WEC Spa: Pla secures maiden pole for Glickenhaus
Olivier Pla claimed a first World Endurance Championship pole position for Glickenhaus at the Spa 6 Hours on Friday.
The Frenchman posted a 2m02.771s aboard the solo Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 LMH to claim the top spot by a couple of tenths from fellow countryman Matthieu Vaxiviere in the Alpine-Gibson A480.
The Glickenhaus and the Alpine, in which Vaxiviere recorded a 2m02.999s, outpaced the two Toyota GR010 HYBRIDs in the 10-minute qualifying session in the evening.
Kamui Kobayashi’s best time of 2m03.087s just shaded Brendon Hartley’s 2m03.137s in the sister car as the two Toyotas took third and fourth positions.
The Glickenhaus and the Alpine both set their times on their first flying laps, while the two Toyota drivers were unable to post representative times when the Michelin tyres were at their best on the first lap.
Pla said: “I made a mistake at Turn 1 on the first flier: I braked a little bit late, missed the apex and had a bit of a moment on the exit, but the rest of the lap was quite good.
“Pole is great for the team: they have put a lot of effort into the programme with a low budget, people shouldn’t forget that.”
#83 AF Corse Oreca 07 - Gibson LMP2 : François Perrodo, Nicklas Nielsen, Alessio Rovera
Photo by: Eric Le Galliot
Alessio Rovera snatched LMP2 pole in the AF Corse team’s ORECA-Gibson 07 right at the end of the of the qualifying.
The Italian made a big improvement on his second set of Goodyear tyres to get down to a 2m04.246s, which was good enough to knock Robin Frijns in the fastest of the two WRT entries off the top spot.
A 2m04.290s from Frijns on his only flying lap was still good enough for the Dutchman to hang onto second position.
Filipe Albuquerque improved to third with a 2m04.451s in the best of the United Autosports ORECAs on his second run. The late runs from Rovera and Albuquerque pushed Louis Deletraz in the Prema ORECA and Norman Nato in the second WRT ORECA down to fourth and fifth respectively.
#91 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR 19 LMGTE Pro of Gianmaria Bruni, Richard Lietz
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Gianmaria Bruni snatched pole position in GTE Pro, his first in the WEC since the 2020 Le Mans 24 Hours, from Porsche team-mate Michael Christensen on his final lap of qualifying.
The Italian got down to a 2m14.301s on his third flying lap to better the 2m14.481s Christensen set on his second lap.
Bruni’s final lap vaulted him from third position behind Nick Tandy’s Chevrolet Corvette C8.R onto the pole.
Tandy lost his first time lap to a track limits infraction and then posted a 2m14.606s on his third attempt.
Ferrari was closer to the pace than at the championship opener at Sebring in March, as Alessandro Pier Guidi took fourth position in the best of the AF Corse run 488 GTE Evos with a 2m15.102s, which was eight tenths off the ultimate pace.
Miguel Molina brought up the rear of the class with a time that was over a second shy of Bruni’s pole lap.
Ben Keating was on pole by a second and a half in GTE Am aboard his TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage GTE.
His 2m17.408s was set on his third lap, while Paul Dalla Lana got down to a 2m18.912s in the NorthWest AMR Vantage.
The Spa 6 Hours, round two of the 2022 WEC, begins at 13:00 local time in Belgium on Saturday.
WEC Spa 6 Hours - Qualifying results
Q2
| Cla | Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Avg Time | Gap | Interval | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Olivier Pla Romain Dumas  Pipo Derani |
Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 4 | 2'02.771 | |||
| 2 | Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 4 | 2'02.999 | 0.228 | 0.228 | |
| 3 |  Mike Conway  Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 4 | 2'03.087 | 0.316 | 0.088 | |
| 4 |  Sébastien Buemi  Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 4 | 2'03.137 | 0.366 | 0.050 | |
| 5 | François Perrodo  Nicklas Nielsen  Alessio Rovera |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 5 | 2'04.246 | 1.475 | 1.109 | |
| 6 |  Sean Gelael  Robin Frijns  René Rast |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3 | 2'04.290 | 1.519 | 0.044 | |
| 7 | Philip Hanson  Filipe Albuquerque  Will Owen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 5 | 2'04.451 | 1.680 | 0.161 | |
| 8 |  Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz Lorenzo Colombo |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3 | 2'04.548 | 1.777 | 0.097 | |
| 9 | Rui Andrade  Ferdinand Habsburg Norman Nato |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 5 | 2'04.640 | 1.869 | 0.092 | |
| 10 |  Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 5 | 2'04.692 | 1.921 | 0.052 | |
| 11 | Oliver Rasmussen  Ed Jones  Jonathan Aberdein |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 5 | 2'04.717 | 1.946 | 0.025 | |
| 12 | Dane Cameron Emmanuel Collard Felipe Nasr |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 5 | 2'04.887 | 2.116 | 0.170 | |
| 13 | Nico Müller  Ryan Cullen Sébastien Bourdais |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 5 | 2'04.985 | 2.214 | 0.098 | |
| 14 | Lilou Wadoux Sébastien Ogier Charles Milesi |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 5 | 2'05.148 | 2.377 | 0.163 | |
| 15 | Thomas Steven  James Allen Rene Binder |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3 | 2'05.370 | 2.599 | 0.222 | |
| 16 | Jakub Smiechowski Alex Brundle Esteban Gutierrez |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 5 | 2'05.383 | 2.612 | 0.013 | |
| 17 | Jean Baptiste Lahaye Matthieu Lahaye François Heriau |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 5 | 2'05.843 | 3.072 | 0.460 | |
| 18 | Alex Lynn Oliver Jarvis Josh Pierson |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 3 | 2'05.849 | 3.078 | 0.006 | |
| 19 |  Miro Konopka Tijmen van der Helm Bent Viscaal |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 5 | 2'06.667 | 3.896 | 0.818 | |
| View full results | ||||||||
Q1
| Cla | Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Avg Time | Gap | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 4 | 2'14.301 | ||
| 2 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 4 | 2'14.481 | 0.180 | 0.180 |
| 3 | Tommy Milner Nick Tandy |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 4 | 2'14.606 | 0.305 | 0.125 |
| 4 | Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 4 | 2'15.102 | 0.801 | 0.496 |
| 5 |  Miguel Molina Antonio Fuoco |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 4 | 2'15.443 | 1.142 | 0.341 |
| 6 | Ben Keating Henrique Chaves Jr. Marco Sorensen |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 5 | 2'17.408 | 3.107 | 1.965 |
| 7 |  Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 5 | 2'18.912 | 4.611 | 1.504 |
| 8 | Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 5 | 2'19.700 | 5.399 | 0.788 |
| 9 | Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting  Sarah Bovy |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 5 | 2'20.789 | 6.488 | 1.089 |
| 10 | Matteo Cairoli Mikkel Pedersen Nicolas Leutwiler |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 4 | 2'20.937 | 6.636 | 0.148 |
| 11 | Christian Ried Sebastian Priaulx Harry Tincknell |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 5 | 2'21.027 | 6.726 | 0.090 |
| 12 | Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Charlie Fagg |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 5 | 2'21.168 | 6.867 | 0.141 |
| 13 | Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Nick Cassidy |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 4 | 2'21.787 | 7.486 | 0.619 |
| 14 | Fred Poordad Patrick Lindsey Jan Heylen |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 4 | 2'22.622 | 8.321 | 0.835 |
| 15 | Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Giancarlo Fisichella |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 4 | 2'23.856 | 9.555 | 1.234 |
| 16 | Franck Dezoteux Pierre Ragues Gabriel Aubry |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 5 | 2'23.963 | 9.662 | 0.107 |
| 17 | Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 4 | 2'24.384 | 10.083 | 0.421 |
| 18 | Simon Mann Christoph Ulrich  Toni Vilander |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 4 | 2'20.078 | 5.777 | |
| View full results | |||||||
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