WEC cancels Fuji WEC qualifying amid treacherous weather

The World Endurance Championship has called off qualifying for the Fuji 6 Hours due to heavy rain. Although the final practice session proceeded in wet conditions, a fresh downpour just before the start severely limited visibility on the circuit. The LMGT3 opening session began as scheduled at 3pm local time, but was halted a minute later when Francois Heriau crashed the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 at Turn 2.

Following the return of all cars to the pit lane, race control declared that qualifying for both LMGT3 and Hypercar classes would be canceled. Starting positions for Sunday's race will be determined by the best times recorded during the three practice sessions. Alpine is set to start from pole position after Victor Martins achieved the fastest lap of 1 minute 29.304 seconds in FP2.

Harry Tincknell secured the second-fastest time, but will be moved to fourth due to a two-place penalty for a collision in FP3. Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg will be promoted to second place, while the #19 Genesis GMR-001 will climb to third. The #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie will start fourth, behind the penalized #007 Aston Martin of Harry Tincknell and Tom Gamble.

The British team will have both its cars beginning the race in high positions after the #009 Valkyrie posted the sixth-best time in practice. Seventh place will go to the #38 Jota Cadillac V-Series, followed by the #8 Toyota TR010. The top 10 will include the #93 Peugeot 9X8 and the #12 Cadillac. The two front-runners will start at the bottom half of the Hypercar grid, with the #7 Toyota TR010 in 13th position after Kamui Kobayashi finished over seven seconds behind the pace in practice.

BMW will start 17th in the Hypercar field after choosing not to focus on low-fuel runs during Friday's dry practice. Ferrari faces an uphill battle, with the best of the three 499Ps starting 11th in the race.