Proton Competition will start the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Fuji from LMGT3 pole after poor weather forced officials to cancel Qualifying and Hyperpole at Fuji Speedway.
Ben Tuck’s fastest lap from Friday’s Practice running consequently secured the #77 Ford Mustang GT3 EVO the top starting position. The Brit had set the LMGT3 benchmark during FP2 and, with each car’s fastest lap across all three Practice sessions used to establish the grid, his effort proved decisive.
Tuck, Sebastian Priaulx and Eric Powell will therefore lead the LMGT3 field away on Sunday. The #79 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo joins them on the front row, while the #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus and #58 Garage 59 McLaren occupy the second row.
Hériau crash precedes Qualifying cancellation
Saturday’s worsening weather had already created difficult conditions during the final Practice session at Fuji, with drivers battling standing water, limited visibility and significantly reduced grip around Fuji Speedway. Those conditions continued into Qualifying and ultimately prevented the LMGT3 field from completing any meaningful competitive running.
François Hériau brought out an almost immediate red flag when he lost control of the #21 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo shortly after exiting Turn 1. The Frenchman appeared to aquaplane before travelling across the circuit and hitting the barrier on the right-hand side at Turn 2. Hériau walked away from the accident, but officials immediately stopped the session while they assessed both the damaged car and increasingly difficult track conditions.
Race Control subsequently determined that conditions would not allow the session to resume safely. Officials cancelled the remainder of LMGT3 Qualifying and Hyperpole alongside the scheduled Hypercar sessions, meaning no driver received the opportunity to set a representative Qualifying time.
The FIA WEC confirmed that the starting grid would instead come from each car’s individual fastest lap across FP1, FP2 and FP3. With Friday providing substantially faster conditions than Saturday’s wet final Practice, the opening day of running ultimately determined the positions for most of the field.
Tuck’s FP2 benchmark secures Ford pole
Tuck emerged as the main beneficiary after his FP2 benchmark placed Proton Competition at the head of the LMGT3 field. His performance had already demonstrated the Mustang’s dry-weather pace before conditions deteriorated on Saturday, and the cancellation transformed that Practice benchmark into pole position.
Ford had already shown significant pace during Friday’s FP2 session, with Tuck taking the Mustang to the top of the class. That performance ultimately became even more important once Saturday’s weather removed any opportunity for the Bronze-rated drivers to contest the usual Qualifying session.
The result continues a strong run for Tuck, Priaulx and Powell after the trio recorded a season-best fifth-place finish at the previous round at Circuit of The Americas. They now arrive at the head of the grid with an opportunity to turn their recent progress into an even stronger result at Fuji.
“The car has felt amazing in both wet and dry conditions all weekend, and that’s shown with our pace in practice,” commented Tuck, whose Mustang remained competitive despite the significant change in conditions between Friday and Saturday.
Although Tuck did not receive the opportunity to fight directly for pole through the normal Qualifying format, the Brit believed Proton Competition had already demonstrated enough speed across Practice to justify its position.
“We’re extremely happy to get pole position, even if we were unable to fight in a true qualifying session. The fact the result goes back to our practice pace shows we’ve done enough to deserve pole, and now I can’t wait to get going in the race tomorrow!”
Iron Lynx narrowly misses LMGT3 pole
Iron Lynx will start alongside Proton Competition after Lin Hodenius came within five hundredths of a second of Tuck’s benchmark aboard the #79 Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo. The narrow margin leaves the Mercedes well placed to challenge the Mustang immediately when the six-hour race begins.
Akkodis ASP Team will occupy third after Hadrien David put the #78 Lexus RC F GT3 among the leading runners during Friday’s Practice programme. The #58 Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo completes the second row through Finn Gehrsitz, whose fastest lap came during FP1 rather than the quicker FP2 session.
Gehrsitz had led an all-McLaren top two during the opening Practice session at Fuji, and his early benchmark remained competitive enough to earn Garage 59 fourth on the grid despite several rivals improving later on Friday.
The second Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG will start fifth, while another McLaren occupies sixth through the #10 Racing Spirit of Léman entry. Ford, Mercedes-AMG, Lexus and McLaren therefore occupy the opening positions, continuing the varied competitive picture that developed across the three Practice sessions.
Three manufacturers led Practice before Qualifying washout
The cancellation followed an unpredictable series of Practice sessions in which three different manufacturers reached the top of the LMGT3 timesheets.
McLaren opened the weekend at the front during FP1 before Ford responded in FP2. The #77 Proton Competition Mustang produced the fastest dry-weather LMGT3 lap of the weekend in that second session, ultimately giving Tuck pole once Qualifying disappeared from the schedule.
Saturday then produced another change when the conditions turned wet. Charlie Eastwood moved the #34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R to the top during FP3 at Fuji, beating BMW, Ford and Ferrari in the difficult conditions.
However, the considerably slower wet-weather lap times meant the final Practice session had little influence on the front of the starting grid. Friday’s dry times remained decisive for the leading contenders, leaving Tuck’s FP2 effort at the head of the combined classification.
Championship leaders face fight from fifth row
The unusual method of setting the grid leaves the leading LMGT3 championship contenders with work to do during Sunday’s race. The #33 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R and #21 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari will share the fifth row as their championship battle continues at Fuji.
Their starting positions add another dimension to an already significant weekend in the title fight. As outlined ahead of the event in the Pit Debrief 6 Hours of Fuji preview, the championship has entered its decisive stages with relatively few opportunities remaining to recover lost ground.
The #21 Ferrari also faces the additional challenge of recovering from Hériau’s accident. Although the Frenchman walked away from the Turn 2 impact, the car sustained damage during the crash that triggered the red flag and preceded the cancellation of the remainder of Saturday’s Qualifying programme.
Both championship-leading crews will therefore need to work through traffic rather than controlling the race from the opening rows. With several different manufacturers ahead and six hours of racing available, strategy, tyre management and navigating Hypercar traffic could become increasingly important as they attempt to move towards the front.
Manthey Porsches face recovery from rear of field
The defending Manthey Porsche crews face an even greater recovery task after both Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 entries ended up towards the rear of the starting order.
The Practice-based grid leaves the reigning champions behind several of their regular rivals, forcing them to gain positions through the race rather than relying on their usual Qualifying strength. The situation creates another strategic variable for a six-hour contest already complicated by the changing weather experienced across the weekend.
The cancellation particularly affected teams that had approached Practice with longer-run preparation in mind. Without a conventional Qualifying session, drivers had no opportunity to reset the competitive order with low-fuel runs specifically aimed at securing grid position.
Instead, the fastest laps accumulated during three sessions with very different objectives and conditions became decisive. For Proton Competition, that scenario rewarded the outright pace it had already demonstrated on Friday.
Proton Competition leads unpredictable LMGT3 field into race
Proton Competition therefore enters Sunday’s race with an opportunity to convert the Mustang’s Practice pace into its strongest result of the season. Tuck, Priaulx and Powell already carried momentum into Japan following their fifth-place finish at COTA, but pole provides the trio with a considerably stronger platform at Fuji.
However, the margins from Friday suggest the #77 will face immediate pressure. Hodenius put Iron Lynx less than five hundredths behind, while Lexus and McLaren also demonstrated enough pace to secure positions within the opening two rows. The official FIA WEC results provide the full classifications from the three Practice sessions that determined Sunday’s starting order.
The weather remains another potential factor after teams experienced both dry and heavily wet conditions across the weekend. Friday established the grid, but Saturday demonstrated how quickly the competitive picture could change if rain returns during the six-hour contest.
For Proton Competition, however, the starting equation remains straightforward. Tuck produced the fastest LMGT3 lap when conditions allowed, and that Practice performance has earned the #77 Ford Mustang GT3 EVO the best possible starting position for the 6 Hours of Fuji.
The 2026 6 Hours of Fuji gets underway at 11:00 local time on Sunday, 27 September.
