Kamui Kobayashi takes pole position in the FIA World Endurance Championship in Fuji while Toyota takes first place on home soil.
The Japanese driver led Saturday’s 10-minute prototype qualifying with a time of 1:29.234 in the number 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.
Kobayashi will share the car with Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez in Sunday’s six-hour race, just 0.020 seconds ahead of his Toyota teammate Brandon Hartley.
The Toyota driver was first and second on the first flying lap, with Kobayashi putting his No. 7 car four tenths ahead of his sister’s No. 8.
Hartley then bounced back on his second representative lap, taking the GR010 hybrid he rode with Sebastian Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa to 1:29.254.
Mathieu Vaxiviere finished third in the Alpine Elf Team, with the Frenchman only two tenths of a second off pole position in an Alpine A480 Gibson LMP1.
Vergne was the first supercar driver to qualify for the track, finishing fourth in exactly 90 seconds at the 2.835-mile Fuji Speedway.
Duval completed the Hypercar order in 1:30.152, leaving Peugeot seven and nine tenths behind Kobayashi, respectively.
Antonio Felix da Costa took pole position on the first lap of the year in the JOTA LMP2 class.
The Portuguese rider shared a time of 1:31.649 in the No. 38 Oreca 07 Gibson with Will Stevens and Roberto González.
The rest of the time, no one else could beat that number, and Niklas Nielsen was closest to the LMP2 Pro-Am AF Corse competitor.
Ferrari’s works driver was 0.28 seconds behind da Costa’s benchmark, with Robin Frains finishing third in the WRT Oreca at No. 31.
Ferdinand Habsburg finished second in the Realteam-supported WRT rankings for the Belgian team, while Sebastien Bourdais rounded out the top five for Vector Sport.
Michael Christensen led the 10-minute GTE qualifying group by placing his number 92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 in first place on the GTE-Pro table.
Christensen had the fastest lap on his first attempt and held an early time of 1:36.371 for the remainder of the race.
The Dane beat number 51 Ferrari driver James Carado by 0.195 seconds to take first place in 1:36.566.
Gianmaria Bruni finished third in the No. 91 Porsche, four tenths behind his teammate, while Miguel Molina was fifth in the No. 52 Ferrari.
Nick Tandy of Molina and Corvette Racing was the only drivers to improve after the first lap, with Tandy passing his #64 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R over Molina’s Ferrari 488 GTE Evo at one stage.
However, Molina later evaded 1:37, relegating Tandy’s Corvette to fifth and last in the class.
The Texan clocked 1:39.209, beating Iron Dames Ferrari driver Sara Bovey by 0.062 seconds.
Franck Desotou, who finished third in Ferrari at number 71 in the AF Corse, will share the second row with the Japanese TF Sport-backed D’station Racing team.
Daniel Lloyd is a British reporter for Sportscar365 covering series such as the FIA World Endurance Championship, the AWS-powered Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship.
Post time: Sep-15-2022