Spa WEC: Rebellion tops shortened third practice

Gustavo Menezes sat at the top of the classification with the fastest time of the event so far in the solo Rebellion R-13 when the red flags came out halfway through the one-hour session. 

A drain cover had detached itself from the kerbing at Turn 14, and after efforts to effect a quick fix the session was called off with just over 10 minutes left on the clock. 

Menezes eclipsed his second session best with a 2m00.035s at the start of FP3 and then dipped under the two-minute barrier with a 1m59.605s on his next lap.

That put the Rebellion, which is running in high-downforce specification at Spa, four tenths up on the two Toyota TS050 Hybrids, which were separated by three hundredths in second and third positions. 

Mike Conway and Kazuki Nakajima both undertook qualification simulations right at the start of the session in their low-downforce Toyotas, the Briton coming out on top with a 2m00.043s. 

Nakajima ended up just behind on a 2m00.089s after his first flying lap and then failed to improve after staying out.  

The ByKolles ENSO CLM P1/01 brought up the rear of the four-car LMP1 class with Tom Dillmann's 2m02.089s, an improvement of nearly 1.5s over its previous best.

Racing Team Nederland ended up fastest in LMP2 with a 2m03.170s from Giedo van der Garde aboard its TDS Racing-run Oreca.

Paul di Resta was nearly half a second behind in the United Autosports entry, while Nicolas Lapierre took third for Cool Racing in a clean sweep of the top three for Michelin-shod Orecas.

Top Goodyear runner was the JOTA Sport Oreca in which Anthony Davidson ended up over two seconds off the pace. 

Michael Christensen ended up fastest in GTE Pro by nearly a second in his factory Porsche 911 RSR-19. The Dane posted a 2m14.558s, which was just over a tenth quicker than Maxime Martin's class best for Aston Martin in second free practice. 

Alessandro Pier Guidi was second-fastest in the final session with a 2m15.539s aboard his AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE, which put him six tenths up on teammate Davide Rigon in third. 

Gianmaria Bruni took fourth in the second factory Porsche ahead of the two Aston Martin Vantage GTEs, the slower of which was outpaced by Nicklas Nielsen in the GTE Am class-topping AF Corse Ferrari.

Session results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	1	Bruno Senna Gustavo Menezes Norman Nato	Rebellion R13	LMP1	1'59.605
2	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	2'00.043	0.438
3	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	2'00.089	0.484
4	4	Tom Dillmann Bruno Spengler Oliver Webb	ENSO CLM P1/01	LMP1	2'02.688	3.083
5	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'03.170	3.565
6	22	Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Paul di Resta	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'03.631	4.026
7	42	Nicolas Lapierre Antonin Borga Alexandre Coigny	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'05.290	5.685
8	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'05.322	5.717
9	35	Nobuya Yamanaka Nick Foster Jr. Roberto Merhi	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	2'05.754	6.149
10	36	Thomas Laurent Andre Negrao Pierre Ragues	Alpine A470	LMP2	2'06.230	6.625
11	33	Mark Patterson Kenta Yamashita Anders Fjordbach	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'08.238	8.633
12	37	Ho-Pin Tung Ryan Cullen Will Stevens	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'11.704	12.099
13	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	2'14.558	14.953
14	51	James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	2'15.539	15.934
15	71	Davide Rigon Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	2'16.173	16.568
16	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	2'16.598	16.993
17	95	Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	2'16.628	17.023
18	83	François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'16.833	17.228
19	97	Alex Lynn Maxime Martin	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	2'16.890	17.285
20	90	Salih Yoluc Charles Eastwood Jonathan Adam	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'17.351	17.746
21	88	Gianluca Giraudi Ricardo Sanchez Lucas Legeret	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'17.407	17.802
22	57	Ben Keating Felipe Fraga Jeroen Bleekemolen	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'17.439	17.834
23	77	Christian Ried Riccardo Pera Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'17.472	17.867
24	86	Michael Wainwright Andrew Watson Benjamin Barker	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'17.566	17.961
25	56	Egidio Perfetti Laurents Hörr Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'17.618	18.013
26	62	Bonamy Grimes Johnny Mowlem Charles Hollings	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'17.885	18.280
27	98	Paul Dalla Lana Augusto Farfus Ross Gunn	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'18.266	18.661
28	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'19.494	19.889
29	47	Roberto Lacorte Andrea Belicchi Giorgio Sernagiotto	Dallara P217	LMP2
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