Martins Keeps Alpine On Top in Wet Fuji FP3

Alpine remained in top for the final free practice session ahead of qualifying for this weekend’s 6 Hours of Fuji round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, as Victor Martins set the pace in wet conditions on Saturday morning.

Martins, who was fastest in the dry on Friday, logged the fastest time of 1:40.594 in a one-hour session that was interrupted by a red flag, triggered by an incident involving Heart of Racing Team’s No. 007 Aston Martin Valkyrie and No. 27 Vantage GT3 Evo.

It occurred as Harry Tincknell appeared to misjudge his braking in the tricky conditions at the Turn 10 left-hander, only narrowly avoiding the No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8 but swiping Ian James’ in the No. 27 machine in the process.

Both cars were able to return to pit lane but Tincknell’s car, which suffered considerable left-side damage, did not reappear until the closing minutes.

Prior to that incident, Tincknell had been fastest of all with an early effort of 1:40.830, more than a second clear of the field when it was set.

That time was still good enough for third behind the sister No. 009 Valkyrie at the end of the session, before Tincknell set a new personal best in his repaired Valkyrie of 1:40.659 on his very last lap, demoting stablemate Marco Sorensen to third.

Malthe Jakobsen was fourth-fastest in the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8, while Paul-Loup Chatin was fifth in the better of the new Genesis GMR-001s, the No. 19.

Chatin was one of a number of drivers to set personal bests at the very end as conditions eased, with Ferdinand Habsburg going sixth in the No. 35 Alpine ahead of Pipo Derani in the No. 17 Genesis and Nyck de Vries’ No. 7 Toyota TR010 Hybrid.

Rounding off the top ten were Dries Vanthoor’s No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8s and the lead Ferrari 499P, the No. 50 car in which Antonio Fuoco set the best time.

In LMGT3, Charlie Eastwood saved his best for last as he set a 1:51.232 in his No. 34 Racing Team Turkey Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R to go three tenths clear of the field.

Parker Thompson had put Team WRT on top of the pile with a best time of 1:51.564 set after the red flag, and this time proved good enough for second ahead of Gianmarco Levorato’s No. 88 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 EVO.

Davide Rigon was fourth in the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo, followed by Jonny Edgar in the second of the TF Sport-run Corvettes.

Qualifying for the 6H Fuji begins at 2 p.m. local time (1 a.m. EST).

RESULTS: Free Practice 3