Mother Nature completely shredded the Saturday schedule at the 6 Hours of Fuji on 27 September, leaving the grid to be set entirely by free practice times after conditions and visibility simply became too dangerous to continue. With standing water accumulating and the rain only intensifying shortly into the LMGT3 session, officials had no choice but to pull the plug on all of the day's remaining FIA World Endurance Championship running.
That meant the timing sheets from a completely dry Friday afternoon suddenly became the ultimate currency for Sunday's sixth round of the 2026 campaign. Nobody cashed in quite like the Alpine Endurance Team, which secured a stunning front row lock-out to chase a repeat of its triumph in last year's race.
Victor Martins put the #36 Alpine A424 at the very top of the pile with the absolute fastest time from FP2, delivering the French prototype's maiden pole in the headlining Hypercar category. It is an extraordinary result for the endurance racing rookie, who will have his sister #35 machine starting right alongside him on the front row. Last year’s Fuji winner Charles Milesi steered that car to second on the timesheets, finishing just under a tenth-of-a-second adrift of his teammate to complete a brilliant day for the squad.
Behind them, the grid underwent a dramatic shake-up thanks to penalties. Aston Martin THOR Team missed out on a maiden front row start after the #007 Valkyrie was hit with a two-place drop for an accident during FP3 involving Harry Tincknell and Ian James in the #27 Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3. That unfortunate demotion pushed the British Racing Green machine down to fourth and bumped the #19 Genesis GMR-001 up to third.
It proved to be a remarkable session for the new Korean marque, a complete motor racing newcomer this year, which celebrated its best-ever grid slots by also placing the #17 Genesis fifth. The second Aston Martin Valkyrie (#009) lines up sixth.
Meanwhile, the heavy hitters face a mountain to climb. Cadillac, which took pole in Japan in each of the past two seasons, starts seventh with the #38 and tenth with the #12. Home favorites Toyota, boasting nine victories at the 6 Hours of Fuji, start from an uncharacteristic eighth and 13th. BMW finds itself even further back in 14th and 17th, while defending world champion Ferrari sees its two factory 499Ps stranded down in 11th and 16th.
Over in LMGT3, Proton Competition claimed a maiden pole position with its #77 Ford Mustang. They will lead the class away ahead of the #79 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG, the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus, and the #58 Garage 59 McLaren when the race gets underway at 11:00 local time on Sunday.
