Spa WEC: United Autosports LMP2 fastest in first practice
Filipe Albuquerque and the United Autosports LMP2 squad again outpaced the cars in the new Hypercar class in first free practice for this weekend's FIA World Endurance Championship opener at Spa.
Albuquerque continued his pace-setting form in the opening 90-minute session aboard the United Oreca 07, setting a 2m04.083s around the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.
That was a couple of tenths up on his best lap in the official pre-season Prologue test at Spa at the beginning of this week in which he topped the times in two of the four sessions.
The fastest of the cars running in the Hypercar class was the grandfathered Alpine A480 LMP1 car, in which Matthieu Vaxiviere posted a 2m04.335s lap to end up second in the overall classification.
The two Toyota Le Mans Hypercars took seventh and 10th in the times in amongst the LMP2 pack.
Quickest of the Toyota GR010 Hybrids was the #7 entry in the hands of Mike Conway. His 2m04.574s was marginally faster than Sebastien Buemi had managed in the sister car when he went fastest during a qualifying run in the closing session of the Prologue on Tuesday afternoon.
Kazuki Nakajima was four tenths in arrears of Conway on a 2m04.947s in FP1.
Third place in the times went to the TDS Racing-run RealTeam squad, Norman Nato setting a 2m04.071s in the team's P2 Oreca before the car stopped out on track.
A 2m04.475s from Stoffel Vandoorne was good enough for fourth in his JOTA Oreca.
Ben Hanley was less than one hundredth of a second behind in fifth aboard DragonSpeed's Oreca, while Giedo van der Garde took sixth for Racing Team Nederland.
Porsche maintained its monopoly on the top spot in GTE Pro from the Prologue, Kevin Estre setting a 2m13.466s.
That was quicker than all the laps he posted during the official test apart from a 12m12.916s on Tuesday morning during a qualifying simulation run.
Richard Lietz was second in class in the second of the Manthey-run 911 RSR-19, his 2m13.500s leaving him just under four hundredths behind the sister car.
The first of the AF Corse Ferraris was right behind the second of the Porsches in Alessandro Pier Guidi's hands.
The Italian's 2m13.520s was two tenths up on a 2m13.715s from Miguel Molina in the second of the factory Ferrari 488 GTE Evos.
The solo Chevrolet Corvette C8.R brought up the rear of the five-car field with a time nearly a second off the pace.
Matteo Cairoli was quickest in GTE Am with a 2m13.941s in his Project 1 Porsche.
The WEC Spa 6 Hours starts on Saturday May 1 at 1.30pm CET, with practice and qualifying scheduled on Thursday and Friday. All sessions of the event will be streamed live on Motorsport.tv.
Practice results:
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 22 |  Philip Hanson  Fabio Scherer  Filipe Albuquerque | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.083 | |
| 2 | 36 |  Andre Negrao  Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere | Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 2'04.335 | 0.252 |
| 3 | 70 | Esteban Garcia Loic Duval Norman Nato | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.471 | 0.388 |
| 4 | 28 |  Sean Gelael  Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.475 | 0.392 |
| 5 | 21 |  Henrik Hedman  Juan Pablo Montoya Ben Hanley | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.482 | 0.399 |
| 6 | 29 |  Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.491 | 0.408 |
| 7 | 7 | Mike Conway  Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez | Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 2'04.574 | 0.491 |
| 8 | 34 |  Jakub Smiechowski Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.826 | 0.743 |
| 9 | 26 |  Roman Rusinov Franco Colapinto Nyck de Vries | Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 2'04.869 | 0.786 |
| 10 | 8 | Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima  Brendon Hartley | Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 2'04.947 | 0.864 |
| 11 | 31 | Robin Frijns  Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'05.011 | 0.928 |
| 12 | 24 |  Patrick Kelly Gabriel Aubry Simon Trummer | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'05.346 | 1.263 |
| 13 | 25 | John Falb Rui Andrade  Roberto Merhi | Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 2'05.376 | 1.293 |
| 14 | 20 |  Jan Magnussen Anders Fjordbach Dennis Andersen | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'06.014 | 1.931 |
| 15 | 38 |  Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'06.948 | 2.865 |
| 16 | 1 | Tatiana Calderon  Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'07.071 | 2.988 |
| 17 | 44 |  Miro Konopka Tom Jackson Darren Burke | Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 2'09.487 | 5.404 |
| 18 | 92 | Kevin Estre Neel Jani | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 2'13.466 | 9.383 |
| 19 | 91 |  Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 2'13.500 | 9.417 |
| 20 | 51 | Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 2'13.520 | 9.437 |
| 21 | 52 | Daniel Serra Miguel Molina | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 2'13.715 | 9.632 |
| 22 | 56 |  Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'13.941 | 9.858 |
| 23 | 77 | Christian Ried  Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'14.228 | 10.145 |
| 24 | 63 | Antonio Garcia Oliver Gavin | Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 2'14.405 | 10.322 |
| 25 | 88 | Andrew Haryanto Marco Seefried Alessio Picariello | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'14.558 | 10.475 |
| 26 | 60 | Claudio Schiavoni Andrea Piccini Matteo Cressoni | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'14.623 | 10.540 |
| 27 | 98 |  Paul Dalla Lana Augusto Farfus Marcos Gomes | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'14.677 | 10.594 |
| 28 | 85 | Rahel Frey Katherine Legge Manuela Gostner | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'14.687 | 10.604 |
| 29 | 54 | Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'14.712 | 10.629 |
| 30 | 33 | Ben Keating Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'14.744 | 10.661 |
| 31 | 47 | Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'14.763 | 10.680 |
| 32 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'14.805 | 10.722 |
| 33 | 83 | François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'15.203 | 11.120 |
| 34 | 777 | Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'15.788 | 11.705 |
| View full results | ||||||
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About this article
| Series | WEC |
| Event | Spa-Francorchamps |
| Sub-event | FP1 |
| Author | Gary Watkins |
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