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Edition

Australia

Spa WEC: Sirotkin leads SMP 1-2 in first practice

Sergey Sirotkin led SMP Racing teammate and fellow ex-Formula 1 racer Stoffel Vandoorne in the opening practice session for this weekend's Spa FIA World Endurance Championship round.

#17 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1: Stéphane Sarrazin, Egor Orudzhev, Sergey Sirotkin

#17 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1: Stéphane Sarrazin, Egor Orudzhev, Sergey Sirotkin

Alexander Trienitz

Sirotkin, who made his WEC debut for SMP in the Sebring 1000 Miles, set a laptime of 1m56.264s in the #17 BR Engineering BR1-AER with just under 30 minutes of the 90-minute session remaining.

That followed Vandoorne's lap of 1m58.236s in the sister #11 car, which had the Belgian head of the times and half a second up on the two Toyota TS050 Hybrids.

SMP's surge pushed the Toyotas down to third and fourth places, with early pacesetter Sebastien Buemi's 1m58.742s putting the #8 car 2.478s off the pace.

Mike Conway was a further four tenths down in the #7 machine and only two tenths up on the quickest of the Rebellion R-13s, the #3 of Gustavo Menezes.

Bruno Senna followed in sixth place in the second of the Rebellions, 4.171s down on Sirotkin.

Seventh overall was the best of the LMP2s, the newly-Michelin-shod Signatech Alpine Oreca entry of Andre Negrao.

The Brazilian driver's 2m03.441s put the #36 car ahead of early pacesetter Jean-Eric Vergne in the Aurus-badged G-Drive Racing Oreca, as well as the remaining LMP1, the ByKolles ENSO CLM P1/01.

Tom Dillmann set the best lap in the Gibson-powered #4 car, more than seven seconds slower the overall benchmark.

GTE Pro was headed by Aston Martin, courtesy of a 2m15.290s laptime from local driver Maxime Martin at the wheel of the #97 Vantage GTE.

Harry Tincknell's last-ditch effort in the quicker of the Ford GTs was identical, but the #67 was classified second, ahead of Antonio Felix da Costa in the #82 BMW M8 GTE.

Ford and Aston Martin's respective second cars were fourth and fifth, ahead of the #81 BMW, while Porsche's pair of 911 RSRs filled out seventh and eighth ahead of the two Ferrari 488 GTEs.

An early lap from Ben Barker put Gulf Racing at the head of the GTE Am times in the Gulf Racing Porsche, less than a tenth ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella in the Spirit of Race Ferrari.

The TF Sport Aston Martin was black-flagged for "constant track limits abuse" while Euan Hankey, returning to the team for the first time since last year's Le Mans 24 Hours, was at the wheel.

Practice results:

Cla # Drivers Car Class Time Gap
1 17 France Stéphane Sarrazin
Russian Federation Egor Orudzhev
Russian Federation Sergey Sirotkin
BR Engineering BR1 LMP1 1'56.264
2 11 Russian Federation Mikhail Aleshin
Russian Federation Vitaly Petrov
Belgium Stoffel Vandoorne
BR Engineering BR1 LMP1 1'58.236 1.972
3 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
Japan Kazuki Nakajima
Spain Fernando Alonso
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'58.742 2.478
4 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'58.877 2.613
5 3 France Nathanael Berthon
France Thomas Laurent
United States Gustavo Menezes
Rebellion R13 LMP1 1'59.106 2.842
6 1 Switzerland Neel Jani
Germany Andre Lotterer
Brazil Bruno Senna
Rebellion R13 LMP1 2'00.435 4.171
7 36 France Nicolas Lapierre
Brazil Andre Negrao
France Pierre Thiriet
Alpine A470 LMP2 2'03.441 7.177
8 26 Russian Federation Roman Rusinov
Netherlands Job Van Uitert
France Jean-Eric Vergne
Aurus 01 LMP2 2'03.677 7.413
9 4 France Tom Dillmann
United Kingdom Oliver Webb
Italy Paolo Ruberti
ENSO CLM P1/01 LMP1 2'03.891 7.627
10 29 Netherlands Frits van Eerd
Netherlands Giedo van der Garde
Netherlands Nyck de Vries
Dallara P217 LMP2 2'04.349 8.085
11 31 Mexico Roberto Gonzalez
Venezuela Pastor Maldonado
United Kingdom Anthony Davidson
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'04.496 8.232
12 38 China Ho-Pin Tung
France Gabriel Aubry
Monaco Stéphane Richelmi
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'04.616 8.352
13 37 Denmark David Heinemeier Hansson
United Kingdom Jordan King
United Kingdom Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'04.907 8.643
14 28 France François Perrodo
France Matthieu Vaxiviere
France Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'04.909 8.645
15 50 France Erwin Creed
France Romano Ricci
United States Nicholas Boulle
Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 2'06.603 10.339
16 97 United Kingdom Alex Lynn
Belgium Maxime Martin
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 2'15.290 19.026
17 67 Guernsey Andy Priaulx
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 2'15.290 19.026
18 82 Brazil Augusto Farfus
Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
BMW M8 GTE LMGTE PRO 2'15.406 19.142
19 66 Germany Stefan Mücke
France Olivier Pla
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 2'15.648 19.384
20 95 Denmark Marco Sorensen
Denmark Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 2'16.254 19.990
21 81 Germany Martin Tomczyk
Netherlands Nick Catsburg
BMW M8 GTE LMGTE PRO 2'16.311 20.047
22 91 Austria Richard Lietz
Italy Gianmaria Bruni
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 2'16.330 20.066
23 92 Denmark Michael Christensen
France Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 2'16.489 20.225
24 51 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 2'16.499 20.235
25 71 Italy Davide Rigon
United Kingdom Sam Bird
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 2'16.701 20.437
26 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
Germany Thomas Preining
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'17.068 20.804
27 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'17.138 20.874
28 77 Germany Christian Ried
Italy Riccardo Pera
Matthew Campbell
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'17.579 21.315
29 90 Turkey Salih Yoluc
United Kingdom Euan Hankey
Ireland Charles Eastwood
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE AM 2'17.786 21.522
30 56 Germany Jörg Bergmeister
United States Patrick Lindsey
Norway Egidio Perfetti
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'17.881 21.617
31 98 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
Portugal Pedro Lamy
Austria Mathias Lauda
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE AM 2'17.959 21.695
32 88 Italy Gianluca Roda
Italy Giorgio Roda
Italy Matteo Cairoli
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'18.113 21.849
33 61 Argentina Luis Perez Companc
Italy Matteo Cressoni
Ireland Matthew Griffin
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'18.744 22.480
34 70 Japan Motoaki Ishikawa
Monaco Olivier Beretta
Italy Eddie Cheever III
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'18.810 22.546

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Edition

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