Toyota edged out Cadillac and Ferrari to top a shortened final practice for this weekend’s World Endurance Championship round at Fuji.
The hour-long session was cut short with 19 minutes left on the clock due to possible damage to kerbs located at the exit of Turn 1.
TV images showed officials arriving at the corner to inspect the kerbs after the session was initially red flagged with 23 minutes remaining. A decision was soon taken to not resume the session, likely to help the marshals repair the barriers in time for the remainder of the day’s schedule.
The fastest time of FP3 was set by Ryo Hirakawa, the Japanese driver getting down to 1m29.621s in the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID just six minutes in to beat the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R of Alex Lynn by just 0.086s.
The Japanese driver’s best effort was about half a tenth slower than the time Dries Vanthoor managed in the #15 BMW M Hybrid V8 in FP2, but fractionally quicker than the chart-setting lap from the corresponding session in 2023, which was impacted by overnight rain.
Third place went to Antonio Fuoco in the #50 Ferrari 499P, a further 0.020s down on Lynn, while Alpine was the only other team to break the 90s barrier as Charles Milesi set a best time of 1m29.760s in the #35 A424.
Kamui Kobayashi was fifth in the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid after lapping the circuit in 1m30.055s, just finishing ahead of the factory #51 Ferrari driven by Antonio Giovinazzi and customer #83 AF Corse entry of Robert Kubica.
The best-placed Porsche was the customer #38 Jota 963 of Oliver Rasmussen in eighth, ahead of another privateer entry — the #99 Proton Porsche whose best lap was set by Julien Andlauer.
The top 10 was completed by the #63 Lamborghini SC63 of Daniil Kvyat, who set a best time of 1m30.550s.
The best Peugeot was classified 11th, four spots ahead of the leading BMW driven by Rene Rast.
Ferrari 1-2 in LMGT3
In the LMGT3 class, Francois Heirau set a series of quick times to lead a 1-2 for AF Corse Ferrari.
Bronze-rated Heirau initially laid a benchmark of 1m41.479s before improving to 1m41.206s in the #55 Ferrari 296 GT3 to end up a tenth clear of the sister car of Davide Rigon.
Ferrari’s closest challenger was the #78 ASP Lexus RCF GT3, courtesy of a 1m41.422s effort from Arnold Robin.
United Autosports finished fourth thanks to Joshua Caygill’s time of 1m41.532s in the #95 McLaren 720S GT3, ahead of the points-leading Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3R of Aliaksandr Malykhin.