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FIA WEC, 6 Hours of Fuji – Pre-Race
Raceday may not have dawned as bright and sunny at Fuji as had the Saturday, but it was – and looked likely to remain – dry and the temperature was beginning to creep up from the 15°C starting point. A decent crowd was already in the circuit as the WEC cars came out for the 20-minute Warm-up session; not a Super GT-sized crowd, as several locals have noted, but certainly very healthy in comparison to Sao Paolo and Bahrain – this is really the first step in re-establishing this category of sportscar racing in the country, so expectations have to be realistic at this stage. All 27 cars were out on track within the first ten minutes, with little of significance to note. Andre Lotterer topped the timing screen on 1:29.186 in the #1 Audi, with Nicolas Lapierre second in the #7 Toyota. Peter Dumbreck moved the #22 JRM HPD to fourth and top of the privateer times with five minutes to go, with a 1:30.444. The team had spent most of the session before this practicing their driver-changes, cycling all three drivers through the procedure. As the chequered flag flew, Lapierre went to the top of the times on his last lap – a 1:29.137 being 0.049s quicker than Lotterer’s best. The #24 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan was quickest in P2 after a 1:33.321 from Olivier Pla, with John Martin second quickest in the #26 ADR Delta Oreca Nissan. Richard Lietz led GTE-Pro in the #77 Felbermayr Porsche – 1:41.655 – while the #57 Krohn Racing Ferrari topped the Am times on 1:42.921. Several cars were caught out at various corners during the session, but with none suffering damage as a result. Lietz was caught out at T10 – suffering a lock-up and threading his way through the barriers – with the chicane having been responsible for the demotion of three cars on the grid following qualifying yesterday. Joel Camathias (#55 JWA-Avila Porsche), Julien Canal (#50 Larbre Corvette) and Stefan Mücke (#97 AMR Vantage V8) all cut the corner and were sent to the naughty step as a result. The revised grid and starting drivers can be found – here Warm-up was followed by a very well attended autograph session in the pitlane, with the queue for Giancarlo Fisichella’s autograph extending for many metres. As this was going on, Yojiro Terada was out on track for several demonstration runs in a Charge-liveried (but not the Le Mans-winning) Mazda 787B. The area behind the main grandstand was again buzzing, with the WEC goodie-bags all being snapped up by the eager crowd well before 9am and with the numerous concession stands doing a roaring trade. If this is a disappointing crowd, a ‘good’ attendance must be something to see. MH |