Spa WEC: Alonso tops first practice for Toyota
Toyota newcomer Fernando Alonso set the fastest time in the first practice session of the new FIA World Endurance Championship season at Spa.
Photo by: Toyota Racing
Alonso took over the #8 TS050 Hybrid from teammate Sebastien Buemi 35 minutes into the 90-minute session, and promptly set a best time of 1m58.392s, almost exactly a tenth faster than Buemi.
That put the two-time Formula 1 champion 0.237s ahead of the sister #7 Toyota, whose fastest time was set by Mike Conway.
The best of the non-hybrid privateer LMP1s was the #3 Rebellion R-13-Gibson, which lapped with 0.457s off the pace in the hands of Thomas Laurent late in the session.
That demoted the #10 DragonSpeed BR Engineering BR1-Gibson, driven by Ben Hanley, to fourth, ahead of the sister #1 Oreca-built Rebellion car of Bruno Senna, which was 1.2s slower than the best of the Toyotas.
ByKolles was sixth-fastest with its revised ENSO CLM P1/01-Nissan with Tom Dillmann at the wheel, a further half a second down.
SMP Racing only got its #17 BR1-AER out for a timed run in the closing stages of the session, and was seventh-fastest with Egor Orudzhev at the wheel.
The sister #10 car of Mikhail Aleshin was slower than best of the LMP2 runners, the DragonSpeed Oreca.
Pastor Maldonado set the best time in the secondary class, a 2m03.494s in the #31 Oreca 07-Gibson to go 0.640s faster than Andre Negrao in the Alpine-badged #36 Signatech Oreca.
Jean-Eric Vergne put G-Drive Racing's part-time Oreca entry third in class, less than a tenth further back, ahead of the two Jota Sport-run Jackie Chan DC Racing cars.
Manor failed to get either of its Ginetta G60-LT-P1-Mecachrome out for a timed lap, with both the #5 and #6 cars only managing a single installation lap apiece.
Ford leads Porsche in GTE Pro
Ford led a 1-2 in the GTE Pro division, with Andy Priaulx setting the best time in class of 2m15.014s in the #67 GT ahead of Olivier Pla in the sister #66 machine.
Best of the rest was WEC returnee Gianmaria Bruni in the #91 Porsche, albeit six tenths off the pace, followed by Kevin Estre in the #92 911 RSR.
The best of the updated Ferrari 488 GTEs was fifth, 1.3s off the pace in the hands of James Calado, while the best of the new BMW M8 GTEs was sixth with Tom Blomqvist at the wheel.
Aston Martin brought up the rear of the class with its pair of new-generation Vantages.
Porsche locked out the top four spots in the GTE Am division, led by Matteo Cairoli in the #88 Dempsey-Proton Racing entry on a 2m16.601s - sixth overall among the GTE contingent.
Practice results:
Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 8 | Fernando Alonso Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 35 | 1'58.392 | |
2 | 7 | Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 36 | 1'58.629 | 0.237 |
3 | 3 | Mathias Beche Thomas Laurent Gustavo Menezes |
Rebellion R13 - Gibson | LMP1 | 32 | 1'58.849 | 0.457 |
4 | 10 | Henrik Hedman Ben Hanley Pietro Fittipaldi |
BR Engineering BR1 - Gibson | LMP1 | 30 | 1'59.321 | 0.929 |
5 | 1 | Andre Lotterer Bruno Senna Neel Jani |
Rebellion R13 - Gibson | LMP1 | 24 | 1'59.681 | 1.289 |
6 | 4 | Oliver Webb Dominik Kraihamer Tom Dillmann |
ENSO CLM P1/01 - Nismo | LMP1 | 18 | 2'00.132 | 1.740 |
7 | 17 | Stéphane Sarrazin Matevos Isaakyan Egor Orudzhev |
BR Engineering BR1 - AER | LMP1 | 9 | 2'01.499 | 3.107 |
8 | 31 | Pastor Maldonado Nathanael Berthon Roberto Gonzalez |
Oreca 07 - Gibson | LMP2 | 28 | 2'03.494 | 5.102 |
9 | 11 | Vitaly Petrov Mikhail Aleshin |
BR Engineering BR1 - AER | LMP1 | 11 | 2'03.906 | 5.514 |
10 | 36 | Nicolas Lapierre Pierre Thiriet Andre Negrao |
Alpine A470 - Gibson | LMP2 | 27 | 2'04.134 | 5.742 |
11 | 26 | Jean-Eric Vergne Roman Rusinov Andrea Pizzitola |
Oreca 07 - Gibson | LMP2 | 28 | 2'04.198 | 5.806 |
12 | 37 | Nabil Jeffri Weiron Tan Jazeman Jaafar |
Oreca 07 - Gibson | LMP2 | 28 | 2'04.381 | 5.989 |
13 | 38 | Ho-Pin Tung Stéphane Richelmi Gabriel Aubry |
Oreca 07 - Gibson | LMP2 | 30 | 2'04.558 | 6.166 |
14 | 29 | Jan Lammers Giedo van der Garde Frits van Eerd |
Dallara P217 - Gibson | LMP2 | 24 | 2'04.693 | 6.301 |
15 | 28 | Loic Duval François Perrodo Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Oreca 07 - Gibson | LMP2 | 36 | 2'04.726 | 6.334 |
16 | 50 | Fernando Rees Romano Ricci Erwin Creed |
Ligier JSP217 - Gibson | LMP2 | 25 | 2'06.511 | 8.119 |
17 | 67 | Harry Tincknell Tony Kanaan Andy Priaulx |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 30 | 2'15.014 | 16.622 |
18 | 66 | Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla Billy Johnson |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 30 | 2'15.273 | 16.881 |
19 | 91 | Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 29 | 2'15.631 | 17.239 |
20 | 92 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 26 | 2'15.717 | 17.325 |
21 | 51 | James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 25 | 2'16.397 | 18.005 |
22 | 88 | Khaled Al Qubaisi Matteo Cairoli Giorgio Roda |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 32 | 2'16.601 | 18.209 |
23 | 82 | Antonio Felix da Costa Tom Blomqvist |
BMW M8 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 33 | 2'16.606 | 18.214 |
24 | 71 | Sam Bird Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 25 | 2'16.789 | 18.397 |
25 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Ben Barker Alex Davison |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 30 | 2'17.552 | 19.160 |
26 | 81 | Nick Catsburg Martin Tomczyk |
BMW M8 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 31 | 2'17.812 | 19.420 |
27 | 97 | Jonathan Adam Maxime Martin Alex Lynn |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 33 | 2'17.993 | 19.601 |
28 | 77 | Christian Ried Matt Campbell Julien Andlauer |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 27 | 2'18.006 | 19.614 |
29 | 56 | Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey Egidio Perfetti |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 29 | 2'18.108 | 19.716 |
30 | 95 | Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim Darren Turner |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 31 | 2'18.227 | 19.835 |
31 | 90 | Salih Yoluc Euan Hankey Charlie Eastwood |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE AM | 33 | 2'18.355 | 19.963 |
32 | 98 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE AM | 34 | 2'18.458 | 20.066 |
33 | 61 | Matt Griffin Mok Weng Sun Keita Sawa |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 29 | 2'19.147 | 20.755 |
34 | 70 | Olivier Beretta Motoaki Ishikawa Eddie Cheever III |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 32 | 2'19.317 | 20.925 |
35 | 54 | Giancarlo Fisichella Francesco Castellacci Thomas Flohr |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 31 | 2'20.300 | 21.908 |
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