Kobayashi Takes Pole as Toyota Locks Out Fuji Front Row

Kamui Kobayashi claimed pole position for the FIA World Endurance Championship round at Fuji as Toyota claimed a front-row lockout on home soil.

The Japanese driver led Saturday’s 10-minute prototype qualifying session with a time of 1:29.234 behind the wheel of the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.

Kobayashi, who will share the car with Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez in Sunday’s six-hour race, beat his Toyota teammate Brendon Hartley by just 0.020 seconds.

The Toyota drivers hit first and second on their opening flying laps, with Kobayashi putting his No. 7 machine ahead of the sister No. 8 car by a margin of four-tenths.

Hartley then hit back on his second representative lap, bringing the GR010 Hybrid that he co-drives with Sebastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa onto a 1:29.254.

Matthieu Vaxiviere qualified third for Alpine Elf Team, with the Frenchman ending up two-tenths of a second away from the pole in the grandfathered Alpine A480 Gibson LMP1 car.

Vaxiviere beat the two Peugeot 9X8s driven by his compatriots Jean-Eric Vergne and Loic Duval.

Vergne, who was the first Hypercar driver to hit the track in qualifying, set an exact 90-second lap around the 2.835-mile Fuji Speedway course to take fourth place.

Duval rounded out the Hypercar order with a time of 1:30.152, putting the Peugeots seven and nine-tenths behind Kobayashi respectively.

Antonio Felix da Costa sealed pole in the LMP2 class for JOTA with his first flying lap of the session.

The Portuguese driver reeled off a time of 1:31.649 in the No. 38 Oreca 07 Gibson that he shares with Will Stevens and Roberto Gonzalez.

Nobody else managed to eclipse that number in the remaining time, with Nicklas Nielsen getting closests for LMP2 Pro-Am competitor AF Corse.

The Ferrari factory driver came up 0.28 seconds short of da Costa’s benchmark, while Robin Frijns took third in the No. 31 WRT Oreca.

Ferdinand Habsburg made it an all-WRT second row for the Belgian squad’s Realteam-backed entry, with Sebastien Bourdais completing the top five for Vector Sport.

Porsche Beats Ferrari to GTE-Pro Pole

Michael Christensen led the 10-minute combined GTE qualifying session to put his No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 at the head of the GTE-Pro grid.

Christensen achieved the fastest lap at the first attempt, with his early 1:36.371 effort holding out through the rest of the session.

The Dane beat No. 51 Ferrari driver James Calado to the top spot by 0.195 seconds, as the British driver produced a 1:36.566.

Gianmaria Bruni took third in the No. 91 Porsche, four-tenths down on his teammate, while Miguel Molina placed fifth for the No. 52 Ferrari crew.

Molina and Corvette Racing’s Nick Tandy were the only drivers to make improvements after their opening laps, with Tandy at one stage moving his No. 64 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R above Molina’s Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

However, Molina later ducked under the 1m 37s barrier to drop Tandy’s Corvette to fifth and last in class.

Ben Keating claimed his third GTE-Am pole of the season for the TF Sport Aston Martin squad.

The Texan clocked in at 1:39.209, narrowly beating Iron Dames Ferrari driver Sarah Bovy by 0.062 seconds.

Franck Dezotoux was third for AF Corse’s No. 71 Ferrari entry, which will share the second row of the grid with Japanese outfit D’station Racing which is supported by TF Sport.

RESULTS: Qualifying