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Webber scorches to top of FP3 times

10.10.15
Porsche sounded another warning of its scorching pace during the third and final Free Practice at Fuji this morning in readiness for the sixth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship tomorrow.

Mark Webber, driving the No.17 Porsche 919 Hybrid stopped the clocks at 1m23.570s to register the fastest ever lap by an LMP1 car at the Fuji Speedway. The Australian took 0.3s off the early session best, set by Romain Dumas in the No.18 Porsche 919 Hybrid.

Third in the LMP1-H class was the No.7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro. Andre Lotterer again showed love of the Fuji Speedway track by getting down to 1m24.941. Audi has arrived in Japan this weekend with a revised aerodynamic package in its attempt to defend the slender ten point championship advantage that Lotterer, Treluyer and Fassler currently enjoy.

Toyota Racing saw its pair of Toyota TS 040 HYBRID LMP1 cars place fourth and fifth with Anthony Davidson and Stephane Sarrazin respectively setting the fastest times this morning. The team is racing in front of its home fans here this weekend and is yet to be beaten at the track since the WEC first raced here in 2012.

The No.8 Audi Sport Team Joest entry of Loic Duval, Lucas Di Grassi and Oliver Turvey had a troubled session with a gear related problem. They placed sixth after completing only 18 laps within the hour.

Rebellion Racing continued to control the top times in the privateer LMP1 class. The No.12 R-One-AER headed the sister No.13 machine by 0.9s.

There was a new name at the top of the timing screens in LMP2 as Strakka Racing led the way after Jonny Kane set a superb 1m32.420s lap. The veteran Northern Irish racer led the KCMG and No.26 G-Drive entries after the team explored set-ups utilising a new damper configuration midway through the hour long session.

Porsche topped the final free practice session of the weekend with the fastest times of the weekend so far in both LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am.

In LMGTE Pro the seven cars were split by less than 0.8 seconds with the no91 Porsche Team Manthey 911 of Richard Lietz and Michael Christensen taking the top spot with a 1m39.191 lap, 0.32 seconds ahead of the no99 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Fernando Rees, Alex MacDowall and Stefan Mucke.

In LMGTE Am Patrick Long put a late quick run to move to the front of the LMGTE Am runners in the no77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 with a 1m40.203 lap, four tenths quicker than the best time set in  the first two free practice sessions and 0.474s ahead of the no83 AF Corse Ferrari of Emmanuel Collard, Francois Perrodo and Rui Aguas which finished the 60-minute session in 2nd spot ahead of the no72 SMP Racing Ferrari (1m40.706) and the no50 Larbre Competition Chevrolet Corvette (1m41.087).

Qualifying for the LMGTE cars for the 6 Hours of Fuji will begin at 13h40, with the LMP qualifying starting at 14h10, which will decide the make-up of the grid for round 6 of the 2015 FIA World Endurance Championship.

Classification FP3