WEC Spa: Toyota takes pole after Ferrari gets track-limits penalty
Kamui Kobayashi claimed pole position for Toyota at the Spa round of the World Endurance Championship after Ferrari’s Antonio Giovinazzi lost his fastest lap to a track-limits violation.
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Giovinazzi found two tenths on a second quick lap aboard his Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar to leapfrog AF Corse team-mate Miguel Molina and Kobayashi right at the end of the 15-minute Hypercar session.
The Italian’s 2m00.777s was good enough to give Ferrari pole by just three hundredths before the time was scratched out for the infraction on the exit of Les Combes.
Kobayashi moved back to the top of the times after the penalty for the Ferrari was confirmed, his 2m00.812s aboard his GR010 HYBRID LMH giving him a fifth pole of the Hypercar era.
His time was just two hundredths quicker than Molina’s 2m00.836s.
Giovinazzi took third with his previous best of 2m00.973s.
The two Ganassi-run Cadillac Racing entries took fourth and fifth in the hands of Earl Bamber and Sebastien Bourdais.
Bamber’s 2m01.043s in Ganassi’s full-season V-Series.R LMDh put him within three tenths of the pole, while Bourdais was more than a second slower on 2m02.138s.
Porsche took sixth just two tenths behind the second Caddy with Kevin Estre in the best of the Penske-run factory 963 LMDhs.
#6 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963: Kevin Estre, André Lotterer, Laurens Vanthoor
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
His 2m02.306s was six tenths up on the debuting customer 963 run by the British Jota team in which Will Stevens got down to 2m02.907s.
Olivier Pla, pole winner for the Spa WEC round last year, was eighth in the solo Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 on 2m02.960s.
Jean-Eric Vergne was the fastest Peugeot driver on a 2m03.217s, while Frederic Makowiecki rounded out the top 10 in the second of the Porsche Penske Motorsport entries with a 2m03.650s.
Gustavo Menezes was 11th in the second Peugeot 9X8 LMH, while Tom Dillmann was 12th in the Vanwall-Gibson Vandervell 680.
The session was red flagged after just a couple of minutes when Brendon Hartley crashed the #8 Toyota at Raidillon straight out of the pits on cold tyres.
Tom Blomqvist took a second LMP2 pole of the season for the #23 United Autosports ORECA-Gibson 07, following up on team-mate Oliver Jarvis qualifying in top spot at Sebring in March.
The Briton posted a 2m05.979s to beat late-improver Louis Deletraz at the top of the times by more than three tenths.
#23 United Autosports Oreca 07 - Gibson: Joshua Pierson, Tom Blomqvist, Oliver Jarvis
Photo by: Paul Foster
Deletraz’s 2m06.318s in the best of the WRT ORECAs bettered the 2m06.506s from Daniil Kvyat in the fastest of the two Prema entries.
Robin Frijns took fourth in the second WRT car with a time just three hundredths slower than Kvyat.
Ahmad Al Harthy claimed a maiden WEC pole position in GTE Am aboard the ORT by TF Sport Aston Martin.
The Omani driver topped the times before a red-flag stoppage of nearly 10 minutes and improved twice afterwards to claim the top spot by nearly two seconds with a 2m17.216s aboard his Vantage GTE.
Sarah Bovy took a last-gasp second in the Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR with a 2m19.150s on a lap completed after the chequered flag had fallen.
Luis Perez Companc lost a time good enough for second to a track-limits infraction in his AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo and ended up fifth.
The stoppage was caused by PJ Hyett when he crashed his Project 1 Porsche at the top of Eau Rouge.
Only 13 of the 14 GTE Am cars took part in the 15-minute session.
The #21 AF Corse Ferrari crashed by Diego Alessi in second free practice on Thursday afternoon was undergoing a rebuild around a fresh shell during the session.
The Spa 6 Hours, round three of the 2023 WEC, begins at 12:45 local time on Saturday.
WEC Spa - Qualifying results
Q3
| Cla | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Mike Conway  Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 2'00.812 | ||
| 2 |  Antonio Fuoco  Miguel Molina  Nicklas Nielsen |
Ferrari 499P | HYPERCAR | 2'00.836 | 0.024 | 0.024 |
| 3 | Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi |
Ferrari 499P | HYPERCAR | 2'00.973 | 0.161 | 0.137 |
| 4 |  Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook |
Cadillac V-Series.R | HYPERCAR | 2'01.043 | 0.231 | 0.070 |
| 5 |  Sébastien Bourdais  Renger van der Zande Jack Aitken |
Cadillac V-Series.R | HYPERCAR | 2'02.138 | 1.326 | 1.095 |
| 6 | Kevin Estre  Andre Lotterer  Laurens Vanthoor |
Porsche 963 | HYPERCAR | 2'02.306 | 1.494 | 0.168 |
| 7 |  Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens  Ye Yifei |
Porsche 963 | HYPERCAR | 2'02.907 | 2.095 | 0.601 |
| 8 | Romain Dumas Olivier Pla Franck Mailleux |
Glickenhaus 007 | HYPERCAR | 2'02.960 | 2.148 | 0.053 |
| 9 | Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne |
Peugeot 9X8 | HYPERCAR | 2'03.217 | 2.405 | 0.257 |
| 10 |  Dane Cameron Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 963 | HYPERCAR | 2'03.650 | 2.838 | 0.433 |
| 11 | Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes  Nico Müller |
Peugeot 9X8 | HYPERCAR | 2'03.879 | 3.067 | 0.229 |
| 12 | Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri  Jacques Villeneuve |
Vanwall Vandervell 680 | HYPERCAR | 2'04.614 | 3.802 | 0.735 |
| 13 | Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | |||
| View full results | ||||||
Q2
| Cla | Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Avg Time | Gap | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josh Pierson Tom Blomqvist Oliver Jarvis |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 6 | 2'05.979 | ||
| 2 | Rui Andrade  Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 6 | 2'06.318 | 0.339 | 0.339 |
| 3 | Doriane Pin Mirko Bortolotti  Daniil Kvyat |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 7 | 2'06.506 | 0.527 | 0.188 |
| 4 |  Sean Gelael  Ferdinand Habsburg Robin Frijns |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 6 | 2'06.532 | 0.553 | 0.026 |
| 5 | David Heinemeier Hansson  Pietro Fittipaldi Oliver Rasmussen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 4 | 2'06.556 | 0.577 | 0.024 |
| 6 | Filip Ugran Bent Viscaal Andrea Caldarelli |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 7 | 2'06.601 | 0.622 | 0.045 |
| 7 | Frederick Lubin Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 6 | 2'06.684 | 0.705 | 0.083 |
| 8 | Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Albert Costa |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 7 | 2'06.825 | 0.846 | 0.141 |
| 9 |  Ryan Cullen Matthias Kaiser Gabriel Aubry |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 6 | 2'07.035 | 1.056 | 0.210 |
| 10 | Andre Negrao  Memo Rojas Olli Caldwell |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 6 | 2'07.099 | 1.120 | 0.064 |
| 11 | Matthieu Vaxiviere Julien Canal Charles Milesi |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 6 | 2'07.157 | 1.178 | 0.058 |
| View full results | |||||||
Q1
| Cla | Drivers | Car | Class | Avg Time | Gap | Interval | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charles Eastwood |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'17.216 | |||
| 2 | Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Rahel Frey |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'19.150 | 1.934 | 1.934 | |
| 3 | Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Harry Tincknell |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'19.481 | 2.265 | 0.331 | |
| 4 | Ben Keating Nicolas Varrone Nick Catsburg |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE AM | 2'19.506 | 2.290 | 0.025 | |
| 5 | Luis Perez Companc Lilou Wadoux Alessio Rovera |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'19.723 | 2.507 | 0.217 | |
| 6 | Ian James Daniel Mancinelli Alex Riberas |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'19.976 | 2.760 | 0.253 | |
| 7 | PJ Hyett Gunnar Jeannette Matteo Cairoli |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'20.017 | 2.801 | 0.041 | |
| 8 | Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'20.382 | 3.166 | 0.365 | |
| 9 | Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson Tomonobu Fujii |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'20.507 | 3.291 | 0.125 | |
| 10 | Takeshi Kimura Scott Huffaker Daniel Serra |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'20.515 | 3.299 | 0.008 | |
| 11 | Christian Ried Mikkel Pedersen Julien Andlauer |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'21.247 | 4.031 | 0.732 | |
| 12 | Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'22.469 | 5.253 | 1.222 | |
| 13 | Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Alessio Picariello |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'23.097 | 5.881 | 0.628 | |
| 14 | Diego Alessi Simon Mann Ulysse De |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | ||||
| View full results | |||||||
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