Alpine grabbed the early initiative in Friday’s second practice at Fuji for the FIA World Endurance Championship, with Victor Martins delivering the fastest lap.
Martins, who is sharing the No. 36 Alpine A424 with Jules Gounon this weekend as the brand shifts toward two-driver crews, clocked a best of 1:29.304 in the session that largely avoided major incidents.
Alpine completed a one-two when Charles Milesi posted a 1:29.397 in the sister No. 35 machine, but that effort was edged by Harry Tincknell in the No. 007 Aston Martin Valkyrie, who split the French cars with a time just 0.039 seconds slower than Martins’ effort.
Milesi’s lap proved good enough for third, while Genesis continued its positive run by having Mathieu Jaminet leave a 1:29.492 on the board as the session closed, lifting the No. 19 GMR-001 to fourth place—sixth-fastest in FP1.
That pushed Mathys Jaubert down to fifth in the No. 17 Genesis, with Marco Sorensen’s No. 009 Heart of Racing Team Valkyrie slotting in sixth.
Jack Aitken grabbed seventh in the No. 38 Cadillac V-Series.R as the top seven all eclipsed the FP1 benchmark set by Toyota’s Ryo Hirakawa.
Toyota’s afternoon ran with less fanfare as Hirakawa ended eighth in the No. 8 TR010 Hybrid, behind the improving No. 19 Genesis of Jaminet, while Kamui Kobayashi’s No. 7 toyed with a slower pace, finishing 13th.
Nick Cassidy—who had taken Fuji in Super Formula and SUPER GT earlier in the year—posted the ninth-quickest time in the No. 93 Peugeot 9X8, with Will Stevens rounding out the top ten in the No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA entry.
Ferrari found the going tougher, with none of its three 499Ps ending the day inside the top ten; the best of the trio, the No. 50, finished 11th, a little under seven-tenths of a second shy of the pace-setter.
BMW continued to struggle as well, with the M Hybrid V8s led by the No. 15 machine driven by Dries Vanthoor only good enough for 14th overall.
In the LMGT3 class, Ben Tuck led the way in the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 EVO with a 1:39.828, comfortably faster than Finn Gehrsitz’s Garage 59 McLaren that had led the morning session.
Lin Hodenius was second quickest in the No. 79 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, just 0.045 seconds off the pace, while Hadrien David was third in the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3.
Iron Lynx’s second car and Akkodis ASP’s entry filled the next two spots in the order, driven by Rui Andrade and Clemens Schmid respectively, rounding out the top five in the LMGT3 class.
The third and final free practice session for the 6 Hours of Fuji is scheduled for Saturday morning at 9:30 a.m. local time (Friday, 8:30 p.m. EST).
RESULTS: Free Practice 2
