Spa WEC: Toyota leads the way with 1-2 in final practice

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
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