Spa WEC: Rebellion, ByKolles outpace Toyota in FP1
The privateer Rebellion and ByKolles teams outpaced Toyota in first practice for Saturday's FIA World Endurance Championship round at Spa.
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Norman Nato topped the times with a 2m02.469s set early in the 90-minute session aboard the solo Rebellion R-13-Gibson he shares with Bruno Senna and Gustavo Menezes.
That gave him a margin of just over a second ahead of the ByKolles team's ENSO CLM P1/01-Gibson in which Oliver Webb posted a 2m03.515s.
The best of the Toyota TS050 Hybrids was the #7 entry which is running the greater penalty under the system of success handicaps introduced in LMP1 for the 2019/20 WEC.
Mike Conway set a 2m03.632s to end up a couple of tenths up on Kazuki Nakajima's 2m03.824s in the sister car.
The class-leading Toyota's 1.1s deficit to the Rebellion is significantly less than the near two-second differential in the success handicaps they are carrying for the sixth round of the WEC.
The #7 and #8 Toyotas are penalised by 3.52s and 3.08s respectively, while the Rebellion is running a 1.58s handicap.
ByKolles is forced to run the same penalty as the Rebellion because it is making its season debut in the WEC.
Toyota is debuting the Le Mans-spec version of the new high-nose aerodynamics introduced on the TS050 this year, whereas the Rebellion is in high-downforce trim.
The ByKolles squad's ENSO CLM has a revised version of its Le Mans bodywork for this race.
The Racing Team Nederland Oreca 07 was fastest in LMP2 with Giedo van der Garde at the wheel. The Dutchman posted 2m03.888s to eclipse Anthony Davidson's 2m3.395s aboard the JOTA Sport Oreca.
Third fastest in class was the United Autosports Oreca in which Phil Hanson set a 2m04.119s.
The two factory Porsche 911 RSR-19s blocked out the top two positions in GTE Pro for the majority of the session, Michael Christensen leading the way on 2m16.057s.
Maxime Martin put in a 2m16.308s right at the end of the 90 minutes in his Aston Martin Vantage GTE to eclipse the 2m16.349s set early on by Gianmaria Bruni in the second of the Porsches.
Alessandro Pier Guidi was the best-placed Ferrari driver in fourth with a 2m16.779s.
Nicklas Nielsen ended up fastest in GTE Am with the AF Corse Ferrari squad. The Dane's 2m17.853s put him a couple of tenths up on Augusto Farfus in the factory-run Aston Martin GTE Am entry.
Jackie Chan DC Racing driver Gabriel Aubry did not take part in the session after testing positive for COVID-19 yesterday. The results of a second test will determine whether he can race the JOTA-run Oreca P2 car.
The Algarve Pro Oreca remained in its garage throughout the session. The Anglo-Portuguese team has been forced to self-isolate because Aubry drove one of its cars in last weekend's European Le Mans Series round at Spa.
It remains unclear whether it will be able to run its solo Oreca LMP2 car on Friday.
Motorsport.tv will show qualifying and the race live HERE. Not available in USA/Canada.
Spa WEC - First practice results:
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 |
Bruno Senna
Gustavo Menezes Norman Nato |
Rebellion R13 | LMP1 | 2'02.469 | |
2 | 4 |
Tom Dillmann
Bruno Spengler Oliver Webb |
ENSO CLM P1/01 | LMP1 | 2'03.515 | 1.046 |
3 | 7 |
Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 2'03.632 | 1.163 |
4 | 8 |
Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 2'03.824 | 1.355 |
5 | 29 |
Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'03.888 | 1.419 |
6 | 38 |
Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'03.935 | 1.466 |
7 | 22 |
Philip Hanson
Filipe Albuquerque Paul di Resta |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.119 | 1.650 |
8 | 36 |
Thomas Laurent
Andre Negrao Pierre Ragues |
Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 2'04.181 | 1.712 |
9 | 42 |
Nicolas Lapierre
Antonin Borga Alexandre Coigny |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.311 | 1.842 |
10 | 37 |
Ho-Pin Tung
Gabriel Aubry Will Stevens |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.532 | 2.063 |
11 | 33 |
Mark Patterson
Kenta Yamashita Anders Fjordbach |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'06.047 | 3.578 |
12 | 35 |
Nobuya Yamanaka
Nick Foster Roberto Merhi |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 2'06.596 | 4.127 |
13 | 47 |
Roberto Lacorte
Andrea Belicchi Giorgio Sernagiotto |
Dallara P217 | LMP2 | 2'07.211 | 4.742 |
14 | 92 |
Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 2'16.057 | 13.588 |
15 | 97 |
Alex Lynn
Maxime Martin |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 2'16.308 | 13.839 |
16 | 91 |
Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 2'16.349 | 13.880 |
17 | 51 |
James Calado
Alessandro Pier Guidi |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 2'16.779 | 14.310 |
18 | 71 |
Davide Rigon
Miguel Molina |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 2'17.122 | 14.653 |
19 | 95 |
Marco Sorensen
Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 2'17.188 | 14.719 |
20 | 83 |
François Perrodo
Emmanuel Collard Nicklas Nielsen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'17.853 | 15.384 |
21 | 98 |
Paul Dalla Lana
Augusto Farfus Ross Gunn |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'18.020 | 15.551 |
22 | 56 |
Egidio Perfetti
Laurents Hörr Matteo Cairoli |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'18.182 | 15.713 |
23 | 77 |
Christian Ried
Riccardo Pera Matt Campbell |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'18.247 | 15.778 |
24 | 86 |
Michael Wainwright
Andrew Watson Benjamin Barker |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'18.522 | 16.053 |
25 | 54 |
Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'18.533 | 16.064 |
26 | 90 |
Salih Yoluc
Charles Eastwood Jonathan Adam |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'18.575 | 16.106 |
27 | 57 |
Ben Keating
Felipe Fraga Jeroen Bleekemolen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'19.398 | 16.929 |
28 | 62 |
Bonamy Grimes
Johnny Mowlem Charles Hollings |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'19.711 | 17.242 |
29 | 88 |
Vutthikorn Inthraphuvasak
Ricardo Sanchez Lucas Legeret |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'19.861 | 17.392 |
30 | 25 |
John Falb
Simon Trummer Jon Lancaster |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | ||
View full results |
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