Here is the thing about weather in motorsport: it writes its own rules. Heavy rain swept across the Fuji Speedway right as the LMGT3 qualifying session was supposed to get underway. Francois Heriau crashed his #21 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari, bringing out an immediate red flag. With the weather forecast pointing toward even heavier rain incoming at the Fuji Speedway, officials made the call to scrap both the qualifying and Hyperpole sessions entirely.
That meant the grid for tomorrow's 6 Hours of Fuji had to be sorted by the regulation rulebook, pulling the absolute best lap times recorded across the three free practice sessions held on Friday and Saturday morning. And what a result that handed down for Alpine. Victor Martins dropped a 1m40.594s lap during FP2, securing pole position for the #36 machine. It marks the first ever WEC top spot start for the A424 Hypercar.
It turned into a double celebration for Les Bleues because the #35 car is slotted right alongside its sister Hypercar on the front-row. They caught a bit of help along the way, too. The #007 Aston Martin Valkyrie originally belonged on that front row, but a penalty for causing a collision during the morning FP3 session shoved them down to fourth position on the starting grid.
That penalty cleared the path for the #17 Geensis Magma Hypercar to lock in a third-place start. That puts the Korean manufacturer on the grid from by far its best ever start in the series. Meanwhile, over in the LMGT3 category, the #77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang seized pole position thanks to setting the fastest FP2 time back on Friday afternoon. That gives the Ford Mustang its first pole since the Lone Star Le Mans race at COTA in September 2025.
