Martins leads the way with Alpine in second WEC practice at Fuji

Alpine Endurance Team's No. 36 A424 shone in FIA WEC Free Practice 2 at the Fuji Speedway this afternoon, topping the times during an early qualifying simulation with a 1m29.304s from Victor Martins.

The lap from the Frenchman was the quickest of the meeting so far. It eclipsed Ryo Hirakawa's 1m29.6s for Toyota during FP1, and was fractionally faster than Harry Tincknell and Charles Milesi, who both came close to snatching the headlines with 1m29.3s of their own on the soft tire in the opening minutes of the run.

Tincknell's lap time to go second was a 1m29.343s in the No. 007 Aston Martin, which split the two A424s on the timing screens.

After the initial flurry of fast times, the order remained mostly static in Hypercar until the final minutes, when Mathieu Jaminet put the No. 19 Genesis GMR-001 fourth with a 1m29.492s. Jaminet rose up the order on the softs, which will be used in Qualifying tomorrow, after the car spent its first 46 laps on track running on mediums.

"It's overall a good day for us," Jaminet's teammate Paul Loup Chatin said. "It's the first time that the Genesis has hit the track here, so we've worked to try and understand the car on this track. We've got a lot to improve, but we are in the ballpark. It's still a long weekend ahead, though, and tomorrow the weather could be tricky. But we have to keep an open mind. P4 in FP2, P6 in FP1 is quite positive."

The sister No. 17 GMR-001 was next with a 1m29.558s from Mathys Jaubert, who added to the South Korean team's promising start to its first race weekend in Asia.

The No. 8 Toyota, which led the way in the morning, ended up eighth in the times after spending the entire session on medium tires, with a best lap 0.4s off. The top class was tight overall, with all but two of the 17 cars setting laps within a second of the No.36.

In LMGT3, Proton Competition's No.77 Ford Mustang followed up on its strong start to the weekend by setting the category's best time, a 1m39.828s. The No.79 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG ended up second, with the No.78 AKKODIS ASP Lexus making it three manufacturers in the top three, all with times within a tenth.

After dazzling late in FP1, Garage 59's McLarens ended up 11th (No. 58) and 16th (No. 10), 0.7s and 1.1 seconds off respectively.

Like Free Practice 1, it was a clean session, with no significant incidents to note. It was also held in dry conditions, after weather forecasts prior to today suggested a significant threat of rain.

Track action resumes tomorrow at 09:30 local time.

RESULTS