Alpine locked out the front row for the 6 Hours of Fuji on Saturday, September 26, after heavy rain, standing water and poor visibility led officials to cancel qualifying and Hyperpole.
Sunday’s grid for the sixth round of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship was set by taking each car’s fastest lap across the three free practice sessions. Victor Martins’ Friday benchmark earned pole for the No. 36 Alpine A424, which he shares with Jules Gounon.
Rain ends Saturday running
Fuji Speedway stayed dry for Friday’s running, but rain arrived before Saturday’s sessions and grew heavier as the day continued.
LMGT3 qualifying began on schedule before François Hériau crashed the No. 21 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari 296 Evo. Officials stopped the session with a red flag, and the worsening conditions ruled out a restart. They later abandoned all remaining qualifying and Hyperpole sessions.
Standing water and deteriorating visibility were cited in the decision to cancel the rest of Saturday’s WEC track activity. With no qualifying classification, practice times set both grids.
Martins earns Alpine’s first Hypercar pole
Martins recorded the decisive 1:40.594 in FP2 on Friday afternoon, securing the Alpine A424’s first WEC Hypercar pole and putting the French manufacturer at the head of Sunday’s six-hour race.
Charles Milesi finished just under one-tenth of a second behind the sister car, giving the No. 35 Alpine second place. He shares the entry with Ferdinand Habsburg.
Alpine heads into the Japanese round as the defending race winner, and Milesi was among the drivers who won at Fuji in the previous season.
“Even though qualifying was cancelled, I think we still deserve pole, because we have done a good job since the beginning of the weekend,” Martins said.
Martins is an endurance racing rookie in 2026, and said Alpine’s practice program covered dry and wet conditions.
“FP1 and FP2 yesterday in the dry showed we have really good single-lap and long-run pace, while FP3 in the wet this morning was good too, enabling us to gained some useful wet-weather experience. We’re happy with the result, and now we need to keep pushing and preparing for a great race tomorrow. If we put everything together, I think we can have a good day.”
Penalty changes the second row
The No. 007 Aston Martin Valkyrie initially took a front-row spot based on its best practice lap, but a two-position grid penalty sent it back to fourth.
That penalty came after an FP3 incident involving Harry Tincknell and Ian James in the No. 27 Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3.
The No. 19 Genesis GMR-001 moved up to third as a result. The No. 17 Genesis will line up fifth, handing the manufacturer its best grid positions in its first motor racing season. The No. 009 Aston Martin rounds out the top six.
Title contenders start deeper in field
Cadillac took pole in Japan in each of the previous two seasons, but the No. 38 car will start seventh and the No. 12 will line up 10th.
Toyota has work to do at its home event. Despite winning the 6 Hours of Fuji nine times, its cars will start eighth and 13th.
Ferrari’s factory 499Ps occupy 11th and 16th, with BMW taking 14th and 17th on the Hypercar grid.
Ford leads LMGT3 field
The practice-based procedure also handed LMGT3 pole to the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang. Ben Tuck posted the class benchmark in FP2 before rain interrupted Saturday’s program.
The 6 Hours of Fuji is due to start at 11:00 a. m. local time, GMT+9, on Sunday, September 27, with Martins and Gounon leading the field in the No. 36 Alpine.
