WEC Spa: Toyota leads the way with 1-2 in final practice
Toyota topped final free practice for this weekend’s round of the World Endurance Championship at Spa-Francorchamps when its two cars undertook their usual qualification simulations.
Kamui Kobayashi and Brendon Hartley blocked out the first two positions in the times when they went out on fresh rubber and with a low fuel load at the beginning of the 60-minute third practice session on Friday afternoon.
Hartley was initially fastest with a 2m03.427s in the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID before Kobayashi trumped it with a 2m03.225s to go fastest by two tenths in the #7 entry.
It was the first time that one of the five cars in the Hypercar class had emerged quickest during practice for Saturday’s Spa 6 Hours.
Kobayashi’s time compared with previous Hypercar best, a 2m04.064s from Olivier Pla aboard the solo Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 LMH in second free practice.
Prema took top spot in LMP2 courtesy of a 2m04.254, the fastest time in class of the weekend so far, from Louis Deletraz aboard the Italian team’s ORECA-Gibson 07.
That left the Swiss just over a second behind Kobayashi’s session best.
The grandfathered Alpine LMP1 claimed fourth position overall and third in Hypercar courtesy 2m04.790s from Andre Negaro.
#36 Alpine ELF Team Alpine A480 Gibson Hypercar of André Negrão, Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
The winning car from the Sebring season-opener in March was a second and a half off the pace after a Balance of Performance change for his race.
The #31 WRT ORECA that topped opening practice on Thursday took second in class in final practice with a 2m04.823s from Robin Frijns.
That gave him a margin of just over a tenth from the sixth-placed United Autosports ORECA in which Filipe Albuquerque posted a 2m04.902s.
The best of the Jota-entered ORECAs claimed seventh with Will Stevens driving and the Team Penske entry in eighth courtesy Felipe Nasr’s best lap.
The Glickenhaus 007 Le Mans brought up the rear of the Hypercar field down in 15th place overall after Pipo Derani went off at Stavelot and beached the car early in the session.
#92 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR 19 LMGTE Pro of Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Porsche took the first two spots in GTE Pro with it pair of Manthey-run factory 911 RSRs, with Michael Christensen’s 2m13.102s put him nearly half a second up on team-mate Gianmaria Bruni, who managed a 2m13.545s.
The best of the factory Ferrari 488 GT3 Evos run by AF Corse was another half a second in arrears.
Alessandro Pier Guidi posted a 2m14.103s to just shade Miguel Molina in the sister car, with Nick Tandy was just a tenth behind the Corvette.
Mikkel Pedersen was fastest in GTE Am for the Project 1 Porsche team.
Qualifying for Saturday’s Spa 6 Hours, round two of this year’s WEC, begins at 18:20 local time on Friday evening.
WEC 6 Hours of Spa - FP3 results:
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 |  Mike Conway  Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 2'03.225 | |
| 2 | 8 |  Sébastien Buemi  Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 2'03.427 | 0.202 |
| 3 | 9 |  Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz  Lorenzo Colombo |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.254 | 1.029 |
| 4 | 36 |  Andre Negrao  Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 2'04.790 | 1.565 |
| 5 | 31 |  Sean Gelael  Robin Frijns  René Rast |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.823 | 1.598 |
| 6 | 22 | Philip Hanson  Filipe Albuquerque  Will Owen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.902 | 1.677 |
| 7 | 38 |  Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.987 | 1.762 |
| 8 | 5 | Dane Cameron Emmanuel Collard Felipe Nasr |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'05.045 | 1.820 |
| 9 | 83 | François Perrodo  Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'05.173 | 1.948 |
| 10 | 10 | Nico Müller  Ryan Cullen Sébastien Bourdais |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'05.181 | 1.956 |
| 11 | 41 | Rui Andrade  Ferdinand Habsburg Norman Nato |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'05.219 | 1.994 |
| 12 | 1 | Lilou Wadoux Sébastien Ogier Charles Milesi |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'05.305 | 2.080 |
| 13 | 45 | Thomas Steven  James Allen Rene Binder |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'05.432 | 2.207 |
| 14 | 28 | Oliver Rasmussen  Ed Jones  Jonathan Aberdein |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'05.511 | 2.286 |
| 15 | 708 | Olivier Pla Romain Dumas Pipo Derani |
Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 2'05.525 | 2.300 |
| 16 | 23 | Alex Lynn Oliver Jarvis Josh Pierson |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'05.556 | 2.331 |
| 17 | 34 | Jakub Smiechowski Alex Brundle Esteban Gutierrez |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'05.967 | 2.742 |
| 18 | 35 | Jean Baptiste Lahaye Matthieu Lahaye François Heriau |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'06.546 | 3.321 |
| 19 | 44 |  Miro Konopka Tijmen van der Helm Bent Viscaal |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'07.045 | 3.820 |
| 20 | 92 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 2'13.102 | 9.877 |
| 21 | 91 | Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 2'13.545 | 10.320 |
| 22 | 51 | Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 2'14.103 | 10.878 |
| 23 | 52 |  Miguel Molina Antonio Fuoco |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 2'14.172 | 10.947 |
| 24 | 64 | Tommy Milner Nick Tandy |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 2'14.262 | 11.037 |
| 25 | 46 | Matteo Cairoli Mikkel Pedersen Nicolas Leutwiler |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'15.351 | 12.126 |
| 26 | 77 | Christian Ried Sebastian Priaulx Harry Tincknell |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'15.970 | 12.745 |
| 27 | 33 | Ben Keating Henrique Chaves Jr. Marco Sorensen |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'16.134 | 12.909 |
| 28 | 56 | Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'16.298 | 13.073 |
| 29 | 88 | Fred Poordad Patrick Lindsey  Jan Heylen |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'16.313 | 13.088 |
| 30 | 21 | Simon Mann Christoph Ulrich  Toni Vilander |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'16.600 | 13.375 |
| 31 | 777 | Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Charlie Fagg |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'16.710 | 13.485 |
| 32 | 54 | Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Nick Cassidy |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'16.844 | 13.619 |
| 33 | 85 | Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Sarah Bovy |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'16.948 | 13.723 |
| 34 | 98 |  Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'17.004 | 13.779 |
| 35 | 60 | Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Giancarlo Fisichella |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'17.332 | 14.107 |
| 36 | 71 | Franck Dezoteux Pierre Ragues Gabriel Aubry |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'17.451 | 14.226 |
| 37 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'17.531 | 14.306 |
| View full results | ||||||
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