Practice report
WEC Spa-Francorchamps
Spa WEC: WRT LMP2 squad sets the pace in first practice
Reigning FIA World Endurance Championship LMP2 title winners WRT topped the times in first free practice for round two of this year’s series at Spa on Saturday.
Gary Watkins
Edited: May 6, 2022, 8:41 AM
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Robin Frijns posted a 2m05.475s early in the session aboard the #31 WRT Oreca 07, which stood as the quickest time of the opening 90-minute practice period on Friday afternoon.
It was the first time this season that a P2 car has ended up ahead of the Hypercar class contenders, although the secondary prototypes were quickest in three of the four sessions at the official pre-season prologue test at Sebring ahead of the championship opener in March.
Frijns ended up just six hundredths clear of Filipe Albuquerque in the best of the two United Autosports Orecas that took second and third positions overall in FP1.
Albuquerque’s 2m05.538s compared with a 2m05.885s teammate Oliver Jarvis in the sister car.
Will Stevens made it four P2s in the top four with a 2m05.967s in the fastest of the two Orecas entered by the British JOTA team.
The solo Glickenhaus was fastest in the Hypercar category in fifth position overall in the hands of Romain Dumas.
The Frenchman’s 2m06.233s in the Pipo-engined Glickenhaus 007 Le Mans Hypercar gave him a six-tenth advantage over the next best car in class, the first of the Toyota LMHs.
Mike Conway set a 2m06.876s in the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, which has been rebuilt around a new monocoque after Jose Maria Lopez’s accident at Sebring, to take eighth place overall on the timesheets.
#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez
Photo by: Paul Foster
Sandwiched between the top two in the Hypercar category in sixth and seventh positions were the Penske Oreca LMP2 driven by Felipe Nasr and the second WRT entry with Norman Nato at the wheel.
The second Toyota finished the session in 13th position on a 2m08.802 from Sebastien Buemi, while the Sebring-winning Signatech Alpine team brought up the rear of the class.
Nicolas Lapierre set a 2m07.291s round the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in the grandfathered LMP1 Alpine-Gibson A480, which has lost 20kW or 26bhp under the Balance of Performance for this weekend.
The free practice times from Toyota’s GR010 were significantly down on those it achieved on the design’s debut at Spa last year.
Kamui Kobayashi was quickest in class across the trio of practice sessions in 2021 with a 2m02.518s.
The Toyotas are running with a significantly different BoP to the 2021 championship opener: they are 30kg heavier, have less power and can only deploy hybrid power at 190km/h rather than last year’s 120km/h.
Kevin Estre ended up fastest in the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 with a 2m14.583s, which gave him a margin of three tenths over teammate Gianmaria Bruni’s 2m14.906s.
Ferrari took third and fourth positions with its pair of AF Corse-run 488 GTE Evos.
Alessandro Pier Guidi’s 2m15.801s just shaded the 2m15.813s from Miguel Molina in the sister car.
The solo Chevrolet Corvette C8.R brought up the rear in GTE Pro courtesy of a 2m16.372s from circuit debutant Tommy Milner.
Matteo Cairoli went four tenths faster than Milner with 2m15.982s to top the GTE Am times aboard his Project 1 Porsche.
The session was red-flagged after approximately a minute as a result of a temporary IT failure in race control, but the session ran its full duration of an hour and a half on its resumption.
The red flag was also shown after the chequered flag had fallen when Ryo Hirakawa stopped the #8 Toyota on the Kemmel Straight in a simulated hybrid failure requested by the FIA.
Practice for the Spa 6 Hours, round two of the 2022 WEC, resumes at 9:05 local time on Friday. A further session of practice precedes qualifying at 18:20 for Saturday’s race.
2022 WEC Spa 6 Hours - FP1 results
Cla # Drivers Car Class Time Gap 1 31 Sean Gelael
Robin Frijns
René Rast
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'05.475 2 22 Philip Hanson
Filipe Albuquerque
Will Owen
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'05.538 0.063 3 23 Alex Lynn
Oliver Jarvis
Josh Pierson
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'05.885 0.410 4 38 Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa
Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'05.976 0.501 5 708 Olivier Pla
Romain Dumas
Pipo Derani
Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 2'06.233 0.758 6 5 Dane Cameron
Emmanuel Collard
Felipe Nasr
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'06.435 0.960 7 41 Rui Andrade
Ferdinand Habsburg
Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'06.757 1.282 8 7 Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 2'06.876 1.401 9 45 Steven Thomas
James Allen
Rene Binder
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'06.950 1.475 10 9 Robert Kubica
Louis Deletraz
Lorenzo Colombo
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'07.097 1.622 11 28 Oliver Rasmussen
Edward Jones
Jonathan Aberdein
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'07.211 1.736 12 83 François Perrodo
Nicklas Nielsen
Alessio Rovera
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'07.217 1.742 13 8 Sébastien Buemi
Brendon Hartley
Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 2'07.271 1.796 14 36 Andre Negrao
Nicolas Lapierre
Matthieu Vaxiviere
Alpine A480 HYPERCAR 2'07.291 1.816 15 34 Jakub Smiechowski
Alex Brundle
Esteban Gutierrez
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'07.686 2.211 16 35 Jean Baptiste Lahaye
Matthieu Lahaye
François Heriau
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'07.808 2.333 17 1 Lilou Wadoux
Sébastien Ogier
Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'08.581 3.106 18 10 Nico Müller
Ryan Cullen
Sébastien Bourdais
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'08.621 3.146 19 44 Miro Konopka
Tijmen van der Helm
Bent Viscaal
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'09.112 3.637 20 92 Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 2'14.583 9.108 21 91 Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 2'14.906 9.431 22 51 Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 2'15.801 10.326 23 52 Miguel Molina
Antonio Fuoco
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 2'15.813 10.338 24 46 Matteo Cairoli
Mikkel Pedersen
Nicolas Leutwiler
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'15.982 10.507 25 64 Tommy Milner
Nick Tandy
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE PRO 2'16.372 10.897 26 33 Ben Keating
Henrique Chaves
Marco Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'16.398 10.923 27 56 Brendan Iribe
Ollie Millroy
Ben Barnicoat
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'16.417 10.942 28 777 Satoshi Hoshino
Tomonobu Fujii
Charlie Fagg
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'16.844 11.369 29 98 Paul Dalla Lana
David Pittard
Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'16.914 11.439 30 88 Fred Poordad
Patrick Lindsey
Jan Heylen
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'16.947 11.472 31 77 Christian Ried
Sebastian Priaulx
Harry Tincknell
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'16.982 11.507 32 86 Michael Wainwright
Riccardo Pera
Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'17.332 11.857 33 21 Simon Mann
Christoph Ulrich
Toni Vilander
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'17.374 11.899 34 54 Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Nick Cassidy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'17.429 11.954 35 85 Rahel Frey
Michelle Gatting
Sarah Bovy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'17.659 12.184 36 60 Claudio Schiavoni
Matteo Cressoni
Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'18.154 12.679 37 71 Franck Dezoteux
Pierre Ragues
Gabriel Aubry
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'18.465 12.990 View full results
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