After a successful start to the weekend at Fuji Speedway, French-based team Larbre Competition has lost its elusive first pole position start after topping the class in Saturday's qualifying.

The team's No. 50 Corvette C7.R failed the post-qualifying tech inspection as a fuel cell violation was found; the ventilation valve found was not allowed per the technical regulations.

The cause of this is not yet known, but it could be related to the fact that Corvette Racing borrowed the chassis for use in two TUDOR United SportsCar Championship events after one of theirs was heavily damaged in Jan Magnussen's crash during qualifying for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The fuel used in the two TUDOR Championship events the chassis competed in was IMSA-approved E85 fuel, which could be the culprit here.

With the Larbre Corvette removed from the GTE-Am class pole, it'll be the No. 72 Ferrari F458 Italia of SMP Racing, driven by Andrea Bertolini, Aleksey Basov and Victor Shaytar that will start from the class pole (and earn the bonus point for doing so) in Sunday's six-hour event at Fuji Speedway.

Additionally, with this being a safety-related violation, Paolo Ruberti, Gianluca Roda and Nicolai Slyvest could find themselves sidelined for the race entirely as the No. 50 Corvette will not be allowed to start unless the issue is fixed in time for the race.

The Six Hours of Fuji is set to go green at 11 am on Sunday, track local time (Saturday, 10 pm ET).


For updates on the situation of Larbre Competition and continued coverage of the sixth round of the FIA World Endurance Championship from Fuji Speedway, follow @VAVELSportsCar on Twitter.

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About the author
Aaron Durant
Eighteen-year-old aspiring motorsports journalist. I lead The Apex as its editor-in-chief. Read my work at TheApex.racing.