Spa WEC: Toyota Hypercars go fastest ahead of qualifying

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
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