Qualifying report
WEC Spa-Francorchamps
Spa WEC: Kobayashi gifts Toyota first Hypercar pole
Kamui Kobayashi has gifted Toyota pole on the debut of the brand's new GR010 Hybrid Hypercar, setting the fastest time in qualifying for the WEC 6 Hours of Spa.
Filip Cleeren
Edited: May 1, 2021, 6:37 AM
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Kobayashi, who shares the #7 car with Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez, set a time of 2m00.747s in the first qualifying session of the World Endurance Championship's new Hypercar era, half a second quicker than teammate Kazuki Nakajima in the #8 sister car.
During a cold but dry qualifying session United Autosports' Filipe Albuquerque confirmed his rapid pace from testing by proving to be the class of the LMP2 field, claiming pole by six tenths in the #22 Oreca 07-Gibson and taking third overall.
After a delayed run out, the third and last car in the Hypercar class, the grandfathered Alpine A480-Gibson LMP1 car, was fourth in the hands of Nicolas Lapierre, behind both Toyotas and the United LMP2.
The #26 G-Drive Aurus 01-Gibson took second in LMP2 and fifth overall courtesy of Nyck de Vries, followed by fellow Dutchman Giedo van der Garde in the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca.
Read Also:
- WEC won't slow down LMP2 cars if further speed tweaks needed
- WEC returns to Motorsport.tv with Spa 6 Hours opener
#92 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR - 19: Kevin Estre, Neel Jani
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
In GTE Pro Kevin Estre took a superb pole in the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19, going three seconds quicker than his 2020 pole time to set laps of 2m11.715s and then a 2m11.219s.
Estre, the only driver to dip below the 2m12 benchmark all week, was 1.1s quicker than AF Corse's Miguel Molina in the #52 Ferrari, the Spaniard setting a 2m12.351s after his first lap was deleted for track limits.
In the second works Porsche Richard Lietz was third with a lap of 2m12.370s, with the second Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi less than a tenth behind. Corvette brought up the rear of the five-car class with a time of 2m13.106s by Antonio Garcia on the C8.R's first appearance outside North America.
TF Sport's Ben Keating came out on top of an Aston Martin duo to take pole in GTE Am, setting a lap of 2m14.660s in the #33 Vantage. Keating was nine tenths quicker than Paul Dalla Lana in the #98 Aston, following by Andrew Haryanto in the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche.
The GT segment was red flagged twice for two major crashes on the Raidillon. Early on Christian Ried lost control over his #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche, spinning into the tyre barriers at high speed.
Moments after the restart Egidio Perfetti suffered a carbon copy of Ried's crash in the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche. Both drivers were able to step out of their cars unaided, but their teams will face a long night to repair the cars in time for tomorrow's six-hour race.
The WEC Spa 6 Hours starts on Saturday May 1 at 1.30pm CET and will be streamed live on Motorsport.tv.
Results (Hypercar and LMP2)
Cla # Drivers Car Avg Time Gap 1 7 Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 2'00.747 2 8 Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima
Brendon Hartley
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 2'01.266 0.519 3 22 Philip Hanson
Fabio Scherer
Filipe Albuquerque
Oreca 07 2'02.404 1.657 4 36 Andre Negrao
Nicolas Lapierre
Matthieu Vaxiviere
Alpine A480 2'02.652 1.905 5 26 Roman Rusinov
Franco Colapinto
Nyck de Vries
Aurus 01 2'02.984 2.237 6 29 Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde
Job Van Uitert
Oreca 07 2'03.435 2.688 7 70 Esteban Garcia
Loic Duval
Norman Nato
Oreca 07 2'03.475 2.728 8 25 John Falb
Rui Andrade
Roberto Merhi
Aurus 01 2'03.485 2.738 9 28 Sean Gelael
Stoffel Vandoorne
Tom Blomqvist
Oreca 07 2'03.516 2.769 10 38 Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa
Anthony Davidson
Oreca 07 2'03.625 2.878 11 21 Henrik Hedman
Juan Pablo Montoya
Ben Hanley
Oreca 07 2'03.816 3.069 12 24 Patrick Kelly
Gabriel Aubry
Simon Trummer
Oreca 07 2'03.869 3.122 13 31 Robin Frijns
Ferdinand Habsburg
Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 2'03.915 3.168 14 34 Jakub Smiechowski
Renger van der Zande
Alex Brundle
Oreca 07 2'04.207 3.460 15 1 Tatiana Calderon
Sophia Flörsch
Beitske Visser
Oreca 07 2'05.284 4.537 16 20 Jan Magnussen
Anders Fjordbach
Dennis Andersen
Oreca 07 2'05.522 4.775 17 44 Miro Konopka
Tom Jackson
Darren Burke
Ligier JSP 217 2'07.051 6.304 View full results
Results (GTE):
Cla # Drivers Car Avg Time Gap 1 92 Kevin Estre
Neel Jani
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 2'11.219 2 52 Daniel Serra
Miguel Molina
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 2'12.351 1.132 3 91 Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 2'12.370 1.151 4 51 Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 2'12.443 1.224 5 63 Antonio Garcia
Oliver Gavin
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R 2'13.106 1.887 6 33 Ben Keating
Dylan Pereira
Felipe Fraga
Aston Martin Vantage AMR 2'14.660 3.441 7 98 Paul Dalla Lana
Augusto Farfus
Marcos Gomes
Aston Martin Vantage AMR 2'15.615 4.396 8 88 Andrew Haryanto
Marco Seefried
Alessio Picariello
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 2'16.319 5.100 9 54 Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 2'16.367 5.148 10 83 François Perrodo
Nicklas Nielsen
Alessio Rovera
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 2'17.560 6.341 11 47 Roberto Lacorte
Giorgio Sernagiotto
Antonio Fuoco
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 2'17.719 6.500 12 85 Rahel Frey
Katherine Legge
Manuela Gostner
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 2'18.452 7.233 13 86 Michael Wainwright
Benjamin Barker
Tom Gamble
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 2'18.813 7.594 14 60 Claudio Schiavoni
Andrea Piccini
Matteo Cressoni
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 2'20.356 9.137 15 56 Egidio Perfetti
Matteo Cairoli
Riccardo Pera
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 16 77 Christian Ried
Jaxon Evans
Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 17 777 Satoshi Hoshino
Tomonobu Fujii
Andrew Watson
Aston Martin Vantage AMR View full results
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