Kobayashi Quickest in Mixed-Condition FP3 at Fuji

Photo: James Moy/Toyota

Kamui Kobayashi kept Toyota Gazoo Racing atop the time charts in a mixed-condition Free Practice 3 for Sunday’s 6 Hours of Fuji FIA World Endurance Championship round.

The Japanese star reeled off a best lap of 1:30.068 in his No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid late in the 60-minute session, edging out the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 of Loic Duval by 0.408 seconds.

Both Kobayashi and Duval’s times came in the final ten minutes, pipping the No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963 of Antonio Felix Da Costa, who was demoted to third with a 1:30.501 time.

The No. 93 Peugeot of Mikkel Jensen was fourth, with the Harry Tincknell-driven No. 99 Proton Competition Porsche completing the top-five, ahead of both Porsche Penske Motorsport entries, which spent time in the garage along with the pair of AF Corse-run Ferrari 499Ps.

James Calado was sixth quickest in the No. 51 Ferrari, followed by the world championship-leading No. 8 Toyota, with a best time set by Ryo Hirakawa, and Alex Lynn in eighth in the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R.

The two PPM Porsches completed the top-ten, meanwhile.

LMP2 was led by the No. 23 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson of Oliver Jarvis, whose 1:34.258 time was more than two-tenths quicker than the No. 36 Signatech Alpine entry of Matthieu Vaxiviere.

United’s sister No. 22 entry completed the top-three in class.

Davide Rigon, meanwhile, was quickest in GTE-Am in the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, which was involved in an incident with the No. 34 Inter Europol Competition Oreca of Fabio Scherer.

Scherer made contact with Thomas Flohr in Turn 1, resulting in right-rear tire damage to the Ferrari, which limped back to the pit lane. It was the only significant incident of the session.

Qualifying is set to get underway at 2:40 p.m. local time.

RESULTS: Free Practice 3

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John