Fuji Qualifying Cancelled Due to Weather; Alpine on Pole

Qualifying for the 6 Hours of Fuji has been cancelled due to poor weather conditions, with the combined order from Friday’s two practice sessions setting the grid for the sixth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship season.

The decision was made after an immediate red flag, caused by Francois Heriau crashing the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo at Turn 2 in first qualifying for LMGT3.

Heriau appeared to aquaplane as he exited Turn 1, losing control and spearing into the right-hand side barrier. The Frenchman walked away from the incident.

Moments later, race control announced that the session would not resume and that qualifying would not take place due to the weather.

It means the grid will be set according to combined times from all practice sessions, which for the vast majority of cars means the order from Friday afternoon’s FP2.

Alpine’s No. 36 car, shared by Jules Gounon and Victor Martins, is therefore set to start on pole in Hypercar thanks to Martins’ best time of 1:29.304 in FP2.

Harry Tincknell set the second-best practice time aboard the No. 007 Aston Martin Valkyrie, but has been handed a two-place grid penalty for his collision with Ian James’ Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo in FP3 on Saturday morning.

It means Alpine locks out the front row, as it promotes the sister No. 35 A424 of Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg to second, while the No. 19 Genesis GMR-001 moves up to third on the strength of Mathieu Jaminet’s best practice time.

Genesis, which takes its best-ever grid position, has two cars starting in the top five as Mathys Jaubert was fifth in FP2.

Aston Martin’s No. 009 Valkyrie starts sixth ahead of Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s No. 38 car and the best of the Toyotas, the No. 8 TR010 Hybrid in which Ryo Hirakawa was among a minority of drivers to set his best time in FP1.

Rounding off the top ten are the No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 and the No. 12 Cadillac V-Series.R.

Ferrari’s top contender is the No. 50 499P in 11th, while BMW’s leading M Hybrid V8, the No. 15 car, starts 14th. The No. 20 machine that co-leads the drivers’ standings is due to take the start in 17th and last among the Hypercars.

In LMGT3, the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 EVO of Ben Tuck, Eric Powell and Sebastian Priaulx thanks to Tuck’s class-leading FP2 time.

Lining up alongside will be the No. 79 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo, in which Lin Hodenius set the second-best time, while the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 will take the start third on the strength of Hadrien David’s FP2 effort.

Finn Gehrsitz’s best time from FP1 has the No. 58 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo fourth ahead of the No. 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG and the No. 10 McLaren.

The 6H Fuji begins Sunday at 11 a.m. local time (Saturday 10 p.m. EST).