FIA WEC – Cadillac’s Lynn leaves it late to deny Toyota home pole

Alex Lynn delivered Cadillac Racing its first-ever pole position in the FIA World Endurance Championship at Fuji today (14 September), denying Toyota a home soil celebration by the margin of just 0.041s.

Having set the pace in the first part of the Hypercar qualifying session, Lynn maintained that stellar form in Hyperpole behind the wheel of the #2 prototype he shares with Earl Bamber, as the Briton vaulted to the top of the timesheets with just one minute remaining in an ultra-close and competitive contest that featured no fewer than seven of the series’ eight manufacturers. Having narrowly missed out on pole at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, for the American squad, the result marked redemption – and a welcome boost ahead of Sunday’s six-hour race.

“It feels so good,” enthused Lynn. “Honestly, we’ve been trying so hard all year. This car is amazing over one lap. Massive congratulations to Cadillac. I really wanted to give the team a pole position. We’ve come so close so many times, and I’m so proud to have finally done it. WEC is in an amazing place right now – every session is filled with drama and jeopardy, which is what we all love!”

For much of the ten-minute shootout, the battle for the prime starting position looked set to play out between home heroes Kamui Kobayashi and Ryo Hirakawa in Toyota Gazoo Racing’s pair of Toyota GR010 – Hybrid entries. The duo were evenly-matched throughout but ultimately had no answer to Lynn, and will duly begin from second and fourth on the grid tomorrow.

Dries Vanthoor dug deep for BMW M Team WRT to split the Toyotas towards the end of the session, meaning the Belgian and team-mates Raffaelle Marciello and Marco Wittmann will take the start of the race from third place. Kévin Estre put the championship-leading Porsche Penske Motorsport car fifth, with Charles Milesi continuing Alpine Endurance Team’s good form from COTA by slotting into sixth, barely a quarter-of-a-second shy of the top spot.

Antonio Fuoco kept Ferrari AF Corse’s remaining title-contending car within touching-distance of its key rivals with a seventh-place performance in the #50 499P Hypercar. Matt Campbell in the second Porsche Penske Motorsport entry wound up eighth, ahead of Daniil Kvyat – cementing Lamborghini Iron Lynx’s first top ten starting position in FIA WEC – and Julian Andlauer in the independent Proton Competition-run Porsche.

Early qualifying casualties were the #51 Ferrari AF Corse entry piloted by Antonio Giovinazzi, who missed out on advancing to Hyperpole by a whisker over five hundredths-of-a-second, and the similar, privately-fielded AF Corse car of Robert Kubica, a further 0.057s in arrears. The pair will line up 12th and 13th on the grid respectively.

Ferrari to the fore in LMGT3

François Heriau secured his and Ferrari’s first pole position in the LMGT3 category at Fuji in the #55 Vista AF Corse car, posting two laps quick enough for the top spot on the grid as the Frenchman outpaced Belgium’s Tom Van Rompuy by 0.178s.

Sarah Bovy placed third in Iron Dames’ Lamborghini Huracan, just ahead of the TF Sport Corvette of local star Hiroshi Koizumi, as both of the American machines made it through to Hyperpole for the first time.

Arguably the biggest story of LMGT3 qualifying, however, was the failure of either Manthey Porsche to reach the top ten, with Aliaksandr Malykhin in the championship-leading #92 car and Yasser Shahin in the #91 entry able to fare no better respectively than 14th and 15th.

There were similar struggles for the Team WRT BMW of Darren Leung, who ended up even further back in 16th, meaning the best-placed of the title protagonists is Ian James in Heart of Racing Team’s Aston Martin – fresh off the back of the American outfit’s breakthrough COTA triumph.

The 6 Hours of Fuji is scheduled to get underway at 11:00 local time (04:00 CEST) on Sunday morning.