A day of firsts in GTE qualifying at the 6H Fuji

Porsche GT Team's Frederic Makowiecki and Richard Lietz claimed a first pole position of the season at Fuji today after making the most of their mid-engined No.91 Porsche 911 RSR.

Makowiecki set the outright quickest time of 1m47.573s before Lietz lapped a shade quicker to ensure an average of 1m47.577s. The French/Austrian alliance headed the GT points leading No.67 Ford Chip Ganassi pairing of Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell by 0.441s.

While it was Makowiecki and Lietz’s first pole of the 2017 FIA WEC season it was Porsche GT Team's second after the No.92 car took a maiden top spot at Nurburgring in July.

In damp conditions the drivers all had a tough choice to make on using either intermediate or wet tyres in the treacherous conditions.

Ford will have two cars in the top starting positions as the No.66 Ford GT of Stefan Mucke and Olivier Pla placed third.

Image from Daily Sports Car

Sealing a first ever LMGTE Am pole position was Clearwater Racing with their Ferrari 488GTE. After taking a debut win at Silverstone at the start of the campaign, Matt Griffin and Weng Sun Mok combined to take the extra point for pole today. Griffin set an initial best time of 1m49.121s before Mok capitalised and ensured an average of 1m49.408s to ward off a late threat from the Dempsey Proton Porsche driven by Christian Reid and Matteo Cairoli.

The No.77 Porsche 911 RSR will race in a new livery this weekend in deference to the ‘Pink Ribbon’ foundation charity which is officially supported by Patrick Dempsey through his Dempsey Centre initiative. Dempsey, who won the 2015 edition of the 6 Hours of Fuji, will start tomorrow’s race at 11am local time.

Image from FIA