Practice report
WEC Spa-Francorchamps
Spa WEC: Toyota leads the way with 1-2 in final practice
Toyota topped final free practice for this weekend’s round of the FIA World Endurance Championship at Spa when its two cars undertook their usual qualification simulations.
Gary Watkins
Edited: May 6, 2022, 2:19 PM
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Kamui Kobayashi and Brendon Hartley blocked out the first two positions in the times when they went out on fresh rubber and with a low fuel load at the beginning of the 60-minute session on Friday afternoon.
Hartley was initially fastest with a 2m03.427s in the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid before Kobayashi trumped it with a 2m03.225s to go fastest by two tenths in the #7 entry.
It was the first time that one of the four cars in the Hypercar class had emerged quickest during practice for Saturday’s Spa 6 Hours.
Kobayashi’s time was more than a second faster compared with the previous Hypercar benchmark, a 2m04.064s from Olivier Pla aboard the solo Glickenhaus 007 LMH in FP2.
- Watch qualifying for the WEC Six Hours of Spa live on Motorsport.tv (geo-restrictions may apply).
Prema took top spot in LMP2 courtesy of a 2m04.254s, the fastest time in class of the weekend so far, from Louis Deletraz aboard the Italian team’s Oreca 07-Gibson. That left the Swiss just over a second behind Kobayashi’s session best.
The grandfathered Alpine LMP1 claimed fourth position overall and third in Hypercar courtesy 2m04.790s from Andre Negrao, a second and a half off the pace after a Balance of Performance change for this race.
The #31 WRT Oreca that topped opening practice on Thursday morning took second in class on a 2m04.823s from Robin Frijns.
That gave him a margin of just over a tenth from the sixth-placed United Autosports Oreca in which Filipe Albuquerque posted a 2m04.902s.
The best of the JOTA-entered Orecas claimed seventh with Will Stevens driving and the Team Penske entry in eighth courtesy Felipe Nasr’s best lap.
The Glickenhaus brought up the rear of the Hypercar field down in 15th place overall after Pipo Derani went off at Stavelot and beached the car early in the session.
Porsche took the first two spots in GTE Pro with it pair of Manthey-run factory 911 RSR-19s.
Michael Christensen’s 2m13.102s put him nearly half a second up on teammate Gianmaria Bruni, who managed a 2m13.545s.
The best of the factory Ferrari 488 GT3 Evos run by AF Corse was another half a second in arrears, as Alessandro Pier Guidi posted a 2m14.103s in the #51 entry to just shade Miguel Molina in the sister car.
Corvette Racing's Nick Tandy was just a tenth behind the second of the two Ferraris.
Mikkel Pedersen was fastest in GTE Am for the Project 1 Porsche team ahead of Harry Tincknell in the Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche.
Qualifying for Saturday’s Spa 6 Hours, round two of this year’s WEC, begins at 6.20pm local time on Friday.
WEC 6 Hours of Spa - FP3 results:
Cla # Drivers Car Class Time Gap 1 7 Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 2'03.225 2 8 Sébastien Buemi
Brendon Hartley
Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 2'03.427 0.202 3 9 Robert Kubica
Louis Deletraz
Lorenzo Colombo
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'04.254 1.029 4 36 Andre Negrao
Nicolas Lapierre
Matthieu Vaxiviere
Alpine A480 HYPERCAR 2'04.790 1.565 5 31 Sean Gelael
Robin Frijns
René Rast
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'04.823 1.598 6 22 Philip Hanson
Filipe Albuquerque
Will Owen
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'04.902 1.677 7 38 Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa
Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'04.987 1.762 8 5 Dane Cameron
Emmanuel Collard
Felipe Nasr
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'05.045 1.820 9 83 François Perrodo
Nicklas Nielsen
Alessio Rovera
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'05.173 1.948 10 10 Nico Müller
Ryan Cullen
Sébastien Bourdais
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'05.181 1.956 11 41 Rui Andrade
Ferdinand Habsburg
Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'05.219 1.994 12 1 Lilou Wadoux
Sébastien Ogier
Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'05.305 2.080 13 45 Steven Thomas
James Allen
Rene Binder
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'05.432 2.207 14 28 Oliver Rasmussen
Ed Jones
Jonathan Aberdein
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'05.511 2.286 15 708 Olivier Pla
Romain Dumas
Pipo Derani
Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 2'05.525 2.300 16 23 Alex Lynn
Oliver Jarvis
Josh Pierson
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'05.556 2.331 17 34 Jakub Smiechowski
Alex Brundle
Esteban Gutierrez
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'05.967 2.742 18 35 Jean Baptiste Lahaye
Matthieu Lahaye
François Heriau
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'06.546 3.321 19 44 Miro Konopka
Tijmen van der Helm
Bent Viscaal
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'07.045 3.820 20 92 Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 2'13.102 9.877 21 91 Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 2'13.545 10.320 22 51 Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 2'14.103 10.878 23 52 Miguel Molina
Antonio Fuoco
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 2'14.172 10.947 24 64 Tommy Milner
Nick Tandy
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE PRO 2'14.262 11.037 25 46 Matteo Cairoli
Mikkel Pedersen
Nicolas Leutwiler
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'15.351 12.126 26 77 Christian Ried
Sebastian Priaulx
Harry Tincknell
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'15.970 12.745 27 33 Ben Keating
Henrique Chaves Jr.
Marco Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'16.134 12.909 28 56 Brendan Iribe
Ollie Millroy
Ben Barnicoat
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'16.298 13.073 29 88 Fred Poordad
Patrick Lindsey
Jan Heylen
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'16.313 13.088 30 21 Simon Mann
Christoph Ulrich
Toni Vilander
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'16.600 13.375 31 777 Satoshi Hoshino
Tomonobu Fujii
Charlie Fagg
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'16.710 13.485 32 54 Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Nick Cassidy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'16.844 13.619 33 85 Rahel Frey
Michelle Gatting
Sarah Bovy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'16.948 13.723 34 98 Paul Dalla Lana
David Pittard
Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'17.004 13.779 35 60 Claudio Schiavoni
Matteo Cressoni
Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'17.332 14.107 36 71 Franck Dezoteux
Pierre Ragues
Gabriel Aubry
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'17.451 14.226 37 86 Michael Wainwright
Riccardo Pera
Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'17.531 14.306 View full results
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