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Lynn puts Cadillac on pole for 6 Hours of Fuji

The Cadillac,Hertz Team Jota, Alex Lynn combination proved too much for the FIA WEC’s Hypercar field once again in today’s qualifying shootout for the championship’s 100th race at the Fuji Speedway.

Lynn dominated this afternoon’s Hyperpole session, securing a front-row lockout for the brand with a mesmerizing 1m 28.236s. It was a lap that put him clear at the top by more than four tenths and handed the No. 12 crew their third pole position of the year.

“It was a great feeling, the car was amazing, and we did the job. I love this scenario in Qualifying because the car is amazing right now,” Lynn said post-session. “Today was a big job to put our car in a good position. Tomorrow I think we can have a great race.”

Lynn revealed to reporters that a late call to change the car set up for qualifying proved key.

“Yesterday I didn’t have a good feeling with the car,” he said. “I thought a couple of other brands looked very fast, and I think we had to revert a little bit to a car that we knew for qualifying.

“I think we’ve made really big steps to the car in the race, but we went back to sort of our Sao Paulo-type car for qualifying. This morning in FP3 I had a much better feeling and confidence.”

Earl Bamber was rapid too aboard the No. 38 V-Series.R, putting the sister Cadillac second with a 1m 28.675s to add to the GM brand’s impressive showing, making it a third qualifying one-two in four races.

Best of the rest was Marco Sorensen, who put the No. 009 Aston Martin Thor Team Valkyrie on the second row in third after reeling off a stunning 1m 28.705s.

Peugeot’s No. 93 9X8 will start alongside the Aston Martin on the second row after Mikkel Jensen set a 1m 28.7s of his own.

The third row of the grid will be filled by the No. 20 BMW and championship-leading No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari. Antonio Giovinazzi produced an impressive 1m 28.945s ahead of a crucial race for the team.

Cadillac and Ferrari were the only brands to get two cars into Hyperpole, after an extremely tight first session which saw the top 12 separated by less than half a second.

Omissions from the shootout included the No. 007 Aston Martin Valkyrie, which was rapid in Free Practice 3 but ended up 11th after Harry Tincknell lost an improvement to a lock-up into Turn 10. The No. 94 Peugeot missed out after Stoffel Vandoorne, ahead of his final race with the French marque, ended up 12th, missing out by less than a tenth.

Lone Star Le Mans winners Laurens Vanthoor and Kevin Estre in the No. 6 Porsche, meanwhile, will start the race a lowly 17th. Estre was unable to challenge for a top 10 spot after a track limits violation and a lock-up under braking into Turn 1 on his final push lap, which sent him off track.

Prior to the Hypercar sessions, Racing Spirit of Le Man’s Aston Martin claimed its second pole position of the season in LMGT3. Its Vantage was steered masterfully by Eduardo Barrichello, who, with his father Rubens watching on in the garage, set a 1m 39.981s to secure the team the best spot on the grid.

Barrichello’s flyer was the only LMGT3 time sub 1m 40s, but the two United Autosports’ McLarens were right there, setting near-identical times. The No. 95 will start on the front row after Sean Gelael’s efforts to complete a 1m 40.011s, ahead of the No. 59, which Sebastien Baud pushed to third with a 1m 40.013s.

Heart of Racing’s FP3-topping Aston Martin was fourth quickest in Hyperpole. The championship-leading No. 92 Manthey 1st Phorm Porsche claimed fifth, Riccardo Pera handing the team a strong starting position ahead of the other title-contending cars from Vista AF Corse and TF Sport.

TF’s No. 33 Z06 Corvette was sixth, marginally quicker than the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari that was seventh fastest. The 296 recovered well from an off in the first stage of Qualifying, which saw the Thomas Flohr spin off track and make light contact with the barriers before setting a 1m 41.375s to sneak into the shootout with the 10th fastest time.

Ahead of Hyperpole, the two WRT BMWs faced a challenging qualifying session, failing to secure a spot in the top 10. The Iron Dames Porsche also struggled for pace, Celia Martin qualifying 17th with a 1m 42.284s.

There was one omission from the sessions: the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang. The car was unable to participate as it is undergoing an engine change ahead of the race, following the water pressure issue that struck the car in Free Practice 3.

Tomorrow’s race is scheduled to start at 11:00 a.m. local time in Japan.
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