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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.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050: Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050: Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi
#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050: Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez, Kamui Kobayashi
#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez, in the pitlane
#66 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT: Stefan Mücke, Olivier Pla, Billy Johnson
#31 Dragonspeed Oreca 07: Roberto Gonzalez, Pastor Maldonado, Nathanael Berthon
#86 Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR: Michael Wainwright, Ben Barker, Alex Davison
#67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT: Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell, Tony Kanaan
#10 Dragonspeed BR Engineering BR1: Henrik Hedman, Ben Hanley, Pietro Fittipaldi
#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez, in the pitlane
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050: Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Fernando Alonso, #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez

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 japan Kamui Kobayashi 
united_kingdom Mike Conway 
argentina Jose Maria Lopez 
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 29 1'56.172  
2 8 spain Fernando Alonso 
japan Kazuki Nakajima 
switzerland Sébastien Buemi 
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 33 1'56.815 0.643
3 10 sweden Henrik Hedman 
united_kingdom Ben Hanley 
brazil Pietro Fittipaldi 
BR Engineering BR1 - Gibson LMP1 24 1'58.835 2.663
4 3 switzerland Mathias Beche 
france Thomas Laurent 
united_states Gustavo Menezes 
Rebellion R13 - Gibson LMP1 30 1'59.011 2.839
5 1 germany Andre Lotterer 
brazil Bruno Senna 
switzerland Neel Jani 
Rebellion R13 - Gibson LMP1 24 1'59.580 3.408
6 17 france Stéphane Sarrazin 
russia Matevos Isaakyan 
russia Egor Orudzhev 
BR Engineering BR1 - AER LMP1 23 2'00.035 3.863
7 11 russia Vitaly Petrov 
russia Mikhail Aleshin 
BR Engineering BR1 - AER LMP1 27 2'00.192 4.020
8 4 united_kingdom Oliver Webb 
austria Dominik Kraihamer 
france Tom Dillmann 
ENSO CLM P1/01 - Nismo LMP1 16 2'01.466 5.294
9 31 venezuela Pastor Maldonado 
france Nathanael Berthon 
mexico Roberto Gonzalez 
Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2 31 2'02.991 6.819
10 37 malaysia Nabil Jeffri 
malaysia Weiron Tan 
malaysia Jazeman Jaafar 
Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2 29 2'03.306 7.134
11 26 france Jean-Eric Vergne 
russia Roman Rusinov 
france Andrea Pizzitola 
Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2 28 2'03.594 7.422
12 50 brazil Fernando Rees 
france Romano Ricci 
france Erwin Creed 
Ligier JSP217 - Gibson LMP2 17 2'03.881 7.709
13 38 china Ho-Pin Tung 
monaco Stéphane Richelmi 
france Gabriel Aubry 
Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2 27 2'04.279 8.107
14 36 france Nicolas Lapierre 
france Pierre Thiriet 
brazil Andre Negrao 
Alpine A470 - Gibson LMP2 30 2'05.296 9.124
15 29 netherlands Jan Lammers 
netherlands Giedo van der Garde 
netherlands Frits van Eerd 
Dallara P217 - Gibson LMP2 30 2'05.973 9.801
16 28 france Loic Duval 
france François Perrodo 
france Matthieu Vaxiviere 
Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2 12 2'06.734 10.562
17 66 germany Stefan Mücke 
france Olivier Pla 
united_states Billy Johnson 
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 16 2'13.733 17.561
18 91 italy Gianmaria Bruni 
austria Richard Lietz 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 31 2'14.647 18.475
19 67 united_kingdom Harry Tincknell 
brazil Tony Kanaan 
guernsey Andy Priaulx 
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 29 2'14.706 18.534
20 92 denmark Michael Christensen 
france Kevin Estre 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 31 2'15.183 19.011
21 51 united_kingdom James Calado 
italy Alessandro Pier Guidi 
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 30 2'15.516 19.344
22 95 denmark Marco Sorensen 
denmark Nicki Thiim 
united_kingdom Darren Turner 
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 23 2'15.564 19.392
23 71 united_kingdom Sam Bird 
italy Davide Rigon 
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 29 2'15.779 19.607
24 86 united_kingdom Michael Wainwright 
united_kingdom Ben Barker 
australia Alex Davison 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 26 2'16.113 19.941
25 97 united_kingdom Jonathan Adam 
belgium Maxime Martin 
united_kingdom Alex Lynn 
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 25 2'16.182 20.010
26 77 germany Christian Ried 
australia Matt Campbell 
france  Julien Andlauer 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 28 2'16.434 20.262
27 82 portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
united_kingdom Tom Blomqvist 
BMW M8 GTE LMGTE PRO 28 2'16.782 20.610
28 98 portugal Pedro Lamy 
canada Paul Dalla Lana 
austria Mathias Lauda 
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE AM 28 2'16.790 20.618
29 54 italy Giancarlo Fisichella 
italy Francesco Castellacci 
switzerland Thomas Flohr 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 29 2'16.897 20.725
30 88 united_arab_emirates Khaled Al Qubaisi 
italy Matteo Cairoli 
italy Giorgio Roda 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 29 2'17.057 20.885
31 81 netherlands Nick Catsburg 
germany Martin Tomczyk 
BMW M8 GTE LMGTE PRO 30 2'17.100 20.928
32 90 turkey Salih Yoluc 
united_kingdom Euan Hankey 
ireland Charlie Eastwood 
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE AM 24 2'17.229 21.057
33 56 germany Jörg Bergmeister 
united_states Patrick Lindsey 
norway Egidio Perfetti 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 29 2'17.377 21.205
34 61 ireland Matt Griffin 
singapore Mok Weng Sun 
japan Keita Sawa 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 29 2'17.552 21.380
35 70 monaco Olivier Beretta 
italy  Eddie Cheever III 
japan Motoaki Ishikawa 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 29 2'18.340 22.168

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