Oyama – As anticipated, qualifying for the Fuji 6 Hours was not easy for the five Ferraris entered in the fourth round of the 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) Super Season. In the GTE-Pro class, the 488 GTE no. 71 and no. 51 of the world champion team will start from the third row. The cars competing in the GTE-Am class will be in the third, fourth and fifth rows, with the 488 GTE no. 61 of Keita Sawa, Weng Sun Mok and Matt Griffin the best of the Ferraris.
GTE-Pro. In the GTE-Pro class, Davide Rigon and James Calado, respectively, started the qualifying session in cars no. 71 and 51. Rigon stopped the clock at 1:36.610, which he then improved to 1:36.500 on the third flying lap after the second had been cancelled for non-respecting the track limits. James Calado, on the other hand, set a better time of 1:36.300 and decided to return to the pit lane and hand over to Pier Guidi. Sam Bird in no. 71 drove two fast laps, stopping the clock first at 1:36.999 and then at 1:36.584, for an overall average time of 1:36.542. Alessandro Pier Guidi performed similarly, with 1:36.909 on his first outing, followed by 1:36.788. The final time of the no. 51 car was 1:36.544, just two thousandths of a second slower than that of the sister car. Pole position went to Aston Martin no. 95 of Sorensen-Thiim in 1:36.093.
GTE-Am. The GTE-Am class panned out similarly to previous races, with the 488 GTEs struggling against their rivals. In the end, Clearwater Racing no. 61 was the best of the Ferraris, with Keita Sawa (1:37.892) and Weng Sun Mok (1:40.768), qualifying sixth with an overall time of 1:39.330. Ferrari no. 54 of Spirit of Race will start from eighth with a time of 1:39.371, qualified by Giancarlo Fisichella (1:38.154) and Thomas Flohr (1:40.588). Car no. 70 of MR Racing will set off from ninth with a time of 1:39.885, qualified by Olivier Beretta (1:39.112) and Motoaki Ishikawa (1:40.658). Pole position in the class went to Porsche no. 88 of Dempsey-Proton Racing (Hoshino-Roda-Cairoli) in 1:38.336, while the Toyota of Kobayashi-Conway-Lopez took overall pole in 1:23.557. The Fuji 6 Hours will start on Sunday at 11 am local time (4 am CET).
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