Audi ended up with the quickest times of the day in the opening two sessions of free practice ahead of Sunday’s sixth round of the World Endurance Championship at Fuji.

Anthony Davidson was fastest for Toyota in practice one in the morning, but Audi took the top two spots on the time sheets in the faster afternoon session.

Loic Duval was half a second quicker than team-mate Marcel Fassler in the two Audi R18 e-tron quattros. The Frenchman set his best lap of 1m27.333s in the closing minutes of the session to leapfrog Fassler.

Prior to Duval’s lap, the two Audis and the two Toyota TS030 Hybrids had been separated by just over three tenths of a second. Stephane Sarrazin set the fastest Toyota lap of the two sessions with a 1m27.977s, which was four thousandths ahead of Kazuki Nakajima in the sister car.

The LMP2 order was led by Mike Conway in the best of the G-Drive/Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 03s. The Briton’s time of 1m32.662s was half a second ahead of nearest challenger Bjorn Wirdheim in the Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan Z11SN run at Fuji under the Gainer International banner.

Aston Martin driver Frederic Makowiecki’s first-session lap of 1m39.548s was the fastest time of the day in GTE Pro. That put him exactly three tenths ahead of team-mate Richie Stanaway, who topped the times in second practice.

Paolo Ruberti was quickest in GTE Am aboard the Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3-RSR.

Practice one:Pos  Cl     Drivers                         Team/Car                Time 1.  P1     Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler       Audi                    1m28.438s 2.  P1     Kristensen/Duval/McNish         Audi                    1m28.676s 3.  P1     Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin         Toyota                  1m28.777s 4.  P1     Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima          Toyota                  1m28.962s 5.  P1     Belicchi/Beche                  Rebellion Lola-Toyota   1m30.654s 6.  P2     Rusinov/Martin/Conway           Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan  1m33.619s 7.  P2     Bradley/Koizumi/Matsuda         KCMG Morgan-Nissan      1m34.142s 8.  P2     Perez Companc/Minassian/Kaffer  Pecom ORECA-Nissan      1m34.580s 9.  P2     Graves/Walker/Nakano            Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan  1m34.729s10.  P2     Hiranaka/Ueda/Wirdheim          Greaves Zytek-Nissan    1m34.810s11.  P2     Pla/Heinemeier Hansson/Brundle  OAK Morgan-Nissan       1m35.009s12.  P2     Weeda/Rossiter/Liuzzi           Lotus                   1m35.639s13.  P2     Holzer/Kraihamer/Charouz        Lotus                   1m35.744s14.  P2     Baguette/Gonzalez/Plowman       OAK Morgan-Nissan       1m36.029s15.  P2     Nicolet/Ihara                   OAK Morgan-Nissan       1m36.166s16.  GTE P  Turner/Mucke/Makowiecki         Aston Martin            1m39.548s17.  GTE P  Bergmeister/Pilet               Manthey Porsche         1m40.335s18.  GTE P  Lamy/Stanaway                   Aston Martin            1m40.793s19.  GTE P  Lieb/Lietz                      Manthey Porsche         1m40.923s20.  GTE P  Bruni/Fisichella                AF Ferrari              1m40.947s21.  GTE P  Kobayashi/Vilander              AF Ferrari              1m41.088s22.  GTE A  Narac/Vernay/Palttala           Imsa Porsche            1m41.902s23.  GTE A  Nygaard/Poulsen/Senna           Aston Martin            1m41.939s24.  GTE A  Ried/Roda/Ruberti               Proton Porsche          1m42.047s25.  GTE A  Hall/Campbell-Walter/Adam       Aston Martin            1m42.236s26.  GTE A  Potolicchio/Aguas/Rigon         8Star Ferrari           1m42.497s27.  GTE A  Gerber/Griffin/Cioci            AF Ferrari              1m42.587s28.  GTE A  Krohn/Jonsson/Mediani           Krohn Ferrari           1m42.622s29.  GTE A  Bornhauser/Canal/Rees           Larbre Corvette         1m42.937sPractice two:Pos  Cl     Drivers                         Team/Car                Time 1.  P1     Kristensen/Duval/Mcnish         Audi                    1m27.333s 2.  P1     Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler       Audi                    1m27.865s 3.  P1     Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin         Toyota                  1m27.977s 4.  P1     Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima          Toyota                  1m27.981s 5.  P1     Belicchi/Beche                  Rebellion Lola-Toyota   1m30.080s 6.  P2     Rusinov/Martin/Conway           Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan  1m32.662s 7.  P2     Hiranaka/Ueda/Wirdheim          Greaves Zytek-Nissan    1m33.228s 8.  P2     Pla/Heinemeier Hansson/Brundle  OAK Morgan-Nissan       1m33.463s 9.  P2     Perez Companc/Minassian/Kaffer  Pecom ORECA-Nissan      1m33.501s10.  P2     Baguette/Gonzalez/Plowman       OAK Morgan-Nissan       1m33.714s11.  P2     Bradley/Koizumi/Matsuda         KCMG Morgan-Nissan      1m33.985s12.  P2     Graves/Walker/Nakano            Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan  1m34.021s13.  P2     Weeda/Rossiter/Liuzzi           Lotus                   1m35.289s14.  P2     Nicolet/Ihara                   OAK Morgan-Nissan       1m35.672s15.  P2     Holzer/Kraihamer/Charouz        Lotus                   1m35.769s16.  GTE P  Lamy/Stanaway                   Aston Martin            1m39.848s17.  GTE P  Bruni/Fisichella                AF Ferrari              1m40.154s18.  GTE P  Lieb/Lietz                      Manthey Porsche         1m40.159s19.  GTE P  Turner/Mucke/Makowiecki         Aston Martin            1m40.518s20.  GTE P  Bergmeister/Pilet               Manthey Porsche         1m40.655s21.  GTE A  Ried/Roda/Ruberti               Proton Porsche          1m40.707s22.  GTE A  Narac/Vernay/Palttala           Imsa Porsche            1m41.389s23.  GTE A  Hall/Campbell-Walter/Adam       Aston Martin            1m41.663s24.  GTE A  Gerber/Griffin/Cioci            AF Ferrari              1m41.722s25.  GTE A  Bornhauser/Canal/Rees           Larbre Corvette         1m42.015s26.  GTE A  Potolicchio/Aguas/Rigon         8Star Ferrari           1m42.015s27.  GTE A  Nygaard/Poulsen/Senna           Aston Martin            1m42.117s28.  GTE A  Krohn/Jonsson/Mediani           Krohn Ferrari           1m42.481s29.  GTE P  Kobayashi/Vilander              AF Ferrari