Overview
- Heavy rain and poor visibility at Fuji Speedway caused race control to call off qualifying after a Turn 2 aquaplane crash, leaving no competitive qualifying laps to set the order.
- Under WEC sporting rule Article 10.2.2 the grid was formed from the best laps in the three practice sessions, giving Victor Martins' FP2 time the pole for the #36 Alpine A424.
- A two-place grid penalty for the #007 Aston Martin following its FP3 collision with the #27 Vantage reshuffled the Hypercar line-up and promoted the #35 Alpine to the front row.
- Title leaders lost ground because of practice strategy and conditions, with the #7 Toyota set to start well down the order and the #20 BMW occupying the last Hypercar slot.
- Fuji’s volatile weather made practice choices decisive, rewarding teams that ran qualifying simulations in dry conditions and creating a race where strategy and weather could outweigh outright pace.