Spa WEC: Lieb leads wet practice for Porsche, Hulkenberg fourth

The German driver set a best time of 2m16.617s aboard the #18 Porsche 919 Hybrid in the first half of the session, which was stopped for nearly half an hour following an incident involving the Kazuki Nakajima's Toyota and the Audi of Oliver Jarvis.

The Japanese driver has been taken to hospital for checks after complaining of back pain after the clash.

Lieb's time, set on a wet but drying track, put him half a second clear of Anthony Davidson's 2m17.117s in the #1 Toyota TS040 HYBRID he shares with Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi.

Third fastest, a further two tenths back, was Brendon Hartley in the second of the three 919 Hybrids, while Nico Hulkenberg was fourth on his sportscar debut with Porsche.

Rene Rast was the fastest Audi aboard the solo high-downforce R18 e-tron quattro entered for Saturday's race.

A time of 2m20.337s was good enough for fifth and put the German driver 1.2 seconds clear of sixth-placed Loic Duval in the first of the Le Mans-spec low-downforce Audis.

All the leading times were set early in the session before light rain intensified. It was still raining hard when the session restarted for 27 minutes after the Nakajima/Jarvis incident at the end of the Kemmel Straight.

The Srakka Dome-Nissan S103, the only LMP2 runner on Michelin tyres, was quickest in class with Jonny Kane driving.

His time of 2m23.672s put him just over a second clear of the Dunlop-shod Jota Sport Gibson-Nissan 015S in the hands of Harry Tincknell.

Porsche led the way in GTE Pro: Kevin Estre, on loan from McLaren for this race, topped the times on a 2m26.055s, which put him six tenths up on Manthey team-mate Frederic Makowiecki.

It was also quickest in GTE Am with the Proton Porsche 911 RSR driven by Klaus Bachler.

PRACTICE ONE RESULTS: