Adrien Simon topped Japan practice for DS Mathershaw ahead of team mate Allar Kangur as the French outfit look to build on their win in the opening race of the season last time out. Simon lapped the Fuji circuit in 1:14.438 - 1.6 seconds faster than the lap record set by Tumo Kinnumen in 2015 - with Kangur just under two tenths behind his team mate. Enrique Ruiz was third fastest for Franklin, less than three tenths of a second from the ultimate pace. Will Hoskins put in another strong performance for Holmqvist with fourth fastest, ahead of the Downton and Ocelot pairs; Powers, Giodano, van Snelheid and Yoshida - the four split by under a tenth and a half. Tumo Kinnumen and Jean Mattson completed the top ten, but as in Australia it was the top eleven within a reasonable gap to the leader, with James Vasquez in eleventh just 0.787 off of Simon's fastest time. Behind him Elroy Wagner in the Lopez was only a second shy of the fastest time, and ahead of Olen Inman, who struggled again to thirteenth. Viktor Ostberg was fourteenth to prove Lopez have reasonable pace ahead of Sergio Alvarez - the Argentine and his new Phoenix team once again showing they're solidly in the midfield - with Halvosen and the two Westwood's splitting him from his team mate. In 20th was Judson Sikes - the North Star within 1.7 seconds of the fastest lap - while the six spots at the back were filled with the two FIRST's, AMR's and Meteor's - all of whom were over two seconds from the fastest time. There were no incidents of note in the session but the yellow flags flew a few times for spins - primarily at turn one - with Ruiz the most notable of these. See below for full practice classification: Comments are closed.
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