 35 — eighth.
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Further down the order the No. 93 9X8 slotted in 16th, the car completing just 31 laps — the fewest in the class — after missing time early due to engine checks in its pit box.
In LMGT3 it was a strong start to the weekend for United Autosports, its No. 95 McLaren GT3 EVO topping the times with a 1m40.528s. The No. 95 did however bring out FP1’s only red flag in the final half hour, after stopping at Turn 10 after Marino Sato had contact with the Cadillac.
The pair of Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3s completed the top three with the No. 55 ahead of the No. 54, both within 0.2s of the McLaren.