Ferrari team AF Corse will be aiming to add yet another victory to a dominant FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) campaign where their LMGTE Pro cars have scored victory in five of the six rounds so far this year.
The streak of wins – snapped only by a win for Team Felbermayr-Proton at Spa-Francorchamps – means that the team have already clinched the class teams’ championship and with it the manufacturers’ accolade for Ferrari.
For the seventh round of the WEC – this weekend’s Six Hours of Fuji – four time winner Giancarlo Fisichella is rejoined by Gimmi Bruni, the Italian having missed the previous round in Bahrain due to commitments racing in the International GT Open series.
Fisichella and Bruni claimed victory in both Silverstone and Interlagos as a pairing having won the class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Toni Vilander, who also partnered Fisichella to victory in Bahrain in Bruni’s absence.
While Fisichella, Bruni and Vilander have scored four wins in the #51 Ferrari 458 Italia Andrea Bertolini and Olivier Beretta just a single win in the WEC this year, though that came in the first round of the season – the 12 Hours of Sebring.
The pair, in the #71 car once more in Japan will be hoping for a better weekend than in Bahrain a fortnight ago when Beretta was excluded from the race after contact with an LMP2 runner.
