Jensen Keeps Peugeot On Top in Second Practice at Fuji

Peugeot completed a clean sweep of fastest times in practice for this weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship round at Fuji, as Mikkel Jensen set the best time in Friday afternoon’s second 90-minute session.

Jensen set the day’s fastest time of 1:29.495 aboard the No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 early on in the session, surpassing stablemate Loic Duval’s FP1 benchmark edging out Julien Andlauer in the No. 5 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry by 0.017 seconds.

Third-fastest was the best of the Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyries, the No. 009 car of Marco Sorensen, a further 0.047 seconds behind.

Like in FP1, the majority of times were set early in the session, with several drivers attempting qualifying simulations on fresh tires.

Ryo Hirakawa was among the first to set a competitive lap time, with his early effort of 1:29.856 in the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid keeping him fourth-fastest.

Nyck de Vries was sixth-fastest in the sister No. 7 Toyota, as the Japanese marque’s two cars were split by the No. 35 Alpine A424 in which Charles Milesi set the best time.

Last year’s Fuji polesitter Alex Lynn was seventh-fastest in the quicker of the two Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA entries, ahead of the No. 50 Ferrari 499P of Antonio Fuoco, the No. 007 Aston Martin of Harry Tincknell and Kevin Estre in the No. 6 Porsche 963.

Akkodis ASP was once again fastest in LMGT3 as Silver-rated Clemens Schmid set the best time of 1:41.431 aboard the No. 87 Lexus RC F GT3.

Schmid’s best time was 0.230 seconds up on the No. 59 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of Sebastien Baud, with the second of the ASP Lexuses, the No. 78 car, going third-fastest in the hands of Finn Gehrsitz.

Richard Lietz was fourth-fastest in the championship-leading No. 92 Manthey Porsche 911 GT3 R, followed by Alessio Rovera’s No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3.

The session passed without major incident, although the full-course yellow was deployed twice, both times to allow debris to be cleared.

Final practice for the 6 Hours of Fuji will begin at 9:50 a.m. local time on Saturday (Friday 8:50 p.m. EST).

RESULTS: Free Practice 2