Fuji Friday Notebook

***The forecasted heavy winds and rains on Friday at Fuji Speedway didn’t fully materialize, with Typhoon Yun-yeung downgraded to a tropical storm late Thursday and leading to largely dry periods throughout the day, including a fully dry Free Practice 2 for FIA World Endurance Championship competitors.

***Porsche LMDh factory director Urs Kuratle told Sportscar365: “The forecast yesterday looked bad and then since, with every update, it became better. It was kind of what we expected, from what we knew from our weather guy this morning, but it was a strong wind this morning when we left our hotel, which I was a bit scared, but then it became better and better all the time.”

***Kuratle said Friday’s running was what Porsche expected, with only a few “smaller” problems encountered over the course of the day spread across the two factory Penske cars as well as the customer Porsche 963s from Hertz Team JOTA and Proton Competition.

***Toyota has switched from one end of the Fuji pit lane to the other: previously, it was close to pit exit whereas now it is the closest team to pit entry. This was a strategic decision to have more time to warm up the cold tires at the start of each stint. Toyota’s technical director Pascal Vasselon also joked that it is the garage closest to the shared WEC catering unit at Fuji.

***Former Toyota reserve driver Nyck de Vries, who recently lost his Formula 1 drive with Scuderia AlphaTauri, is “back on the list” of drivers that are of interest to the manufacturer’s LMH program, according to Vasselon: “We still know him, of course. He is on our list like several other drivers.”

***Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe managing director Rob Leupen said Ritomo Miyata’s last-minute WEC debut with Kessel Racing is a “good opportunity” for the Toyota junior. “For us, we can see how he can develop and how he races here,” Leupen told Sportscar365.

***Kamui Kobayashi is hopeful of making additional NASCAR appearances next year following his Cup Series debut at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course in a 23XI Racing Toyota Camry last month, finishing 33rd.

***Kobayashi told Sportscar365: “I definitely enjoyed it. Hopefully I think I’ll have more opportunities of coming back there. I have to look at the schedule and the opportunities. It’s not like I can decide, to be honest. But if we’ll have more chances, I want to do it because it’s really good racing there.”

***The popular Fuji Speedway ‘circuit safari’ is back again this weekend. Spectators will be able to get up close to the WEC field by taking to a live track in coaches. A 12-minute session will be held shortly before Free Practice 3 on Saturday.

***Each team must field one car in the circuit safari, although Toyota and Peugeot took the opportunity to run both of their LMH cars last year.

***Nico Mueller, who has been replaced by Stoffel Vandoorne this weekend in the No. 94 Peugeot, is expected to return to the wheel for Bahrain according to technical director Olivier Jansonnie, who said the news has been “pretty good” on Mueller’s recovery. The Swiss driver sustained a collarbone injury during the summer break.

***Prema is hoping to end its second LMP2 season on a high after a difficult campaign that in which its two crews sit eighth and ninth in the standings. Team principal Rene Rosin told Sportscar365 that the Italian squad has been satisfied with its performances but the results have been affected by various setbacks including accidents and penalties.

***Rosin said: “We are just trying to heal in Fuji and Bahrain to maximize the performance and show what we have done at the beginning of the year. Everything turned out bad for us, but the performance has been pretty solid all season.”

***Inter Europol Competition driver Fabio Scherer was given a five-minute stop and hold penalty at the start of FP2 for crossing the white pit entry line in the first session.

***Alex Riberas, driver of the No. 98 Aston Martin Vantage GTE, and Team WRT’s Rui Andrade each received five-minute penalties to take in FP3 for track limits abuse.

***Alpine recently overcame the task of correlating the virtual steering of its LMDh car’s simulator model with that of the real-world car. It is understood that Alpine needed to develop its own simulator model because it didn’t have access to one for the other ORECA-based LMDh car from Acura. “The first sim we did, the sim was not fully ready with the steering,” said Alpine driver Matthieu Vaxiviere. “Now we have the same steering in the sim as we have in real life.”

***This weekend’s 6 Hours of Fuji is the tenth appearance for the FIA World Endurance Championship at the famed Japanese circuit, an event that Toyota Gazoo Racing has won eight out of the nine previous editions.

***Jean-Eric Vergne said Peugeot’s first podium with the 9X8 last time out at Monza was a “big milestone” for the program. “It felt like a massive boost for the whole team,” he said. “We’ve been struggling a lot since we started the first race last year in Monza. We come from a long way.”

***Earl Bamber admitted he was hoping for more wet-weather running on Friday, after getting valuable mileage for the Cadillac V-Series.R in the rain-soaked Free Practice 1.

***Bamber said: “Our initial laps here in the wet… We haven’t done that much wet running with this car, so we’re learning a lot this morning. I think it would be good for us if it was wet again, we could learn more information.”

***Super GT driver Giuliano Alesi was spotted in the paddock with his manager. The Frenchman currently drives for the TOM’S Toyota team in the top GT500 class of the Japanese series.

***Also at the track on Friday was Yuji Kunimoto, who drove for Toyota at the 2017 24 Hours of Le Mans. The current GT500 racer is here as a photographer this weekend.

***Iron Dames welcomed seven young Japanese female drivers – Sara Matsui, Kanon Takahashi, Riona Tomishita, Anju Hayakawa, Ai Miura, Anna Inotsume and Hana Burton – to its garage for a tour. The visit was organized with the Japanese Automobile Federation.

***Porsche has organized a group test at Lusail International Circuit in Qatar for late November, which Porsche Penske Motorsport managing director Jonathan Diuguid said will involve at least five to six other teams in preparation for next year’s season-opening Qatar 1812km.

***Diuguid told Sportscar365: “The proximity [to Bahrain] is close and DHL and Michelin and all these guys are going to figure out how to drive from Bahrain to Qatar, which is super helpful. I think we’re probably going to leave some stuff in Qatar but we’ll air-freight cars and spares and stuff that needs to be turned around for the championship. All of us are looking at logistical efficiencies that we can do from a cost standpoint and also from a carbon footprint, to leave as much stuff as we can there.”

***Saturday’s track action consists of Free Practice 3 at 10:20 a.m. (Friday, 9:20 p.m. EDT) and qualifying at 2:40 p.m. (1:40 a.m. EDT).

John Dagys contributed to this report