Kamui Kobayashi topped Friday afternoon’s 90-minute Free Practice 2 at Fuji Speedway, a 1:29.948 in the #7 Toyota GR010 slicing over a second from the best time set in the morning session and, backed up by an improvement from the sister #8 Toyota in the hands of Brendon Hartley (1:30.173), gapping the leading Peugeot.
The #94 in the hands of Löic Duval improved its time from the morning session, a 1:31.194 fending off the close attentions of a much improved Alpine effort but some 1.2 seconds back from Kobayashi.
Nico Lapierre’s 1:31.362 was enough to put the #36 between the two Peugeots, a tenth and a half up on the final Hypercar in the order, this the #93 Peugeot of Jean-Eric Vergne.
LMP2 saw the two JOTA Orecas crowd the top two times of the session with Antonio Felix da Costa (1:32.351) and Ed Jones (1:32.493) in the #38 and #28 respectively.
Filipe Albuquerque took the #22 United Autosports to third fastest, all three improving on the top time of FP1.
The #51 Ferrari repeated its session topping form for the day but with Alessandro Pier Guidi at the wheel this time, a 1:37.682 enough to fend off Gianmaria Bruni in the #91 Porsche who would close the gap to just 0.164 by the end of the session.
Tommy Milner whilst still fifth in class, would see some progression in pace for the #64 Corvette, work in progress for the Monza-winning squad.
GTE-AM saw the Iron Dames’ #85 Ferrari continue its run of good form, Michelle Gatting’s 1:39.170 good enough to fend off the efforts of Giancarlo Fisichella in the ‘sister’ #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari.
Fisichella’s 1:39.185 was just 0.015 off Gatting’s best and, somewhat bizarrely, has time was matched soon afterwards by Marco Sorensen in the #33 TF Sport Aston Martin.
That timing oddity came after the same thing happened in FP1 between the two United Autosports Orecas, both matched pairs finishing 2nd and 3rd in their respective classes.
Confirmed before the session by Alkamel timing was that the United Autosports pair had produced a matched time at the end of a session for the first time in the WEC’s 11 year history. The GTE Am times later in the day were the second ever!
After three hours of running today there have been few dramas, the only interruption to FP2 coming in the final ten minutes with a full course yellow deposed to allow a marshall to retrieve a chunk of carbon fibre bodywork om the exit of T2.
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