Spa WEC: Toyota Hypercars go fastest ahead of qualifying
Toyota's new Le Mans Hypercar topped an official World Endurance Championship session for the first time in third practice ahead of qualifying for this weekend's Spa season opener.
Both of the Japanese marque's GR010 HYBRID contenders set their quickest times at the very start of the one-hour session, which were the fastest of the event so far, including the pre-event Prologue test.
Kamui Kobayashi put the #7 machine at the head of the order on a 2m02.518s, almost a second faster than either Toyota had managed in FP2, while Kazuki Nakajima was 0.35s adrift in the sister #8 car.
Kobayashi's time was more than a second up on the third-placed United Autosports ORECA, which led the LMP2 class courtesy of Filipe Albuquerque's lap of 2m03.761s.
G-Drive Racing's pair of Aurus-branded ORECAs completed the top three in class and the top five overall, with Roberto Merhi setting a best time of 2m03.931s, the Pro-Am #25 car a little over a tenth of a second ahead of the #26 machine of Nyck de Vries.
Alpine's solo grandfathered A480 LMP1 car was third and last in the top Hypercar category, albeit with a laptime around seven tenths off the French marque's FP2 chart-topping effort.
Nicolas Lapierre's time of 2m04.110s was more than 1.5s off the outright pace.
Fourth in the LMP2 class and seventh overall was the RealTeam ORECA of Norman Nato, ahead of the Racing Team Nederland car of Giedo van der Garde and the WRT machine of Robin Frijns.
#92 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR - 19: Kevin Estre, Neel Jani
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Porsche upped the ante in the GTE Pro class as Kevin Estre set the fastest time in class of the week so far, becoming the first driver to dip beneath the 2m12s mark.
Estre's best effort of 2m11.936s aboard the #92 911 RSR-19, also set towards the start of the session, put him some seven tenths up on the sister Porsche driven by Gianmaria Bruni.
Ferrari was third and fourth in class with its pair of works 488 GTE Evos, Miguel Molina setting the Italian marque's fastest time of 2m13.202s, while Corvette Racing again brought up the rear with Antonio Garcia setting a time around two seconds off the pace in his C8.R.
Porsche likewise led the way in GTE Am as Matteo Cairoli posted a 2m13.515s in the Project 1 car, beating the Dempsey-Proton machine of Matt Campbell by just over four tenths.
The WEC Spa 6 Hours starts on Saturday 1 May 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.
FP3 Result
| Cla | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Mike Conway  Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez | Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 2'02.518 | |
| 2 |  Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima  Brendon Hartley | Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 2'02.868 | 0.350 |
| 3 | Philip Hanson Fabio Scherer  Filipe Albuquerque | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'03.761 | 1.243 |
| 4 |  John Falb Rui Andrade  Roberto Merhi | Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 2'03.931 | 1.413 |
| 5 |  Roman Rusinov Franco Colapinto  Nyck de Vries | Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 2'04.043 | 1.525 |
| 6 |  Andre Negrao  Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere | Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 2'04.110 | 1.592 |
| 7 | Esteban Garcia Loic Duval Norman Nato | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.634 | 2.116 |
| 8 | Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.725 | 2.207 |
| 9 | Robin Frijns  Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.787 | 2.269 |
| 10 | Patrick Kelly Gabriel Aubry Simon Trummer | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.796 | 2.278 |
| 11 |  Jakub Smiechowski Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.900 | 2.382 |
| 12 |  Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'05.515 | 2.997 |
| 13 |  Henrik Hedman  Juan Pablo Montoya Ben Hanley | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'05.918 | 3.400 |
| 14 | Tatiana Calderon  Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'06.479 | 3.961 |
| 15 |  Sean Gelael  Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'06.521 | 4.003 |
| 16 |  Jan Magnussen Anders Fjordbach Dennis Andersen | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'07.275 | 4.757 |
| 17 |  Miro Konopka Tom Jackson Darren Burke | Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 2'07.466 | 4.948 |
| 18 | Kevin Estre Neel Jani | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 2'11.936 | 9.418 |
| 19 |  Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 2'12.640 | 10.122 |
| 20 | Daniel Serra Miguel Molina | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 2'13.202 | 10.684 |
| 21 | Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 2'13.325 | 10.807 |
| 22 |  Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'13.515 | 10.997 |
| 23 | Antonio Garcia Oliver Gavin | Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 2'13.904 | 11.386 |
| 24 | Christian Ried  Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'13.936 | 11.418 |
| 25 | François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'14.099 | 11.581 |
| 26 | Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'14.304 | 11.786 |
| 27 | Claudio Schiavoni Andrea Piccini Matteo Cressoni | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'14.562 | 12.044 |
| 28 | Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'14.581 | 12.063 |
| 29 | Ben Keating Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'14.670 | 12.152 |
| 30 | Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'14.816 | 12.298 |
| 31 | Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'15.311 | 12.793 |
| 32 |  Paul Dalla Lana Augusto Farfus Marcos Gomes | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'15.340 | 12.822 |
| 33 | Rahel Frey Katherine Legge Manuela Gostner | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'15.441 | 12.923 |
| 34 | Andrew Haryanto Marco Seefried Alessio Picariello | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'16.116 | 13.598 |
| View full results | |||||
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About this article
| Series | WEC |
| Event | Spa-Francorchamps |
| Drivers | Kamui Kobayashi |
| Teams | Toyota Gazoo Racing WEC |
| Author | Jamie Klein |
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