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WEC Spa: Toyota leads Ferrari in opening practice

Toyota topped the times with Sebastien Buemi in opening free practice for this weekend’s Spa round of the World Endurance Championship. 

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

JEP / Motorsport Images

Buemi jumped to the head of the timesheets after a 12-minute red flag midway through session aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar with a 2m02.982s that gave him a margin of more than a second and a half over Ferrari driver Antonio Fuoco. 

Fuoco also set his time in the #50 Ferrari 499P LMH, a 2m04.632s, straight after the red to sneak ahead of the second Toyota of Jose Maria Lopez. 

Lopez had been quickest up to the stoppage, caused by Luis Perez Companc going off at Les Combes in the Richard Mille-sponsored AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo. 

The Toyota driver’s 2m04.642s set at the start of the session left him just one thousandth behind the Ferrari. 

Buemi’s time represented an improvement of nearly four seconds for Toyota over the corresponding session at Spa this time last year. 

The 90-minute session was red flagged for a second time and did not restart after an incident involving the Vanwall LMH and D’Station GTE Am Aston.

Ferrari took fourth position courtesy of a 2m04.716s from Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 entry run by the AF Corse factory team. 

Laurens Vanthoor was only a tenth behind as he took fifth position for Porsche in the best of the Penske-run 963 LMDhs with a 2m04.870s.

Cadillac ended up sixth with the best of the Ganassi-run V-Series.R LMDhs in which Alex Lynn posted a 2m05.347s.

Michael Christensen took seventh in the second Porsche on 2m05.807s, while Gustavo Menezes ended up eighth in the best of the Peugeot 9X8 LMHs with a 2m06.259s. 

#22 United Autosports Oreca 07 - Gibson: Frederick Lubin, Philip Hanson, Filipe Albuquerque

#22 United Autosports Oreca 07 - Gibson: Frederick Lubin, Philip Hanson, Filipe Albuquerque

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Sebastien Bourdais was ninth in the additional Cadillac Racing entry from Ganassi and Paul di Resta rounded out the top 10 in Hypercar behind three LMP2 cars aboard the second Peugeot. 

Glickenhaus and Vanwall were 11th and 12th, while the British Jota team’s brand new Porsche 963 brought up the rear of the class in the hands of Will Stevens on its debut on track. 

The Hertz-sponsored car had completed only a one-hour shakedown prior to Spa in wet conditions on the Porsche’s Weissach test track in the hands of Matt Campbell last week.  

Filipe Albuquerque (above) was quickest for United Autosports in LMP2 with a 2m07.471s in its #22 ORECA-Gibson 07, which gave him a margin of less than a tenth over Pietro Fittipaldi in Jota’s solo P2 entry. 

The Brazilian’s 2m07.514s was more than two tenths up on Tom Blomqvist in the #23 United car. 

Daniel Serra led the way in GTE Am for the Kessel Ferrari team. 

His 2m16.177s was six tenths ahead of Ulysse de Pauw’s 2m16.717s in the fastest of the AF Corse entries in class.  

Second free practice begins at 1620 local time in Spa.

WEC Spa - FP1 results:

Cla   Nº   Driver   Car / Engine   Time  Gap
Sébastien Buemi
Brendon Hartley
Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota 2'02.982  
50  Antonio Fuoco
Miguel Molina
Nicklas Nielsen
Ferrari 2'04.632 1.650
Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
José María López
Toyota 2'04.642 1.660
51  A.P.Guidi
James Calado
A.Giovinazzi
Ferrari 2'04.716 1.734
Kévin Estre
André Lotterer
Laurens Vanthoor
Porsche 2'04.870 1.888
Earl Bamber
Alex Lynn
R.Westbrook
Cadillac 2'05.347 2.365
Dane Cameron
M.Christensen
F.Makowiecki
Porsche 2'05.807 2.825
94  Loïc Duval
Gustavo Menezes
Nico Müller
Peugeot 2'06.259 3.277
S.Bourdais
R.van der Zande
Jack Aitken
Cadillac 2'07.382 4.400
10  22  Freddie Lubin
Phil Hanson
F.Albuquerque
ORECA/Gibson 2'07.471 4.489
11  28  David H.Hansson
P.Fittipaldi
Oliver Rasmussen
ORECA/Gibson 2'07.514 4.532
12  23  Josh Pierson
Tom Blomqvist
Oliver Jarvis
ORECA/Gibson 2'07.753 4.771
13  93  Paul Di Resta
Mikkel Jensen
Jean-Éric Vergne
Peugeot 2'07.769 4.787
14  34  J.Smiechowski
Fabio Scherer
Albert Costa
ORECA/Gibson 2'07.799 4.817
15  63  Doriane Pin
Mirko Bortolotti
Daniil Kvyat
ORECA/Gibson 2'07.809 4.827
16  708  Romain Dumas
Olivier Pla
Franck Mailleux
Glickenhaus/Pipo 2'07.948 4.966
17  41  Rui Andrade
Robert Kubica
Louis Delétraz
ORECA/Gibson 2'07.996 5.014
18  Filip Ugran
Bent Viscaal
A.Caldarelli
ORECA/Gibson 2'08.180 5.198
19  31  Sean Gelael
F.Habsburg
Robin Frijns
ORECA/Gibson 2'08.200 5.218
20  36  M.Vaxivière
Julien Canal
Charles Milesi
ORECA/Gibson 2'08.781 5.799
21  Tom Dillmann
E.Guerrieri
J.Villeneuve
Vanwall/Gibson 2'08.906 5.924
22  38  A.F.da Costa
Will Stevens
Yifei Ye
Porsche 2'09.048 6.066
23  35  André Negrão
Memo Rojas
Olli Caldwell
ORECA/Gibson 2'09.439 6.457
24  10  Ryan Cullen
Matthias Kaiser
Gabriel Aubry
ORECA/Gibson 2'10.152 7.170
25  57  Takeshi Kimura
Scott Huffaker
Daniel Serra
Ferrari 2'16.177 13.195
26  21  Diego Alessi
Simon Mann
Ulysse De Pauw
Ferrari 2'16.717 13.735
27  25  Ahmad Al Harthy
Michael Dinan
Charlie Eastwood
Aston Martin 2'17.163 14.181
28  56  PJ Hyett
Gunnar Jeannette
Matteo Cairoli
Porsche 2'17.440 14.458
29  83  L.P.-Companc
Lilou Wadoux
Alessio Rovera
Ferrari 2'17.555 14.573
30  777  Satoshi Hoshino
Casper Stevenson
Tomonobu Fujii
Aston Martin 2'17.637 14.655
31  60  C.Schiavoni
Matteo Cressoni
A.Picariello
Porsche 2'17.770 14.788
32  98  Ian James
D.Mancinelli
Alex Riberas
Aston Martin 2'17.945 14.963
33  33  Ben Keating
Nico Varrone
Nicky Catsburg
Chevrolet 2'17.978 14.996
34  85  Sarah Bovy
Michelle Gatting
Rahel Frey
Porsche 2'18.053 15.071
35  86  Mike Wainwright
Riccardo Pera
Ben Barker
Porsche 2'18.213 15.231
36  88  Ryan Hardwick
Z.Robichon
Harry Tincknell
Porsche 2'18.401 15.419
37  77  Christian Ried
M.O.Pedersen
Julien Andlauer
Porsche 2'18.546 15.564
38  54  Thomas Flohr
F.Castellacci
Davide Rigon
Ferrari 2'18.744 15.762

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