Porsche sweep pole positions for 6 Hours of Fuji

Porsche's Bamber and Hartley claim pole at Fuji  Porsche LMP Team's Earl Bamber and Brendon Hartley combined to take a second pole position of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship season at a wet Fuji Speedway this afternoon.  The Kiwi duo set an average of 1m35.160s in the No.2 Porsche 919 Hybrid to head the sister No.1 car by just 0.071s in a thrilling session.  The extra point achieved by the No.2 crew for pole today sees them extend their title lead to 52pts with just a maximum of 77 now to play for. This means that they just have to finish ahead of the No.8 Toyota Gazoo Racing crew of Sebastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima in the race tomorrow in order to seal the 2017 Drivers' crown. To read the whole report on LMP1 and LMP2 qualifying including Vaillante Rebellion's route to class pole  CLICK HERE For all classifications and timing CLICK HERE Retrouvez ICI tous les articles de notre site en version française

Porsche GT take second GTE pole of the season Porsche GT Team's Frederic Makowiecki and Richard Lietz claimed a first pole position of the season at Fuji today after making the most of their mid-engined No.91 Porsche 911 RSR.  Makowiecki set the outright quickest time of 1m47.573s before Lietz lapped a shade quicker to ensure an average of 1m47.577s. The French/Austrian alliance headed the GT points leading No.67 Ford Chip Ganassi pairing of Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell by 0.441s.  While it was Makowiecki and Lietz’s first pole of the 2017 FIA WEC season it was Porsche GT Team's second after the No.92 car took a maiden top spot at Nurburgring in July. For all the news on LMGTE qualifying including Clearwater Racing's first LMGTE Am pole CLICK HERE

First WEC Circuit Safari a huge success The first WEC Circuit Safari took place this morning at Fuji Speedway with 5 buses on track at the same time as the WEC race cars in a special 10-minute controlled session!  Four of the 44-seat buses were full of passionate Japanese endurance fans allowing them to be in the middle of the action and closer than ever to the competitors within the WEC. Several drivers were able to give the ‘thumbs up’ sign to the passengers as they passed to the delight of the fans!  CEO of the FIA World Endurance Championship Gerard Neveu said: “We were very happy to work with our local promoter to hold the first Circuit Safari in the WEC, and it’s great to hear that it was such a success for fans, teams and media alike.  “The fans who come to Fuji Speedway are so passionate and loyal to endurance racing and the WEC, and – just as at all our races – we are always looking for different ways to engage with them. This was the perfect solution here in Japan, and perhaps Circuit Safaris are something we will now look at doing at some of our other races around the world.”