Practice report
WEC Spa-Francorchamps (2018)
Spa WEC: Toyota pulls clear of privateer rivals in FP2
Toyota increased its margin over the privateer LMP1 pack in second free practice for the opening round of the 2018/19 FIA World Endurance Championship season at Spa.
Gary Watkins
Edited: May 4, 2018, 7:28 AM
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Mike Conway set the pace with a 1m56.172s lap at the start of the session aboard the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, an improvement of more than two seconds over Fernando Alonso's session one best.
Kazuki Nakajima was fastest in the sister Toyota on a 1m56.815s in the 90-minute afternoon session.
That put them comfortably ahead of the best privateer lap of 1m58.835s set by Pietro Fittipaldi in DragonSpeed's Gibson-powered BR Engineering BR1.
The two Rebellion R-13-Gibsons took fourth and fifth positions in the times. Gustavo Menezes posted a 1m59.011s to end up just over half a second up on teammate Neel Jani.
The two SMP Racing BR1s, which are powered by the AER turbo engine, took sixth and seventh, ahead of the ByKolles ENSO CLM P1/01-Nissan.
Stephane Sarrazin set the fastest SMP time with a 2m00.035s before putting the car in the gravel at Stavelot, causing the first of two red flags.
Neither of the Manor Ginetta G60-LT-P1-Mecachromes registered times after completing only one in-out lap apiece.
Pastor Maldonado was quickest in LMP2 aboard DragonSpeed's Oreca 07. His time of 2m02.991s put him three tenths up on Nabil Jeffri's 2m03.306s in the best of the Jackie Chan DC Racing Orecas.
Matthieu Vaxiviere caused the second red flag when he went off in the TDS Racing Oreca at Malmedy corner.
The Ganassi Ford squad again led the way in GTE Pro, Stefan Mucke heading the times with a 2m13.733s, giving him a margin of nine tenths of Gianmaria Bruni's 2m14.647s in the best of the factory Porsche 911 RSRs.
The second cars from Ford and Porsche took third and fourth respectively in the hands of Harry Tincknell and Kevin Estre.
Best of the rest in fifth was James Calado in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE on a 2m15.516s, while Aston Martin improved to sixth fastest with its new-generation Vantage.
BMW's pair of new M8 GTEs were slowest in class.
Ben Barker was fastest in GTE Am for the Gulf Racing Porsche squad, jumping ahead of the #77 Proton Porsche in the closing stages.
Second practice results:
Pos.#DriversCarClassLapsTimeGap 1 7 
Kamui Kobayashi
Mike Conway
Jose Maria Lopez Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 29 1'56.172 2 8 
Fernando Alonso
Kazuki Nakajima
Sébastien Buemi Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 33 1'56.815 0.643 3 10 
Henrik Hedman
Ben Hanley
Pietro Fittipaldi BR Engineering BR1 - Gibson LMP1 24 1'58.835 2.663 4 3 Mathias Beche
Thomas Laurent
Gustavo Menezes Rebellion R13 - Gibson LMP1 30 1'59.011 2.839 5 1 
Andre Lotterer
Bruno Senna
Neel Jani Rebellion R13 - Gibson LMP1 24 1'59.580 3.408 6 17 Stéphane Sarrazin
Matevos Isaakyan
Egor Orudzhev BR Engineering BR1 - AER LMP1 23 2'00.035 3.863 7 11 Vitaly Petrov
Mikhail Aleshin BR Engineering BR1 - AER LMP1 27 2'00.192 4.020 8 4 Oliver Webb
Dominik Kraihamer
Tom Dillmann ENSO CLM P1/01 - Nismo LMP1 16 2'01.466 5.294 9 31 
Pastor Maldonado
Nathanael Berthon
Roberto Gonzalez Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2 31 2'02.991 6.819 10 37 
Nabil Jeffri
Weiron Tan
Jazeman Jaafar Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2 29 2'03.306 7.134 11 26 Jean-Eric Vergne
Roman Rusinov
Andrea Pizzitola Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2 28 2'03.594 7.422 12 50 Fernando Rees
Romano Ricci
Erwin Creed Ligier JSP217 - Gibson LMP2 17 2'03.881 7.709 13 38 
Ho-Pin Tung
Stéphane Richelmi
Gabriel Aubry Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2 27 2'04.279 8.107 14 36 Nicolas Lapierre
Pierre Thiriet
Andre Negrao Alpine A470 - Gibson LMP2 30 2'05.296 9.124 15 29 
Jan Lammers
Giedo van der Garde
Frits van Eerd Dallara P217 - Gibson LMP2 30 2'05.973 9.801 16 28 Loic Duval
François Perrodo
Matthieu Vaxiviere Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2 12 2'06.734 10.562 17 66 Stefan Mücke
Olivier Pla
Billy Johnson Ford GT LMGTE PRO 16 2'13.733 17.561 18 91 
Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 31 2'14.647 18.475 19 67 Harry Tincknell
Tony Kanaan
Andy Priaulx Ford GT LMGTE PRO 29 2'14.706 18.534 20 92 
Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 31 2'15.183 19.011 21 51 James Calado
Alessandro Pier Guidi Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 30 2'15.516 19.344 22 95 Marco Sorensen
Nicki Thiim
Darren Turner Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 23 2'15.564 19.392 23 71 Sam Bird
Davide Rigon Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 29 2'15.779 19.607 24 86 Michael Wainwright
Ben Barker
Alex Davison Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 26 2'16.113 19.941 25 97 Jonathan Adam
Maxime Martin
Alex Lynn Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 25 2'16.182 20.010 26 77 Christian Ried
Matt Campbell
Julien Andlauer Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 28 2'16.434 20.262 27 82 
Antonio Felix da Costa
Tom Blomqvist BMW M8 GTE LMGTE PRO 28 2'16.782 20.610 28 98 Pedro Lamy
Paul Dalla Lana
Mathias Lauda Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE AM 28 2'16.790 20.618 29 54 Giancarlo Fisichella
Francesco Castellacci
Thomas Flohr Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 29 2'16.897 20.725 30 88 
Khaled Al Qubaisi
Matteo Cairoli
Giorgio Roda Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 29 2'17.057 20.885 31 81 Nick Catsburg
Martin Tomczyk BMW M8 GTE LMGTE PRO 30 2'17.100 20.928 32 90 
Salih Yoluc
Euan Hankey
Charlie Eastwood Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE AM 24 2'17.229 21.057 33 56 Jörg Bergmeister
Patrick Lindsey
Egidio Perfetti Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 29 2'17.377 21.205 34 61 Matt Griffin
Mok Weng Sun
Keita Sawa Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 29 2'17.552 21.380 35 70 Olivier Beretta
Eddie Cheever III
Motoaki Ishikawa Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 29 2'18.340 22.168
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