Ferrari Teams 1-2 in Suzuka Night Practice

Harmony Racing’s No. 21 Ferrari 296 GT3 stayed on top of the timesheets as the opening day of practice for the Suzuka 1000km came to a close with night practice, the Chinese team heading up a one-two for the Prancing Horse.

After Lorenzo Patrese put Harmony at the head of the order earlier on Friday with the second test session, it was the turn of Dennis Marschall to set the best time in the 90-minute session that began shortly before nightfall.

Marschall posted a best time of 2:01.536 with 40 minutes left on the clock as the track once more dried following earlier rain and two red-flag interruptions, dislodging ex-Formula 1 racer Giancarlo Fisichella’s No. 60 LM Corsa Ferrari by just 0.028 seconds.

Completing the top three was Laurens Vanthoor aboard the NewMan-liveried No. 7 Absolute Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, only 0.099 seconds behind Marschall.

The session had barely got going when the red flags were shown following an off for Yusaku Maezawa in the No. 555 Maezawa Racing Ferrari, which coincided with a spin exiting Degner 2 for Prince Jefri Ibrahim’s No. 99 JMR Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R.

Shortly after the session resumed, there was a second stoppage when the No. 99 Corvette suffered an explosive engine failure that ruled it out for the rest of the evening.

The track dried enough in the interim for times to start tumbling once the session resumed, with Scott McLaughlin enjoying a brief spell at the head of the times in the surviving No. 2 Corvette before being surpassed by Fisichella and Marschall.

Alexander Sims improved on McLaughlin’s best with a late effort of 2:01.718 to ensure the car would end up fourth-fastest, ahead of Harry King in the No. 61 EBM Porsche and Loek Hartog in the No. 10 Absolute Racing Porsche.

Kei Cozzolino was seventh in another of the Ferraris, the PONOS Racing car, while the top ten was completed by the Pink Pig-liveried No. 23 Phantom Global Porsche, the No. 6 Origine Motorsport Porsche and the No. 777 Craft-Bamboo Mercedes-AMG.

Team WRT’s pair of BMW M4 GT3 EVOs had a relatively low-key session in 13th and 16th places, the No. 32 car the better-placed of the two.

Having failed to set a representative lap time in either of the two earlier sessions due to turbo problems, the K-tunes Racing Ferrari did not emerge from the garage at all during the 90-minute night session.

With Friday’s running complete, attention turns to pre-qualifying on Saturday morning at 10:45 a.m. local time (Saturday 9:45 p.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Night Practice