Fuji Saturday Notebook

***A ‘circuit safari’ took place on Saturday morning, shortly before Free Practice 3. Five buses took to the Fuji Speedway track in a live unofficial session alongside the WEC cars.

***The buses completed two laps on the left-hand side allowing cars to pass on the right. A halfway change-over on the main straight ensured all on board got an up-close view.

***While teams were only required to send one car out for the safari, both of the Toyota GR010 Hybrids and Peugeot 9X8s took part. Remarkably, Toyota Gazoo Racing driver Kamui Kobayashi used the 12-minute track slot to complete a qualifying simulation run in the No. 7 car that went on to take pole position.

***Explaining how that transpired, Toyota’s WEC technical director Pascal Vasselon said: “Just because he had the opportunity and things went well. It was not [on] purpose. It just happened… we try to take advantage of any opportunity to run.”

***Dempsey-Proton Racing’s No. 77 Porsche 911 RSR-19 returned to the pits from the safari at a trundle, with the left-rear bodywork rubbing against the tarmac and the wheel. It is understood that the car encountered a suspension issue during the session.

***Robin Frijns was demoted from third to fourth on the LMP2 grid after having his best qualifying lap time deleted. The deletion, which was not shown on the live timing feed and only became clear after the session, was caused by Frijns hitting the inside curb at Turn 13 which spat him off the track at the exit.

***Realteam by WRT has subsequently advanced to third on the provisional grid. Frijns, meanwhile, will start fourth in WRT’s No. 31 car after posting a solid backup time.

***The NorthWest AMR Aston Martin Vantage GTE was sent to the back of the grid due to Paul Dalla Lana breaking the pit lane speed limit during qualifying. The Canadian was clocked at 62.8 km/h against a 60 km/h maximum. He received a fine of €300 ($304 USD) and all of his lap times were deleted. The car’s fastest driver this weekend, David Pittard, is required to take the start.

***Michael Christensen became the first two-time pole-sitter in GTE-Pro this season. The No. 92 Porsche driver previously led qualifying for the 1000 Miles of Sebring.

***James Calado said that he was “compromised” by traffic on his qualifying out-lap, causing his No. 51 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo to lose the peak of its tire temperature. The British driver ended up qualifying second but missed out on pole to Christensen.

***Calado suggested that the predicted hot and sunny conditions for race day will emphasize the importance of effective tire management. “In the conditions expected, the tires, especially the rear ones, would be severely tested,” he said.

***There was a close call between two cars in GTE qualifying when Satoshi Hoshino marginally avoided hitting Franck Dezoteux’s Ferrari 488 GTE Evo as the Frenchman recovered from a Turn 15 spin. Hoshino had all of his times deleted for not slowing down under yellow flags. His D’station Racing Aston Martin will start alongside NorthWest AMR on the 18th row.

***A minute’s silence has been added to the pre-race activities, as a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II who passed away on Thursday at the age of 96.

***As of Saturday morning, both Oreca 07 Gibsons from U.K-based team United Autosports are running with a black band on their noses in honor of the Queen.

***Toyota technical boss Vasselon described the 18 kg weight reduction across the board for the LMH cars as “a given” based on the Balance of Performance principles for Hypercar. The BoP system requires two races’ worth of data to assess whether a correction is needed.

“There has been an adjustment after Le Mans,” Vasselon said. “There is no adjustment after Monza. The relative gap between the LMH cars had to stay the same. Peugeot, Glickenhaus and Toyota are not adjusted for Fuji. The next adjustment should come in Bahrain.”

***James Rossiter says he is “not thinking about” whether he will continue to be part of Peugeot’s Hypercar lineup next season. The Brit was previously Peugeot’s reserve driver but was promoted to a race seat when Kevin Magnussen left the program for Formula 1.

“It’s been an opportunity that I wasn’t expecting to have,” Rossiter told Sportscar365. “But I’m taking it with both hands, maximizing it and it’s up to other people to make decisions for the future.

***Peugeot is working to recruit a seventh driver to its Hypercar roster, but it is unclear if this will be in a race seat or as the reserve. “The decision will be made to choose this driver and then after to make the crew [that] will be the best for the team, but I don’t yet know where they will fit,” said Jean-Marc Finot, head of Stellantis Motorsport.

***Finot indicated that Peugeot would like the WEC to add a South American race in the future. The WEC last visited Brazil in 2014 for the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo. “We like South America and it is a good market for Peugeot,” Finot said.

***Porsche’s factory director of motorsport for WEC, Alexander Stehlig, is set to leave racing at the end of the season to take a new role within Porsche’s road car division. The experienced former race engineer, who guided ex-Audi driver Mattias Ekstrom to the DTM title, has been involved in the Porsche GTE-Pro project since 2014. GTE-Pro will end after the current WEC season.

***Former WEC driver Roberto Merhi is in the paddock this weekend supporting young Formula Regional Japanese Championship competitor Yoshiaki Katayama. Merhi, who now races in FIA Formula 2 and Super GT, drove for Manor in 2016 and subsequently represented Eurasia Motorsport and G-Drive Racing at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

***Another ex-WEC competitor, Kei Cozzolino, is on-site helping his long-time driving partner Takeshi Kimura who is racing for Team Project 1. Cozzolino and Kimura are currently joint first in the Fanatec GT World Challenge Asia powered by AWS standings.

***Toyota on Saturday hosted WEC CEO Frederic Lequien and ACO President Pierre Fillon at a demonstration of the hydrogen-powered Toyota Corolla Cross H2 Concept. Accompanied by Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe vice chairman and three-time Le Mans winner Kazuki Nakajima, they turned laps of the Fuji Handling Track which is located in the main circuit complex.

***For its home race, Toyota has brought a GR010 Hybrid LMH and a TS050 Hybrid LMP1 to display at the track, with powertrain components also exhibited.

***The 2023 WEC schedule will not be released this weekend, with the championship continuing to work alongside the FIA before setting a publication date. An additional seventh round in Europe is expected to be added to next season’s schedule.

***The 6 Hours of Fuji is due to start at 11 a.m. local time on Sunday (10 p.m. ET on Saturday, 4 a.m. CEST).