Toyota took a home pole for the Six Hours of Fuji thanks to Kamui Kobayashi in the number seven ahead of its sister car.
Toyota secured a front row lockout ahead of the two Porsche Penskes as Ferrari qualified down in sixth and seventh as rain interrupted the end of Hypercar qualifying.Rain at the start of the final practice session in the morning had left the track slightly damp for qualifying, but the track was fully dry for GTE and LMP2 qualifying. However, before the Hypercar session got underway, Race Director Edoardo Freitas declared the track wet, meaning teams could run on wet tyres should they wanted with a hint of drizzle still in the air.
With drivers more concerned with getting temperature in their tyres, many cars were weaving to warm up their slicks. Heading down the long main straight, Loic Duval in the number 94 Peugeot started weaving directly in front of the two Ferraris, who had to move out of the way. Duval was placed under investigation for his antics after the session.
The number two Cadillac set the provisional pole time of a 1’28.770 thanks to Alex Lynn, but that was comfortably beaten by Kamui Kobayashi in the number seven Toyota. The number six Porsche Penske moved second with a time by Kevin Estre, but was almost nine tenths slower than the Toyota’s time.
On his second push lap, Kobayashi improved over his first two sectors but could not hold that pace over the final sector and failed to beat his own time. The sister Toyota then moved into second place with Brendon Hartley’s first effort for the number eight Toyota six tenths slower than his team mate.
With under four minutes of qualifying remaining, the drizzle over the circuit had now evolved to light rain. The rain appeared localised to the final sector, with drivers losing seconds in the technical third part of the course even if they could maintain pace in the early part of the lap.
With the wet conditions preventing anyone from improving on their times. That assured pole position for Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez in the number seven Toyota with a Toyota front row secured by Hartley, Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirawaka in the number eight car.
The two Porsche Penskes of number six and number five will start third and fourth, respectively. The number two Cadillac took fifth ahead of the two Ferraris of number 51 and number 50.
In LMP2, the number 22 United Autosports car took pole courtesy of Phil Hanson, with the world champion Corvette team securing pole for the GTE AM category.
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Qualifying result
| Pos | No. | Class | Team | Car | Drivers | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 | Hypercar (H) | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota GR010 | Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/Jose Maria Lopez | Toyota GR010 HYBRID |
| 2 | 8 | Hypercar (H) | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota GR010 | Sebastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa | Toyota GR010 HYBRID |
| 3 | 6 | Hypercar (H) | Porsche Penske Motorsport | Porsche 963 | Kevin Estre/Andre Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor | Porsche 963 |
| 4 | 5 | Hypercar (H) | Porsche Penske Motorsport | Porsche 963 | Dane Cameron/Michael Christensen/Frederic Makowiecki | Porsche 963 |
| 5 | 2 | Hypercar (H) | Cadillac Racing | Cadillac V-Series.R | Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn/Richard Westbrook | Cadillac V-Series.R |
| 6 | 51 | Hypercar (H) | Ferrari AF Corse | Ferrari 499P | Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/Antonio Giovinazzi | Ferrari 499P |
| 7 | 50 | Hypercar (H) | Ferrari AF Corse | Ferrari 499P | Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen | Ferrari 499P |
| 8 | 38 | Hypercar (H) | Hertz Team JOTA | Porsche 963 | Antonio Felix Da Costa/Will Stevens/Yifei Ye | Porsche 963 |
| 9 | 99 | Hypercar (H) | Proton Competition | Porsche 963 | Gianmaria Bruni/Harry Tincknell/Neel Jani | Porsche 963 |
| 10 | 93 | Hypercar (H) | Peugeot Totalenergies | Peugeot 9X8 | Paul di Resta/Mikkel Jensen/Jean-Eric Vergne | Peugeot 9X8 |
| 11 | 94 | Hypercar (H) | Peugeot Totalenergies | Peugeot 9X8 | Loic Duval/Gustavo Menezes/Nico Mueller | Peugeot 9X8 |
| 12 | 4 | Hypercar | Floyd Vanwall Racing Team | Vanwall Vandervell 680 | Esteban Guerrieri/Tristan Vautier/Joao Paulo de OIiveira | Vanwall Vandervell 680 |
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World Endurance Championship
- Expanded hypercar field and Valentino Rossi’s debut confirmed for Le Mans
- Le Mans winners Ferrari reveal 2024 hypercar livery
- Kubica, Shwartzman and Ye to share third Ferrari hypercar in WEC
- Watch 10 of the best ‘proper’ overtakes from F1, IndyCar, WEC and more in 2023
- Isotta Fraschini Duqueine completes first WEC Hypercar test at Estoril
kpcart
9th September 2023, 8:40
Would be nice if you put the complete qualifying results up, not just the hypercar. Much of the better racing and interest in tge series is in lmp2 and gte classes, while hypercar is mpre boring than f1.
Coventry Climax
9th September 2023, 10:52
And the BoP first prize for this round goes to…
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
9th September 2023, 18:27
Kobayashi and toyota onn top, seems so strange as someone who only ever watched f1 and no other sports!