Fuji Friday Notebook

***The fastest time in Friday practice for this weekend’s 6 Hours of Fuji was marginally quicker than last year’s opening day of track action at the Japanese track, as Mikkel Jensen’s chart-topping time of 1:29.495 surpassed the 1:29.577 set by Dries Vanthoor last year. In LMGT3, lap times were somewhat slower as the best time of 1:41.431 fell almost a second shy of Marino Sato’s 2024 benchmark of 1:40.528.

***United Autosports McLaren driver Sebastien Baud, who was second-fastest in LMGT3, was reprimanded by stewards for “dangerous driving” in FP2.

***The relevant stewards’ bulletin stated that “the driver of car 59 [Baud] weaved on the pit straight just in front of car 36, forcing the latter to move aside in order to avoid a collision. The Stewards considered this behavior to be of a nature deemed potentially dangerous to other drivers.”

***Jenson Button addressed the official pre-event press conference ahead of what is almost certain to be his final appearance as a professional racing driver in Japan this weekend. The Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA driver previously revealed he will step down from his drive at the end of the season as he steps back from full-time competition.

***Button said: “I’ve had a lot of great experiences racing in Japan, from racing here in F1 for 16 years, racing in SUPER GT for a couple of years and obviously racing in WEC back in 2018 and the last couple of years. It’s always been fun coming back. This country has so many fans of motor racing and they are such passionate fans. It’s really lovely to see them in the paddock. I will definitely miss racing in Japan, but there’s always a time when you got to move on. This is a moment in my life where I’ve got a lot going on. Family is the most important thing to me right now, and you need to dedicate a lot of time.”

***BMW driver Dries Vanthoor spoke in the press conference about his first impressions of the M Hybrid V8’s updated aero kit, which he sampled for the first time earlier this month in a post-race test at the Circuit of The Americas.

***Vanthoor said: “It’s always difficult to know how much you are improving, I think we will find out at the first race next year, but at least feeling-wise it’s a step forward. There are always positive and negatives, but I think it’s [mostly] positive and a step in the right direction for us. I think it can be more successful than this car.”

***As has become traditional at Fuji in recent years, schoolchildren from the nearby Asahi Elementary School participated in the press conference, asking the assembled drivers — which also included local heroes Kamui Kobayashi and Marino Sato as well as Laurens Vanthoor and Ben Barnicoat — their own questions.

***Nick Tandy is serving as Porsche Penske Motorsport’s reserve driver for the weekend, in what marks the British driver’s first appearance in the WEC paddock outside of the 24 Hours of Le Mans since his 2022 campaign with Corvette Racing.

***Ferrari’s performance and regulations manager Mauro Barbieri says the Italian marque is not considering the possibility of wrapping up either the drivers’ or manufacturers’ titles this weekend at Fuji ahead of the season finale in Bahrain.

***Barbieri told reporters on Friday: “As we were saying in Austin, it’s about taking the checkered flag, staying out of trouble, not crashing, and trying to optimize the performance of the car, and then we’ll see. Nothing special or specific at this stage.”

***Barbieri added there were unlikely to be any team orders coming from Ferrari to influence the outcome at Fuji, especially given that the No. 83 AF Corse car is not counted in the manufacturers’ classification. “We’ll eventually consider that in the specific moment, but on the manufacturers’ side, with the customer car being transparent, it won’t change,” he said. “On the drivers’ side it’s still quite open, so I think it’s quite early to think about closing the drivers’ championship fight already.”

***Asked regarding the possibility of using the No. 50 Ferrari crew to aid the No. 51 drivers’ title chances, Barbieri said: “They are not mathematically out of contention, so it wouldn’t be fair to somehow sacrifice one car for the other at this stage. We are a strong team so the drivers are keen to help each other, but I think those kind of choices must be made at the right moment, and this race is still too early to take such a decision.

***Team WRT driver Valentino Rossi says he is hoping for cooler weather over the remainder of the Fuji weekend, believing this will play to the strengths of the BMW M4 GT3 EVO, as he aims for a repeat of his 2024 podium at the track.

***Rossi told reporters: “This morning it was very hot we suffered quite a lot, and we were a bit worried, but in the afternoon, it was a bit colder and the situation was coming better. With the new tires I was not very fast, so we need to improve this point for tomorrow, but on the used tires, my pace was not too bad, so I think we are there in the pack. I hope we can have enough pace to fight for the podium, which for me is the target.”

***Peugeot Sport technical director Olivier Jansonnie described the French brand’s one-day test at COTA as “very nice” as new 2026 signing Nick Cassidy sampled the 9X8 for the first time. Jansonnie told reporters: “It was very big test for us with a huge test plan. We had the drivers, Theo [Pourchaire] and Nick, and a lot of things technically to try on the cars. No reliability issues on either car so we could achieve the complete test plan.”

***Jansonnie praised Cassidy’s performance in what is believed to be the New Zealander’s first outing on slick tires since he tested an IndyCar for Chip Ganassi Racing at Sebring in 2023, amid his recent focus on Formula E. “He took it very seriously, tried not to make any mistakes, and improved throughout the day,” he said of Cassidy, adding he is likely to get another chance to sample the 9X8 in the rookie test in Bahrain.

***Asked why Peugeot did not choose Cassidy for a race debut in the season finale at Bahrain in place of Stoffel Vandoorne, who departs the team after this weekend, Jansonnie replied: “We have been preparing Theo for a year now, so he is more ready right now, basically. But Nick will be ready soon as well.”

***A number of paddock figures are celebrating their 100th WEC races attended in-person this weekend. This exclusive club is known to include Proton Competition team owner Christian Ried, AF Corse team founder Amato Ferrari, AF team manager Batti Pregliasco and noted Autosport journalist Gary Watkins, who is believed to be the only media member with a perfect attendance record.

***Ferrari’s global head of endurance Antonello Coletta and Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe technical director David Floury are among those to have missed only a single race since the inception of the WEC at Sebring in 2012.

***Red Bull Formula 1 reserve driver Ayumu Iwasa is in the paddock at Fuji this weekend, working as a driver coach for Formula Regional Japanese Championship driver Kento Omiya. Iwasa has a connection to Omiya via mutual sponsor PONOS.

***Free Practice 3 is slated for Saturday at 9:50 a.m. local time (Friday 8:50 p.m. EST), with qualifying following at 2:20 p.m. (1:10 a.m. EST).

Davey Euwema contributed to this report