> D’station Aston beats Absolute Corse’s Ferrari
> Result: Free Practice 1
D’station’s Aston Martin topped a sweltering first practice session this morning at Suzuka where a late red flag hampered further improvements.
Tomonobu Fujii’s 2m02.631s was 0.163s faster than Finn Gehrsitz clocked in Absolute Corse’s Ferrari and another five thousandths clear of Origine Motorsport’s Porsche driven by Laurin Heinrich.
Porsche Okazaki Center’s #25 911 GT3 R spun into the Turn 5 gravel with 15 minutes remaining. And although an additional five minutes where added to the original hour-long session, only Edoardo Liberati (VSR) was able to make significant gains in the closing stages. His Lamborghini finished fourth, a fraction clear of Craft-Bamboo’s Daniel Morad.
The majority of fastest times were set towards the start of the session. Mikael Grenier, making his first appearance of the season with Triple Eight JMR, set the early pace with consecutive fastest laps before Heinrich became the first to post a sub 2m03s.
That time remained good enough for third but was beaten by Fujii who moved to the top after 20 minutes.
The same Porsche that ended its session in the gravel trap finished sixth thanks to Tsubasa Kondo, while Grenier’s early lap was enough for seventh.
Japan Cup’s second practice session begins at 14:25 before Fanatec GT Asia returns to the track for FP2 at 16:20.