> Yogibo Ferrari beats AAS Porsche by 0.5s
> Team Scala’s spare Mercedes-AMG GT4 fastest straight out the box
> Result: Free Practice
Yogibo Racing’s Kiyoto Fujinami ended first practice on top at Fuji this morning after setting the fastest time in evolving conditions. Meanwhile, Tatsuya Tanigawa was quickest of the GT4 contingent in Team Scala’s borrowed Mercedes-AMG.
A heavy downpour earlier in the morning meant drivers had to contend with a wet but not soaking track early in an hour-long session that saw fastest time change hands 16 times.
Championship leader Nick Foster was the first to set a representative lap but his initial 1m51.8s would ultimately be 10 seconds slower than the eventual pace.
Yuta Kamimura, Jazeman Jaafar, Shaun Thong, Reid Harker, Tomonobu Fujii and Kantadhee Kusiri also enjoyed at least one spell out front before Fujinami settled the session in Yogibo’s favour with 90 seconds remaining. His 1m41.756s was 0.561s quicker than the AAS Motorsport Porsche, which slipped to second, while Keita Sawa and Fujii helped ABSSA’s McLaren and D’Station’s Aston Martin complete the top-four.
The improving conditions were underlined by Uematsu’s Am class McLaren finishing fifth.
It was a similar story in GT4 where representative lap times also quickened by 10 seconds, although only three teams and four drivers occupied top spot.
Koshido’s Toyota driven by Motoharu Sato was out front early on before Shinya Hosokawa set a series of faster laps in Team GMB’s Suzuka Race 2-winning Mercedes-AMG. Jun Tashiro then hit the front for Team Scala before his co-driver Tanigawa settled it in #55’s favour’s with 1m50.715s.
The bright orange car is in fact Team Comet’s spare after Scala’s was damaged in Race 2 last weekend.
Behind, Sato returned to lap 0.8s slower while Team GMB dropped to third fastest.
Official Practice – which features a 30-minute Bronze driver-only element after the first hour – begins at 15:00 JST (GMT +9).