WEC: Ferrari tops Friday practice at Spa
Ferrari AF Corse’s pair of 499Ps topped the times in the second practice session of the FIA WEC meeting at Spa this afternoon, the #51 finishing up 1.2 seconds quicker than the #50 sister car after a 2:01.871 from Antonio Giovanazzi. It’s the fastest time of the weekend so far, and almost a second quicker than last year’s pole time.
Third in the times during what turned out to be an incident-filled session, disrupted by two red flags and three full-course yellows, was the #2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, which set a best time of 2:03.338. The quickest of the Toyotas was the FP1-topping #8, which slotted in fourth with a 2:04.380.
It was a messy 90 minutes for more than one of the Hypercar teams. Porsche Penske Motorsport’s pair of 963s managed a combined seven laps after issues early in the running. The #5 stopped on the Kemmel Straight at the hands of Dane Cameron with a driveshaft issue, while the No. 6 had a hybrid system failure at La Source which required a reset. Neither car would go on to set more laps after their respective issues.
The most significant incident though came with 14 minutes remaining in the session, when the #21 and #54 GTE Am class Ferrari 488s had a huge off at Raidillon. The cars, driven by Diego Alessi and Thomas Flohr respectively, were damaged severely after contact with the barriers on driver’s right.
In LMP2 Team WRT’s #31 ORECA set the pace with a 2:06.108 from Robin Frijns, who was quicker than the six of the 13 Hypercar class cars.
United Autosports #22 and the #41 sister WRT ORECA completed the top three with times four and five-tenths off the Dutchman.
The #54 AF Corse Ferrari, which was damaged in the Raidillon incident, led GTE Am with a 2:15.736 from Davide Rigon. The #57 Kessel Ferrari and GR Racing Porsche finished the day second and third.
| POS | TEAM / DRIVERS | NO. | CAR | TIME | BEHIND | GAP |
|
1ST
|
Ferrari AF Corse
Pier Guidi A. Calado J. Giovinazzi A. |
#51
|
 |
2:01.871 | – | – |
|
2ND
|
Ferrari AF Corse
Fuoco A. Molina M. Nielsen N. |
#50
|
 |
2:03.149 | +1.278 | +1.278 |
|
3RD
|
Cadillac Racing
Bamber E. Lynn A. Westbrook R. |
#2
|
 |
2:03.338 | +1.467 | +0.189 |
|
4TH
|
Toyota Gazoo Racing
Buemi S. Hartley B. Hirakawa R. |
#8
|
 |
2:04.380 | +2.509 | +1.042 |
|
5TH
|
Peugeot Totalenergies
Di Resta P. Jensen M. Vergne J. |
#93
|
 |
2:05.180 | +3.309 | +0.800 |
|
6TH
|
Glickenhaus Racing
Dumas R. Pla O. Mailleux F. |
#708
|
 |
2:05.545 | +3.674 | +0.365 |
|
7TH
|
Toyota Gazoo Racing
Conway M. Kobayashi K. Lopez J. |
#7
|
 |
2:05.729 | +3.858 | +0.184 |
|
8TH
|
Team Wrt
Gelael S. Habsburg F. Frijns R. |
#31
|
 |
2:06.108 | +4.237 | +0.379 |
|
9TH
|
Peugeot Totalenergies
Duval L. Menezes G. Muller N. |
#94
|
 |
2:06.128 | +4.257 | +0.020 |
|
10TH
|
United Autosports
Lubin F. Hanson P. Albuquerque F. |
#22
|
 |
2:06.518 | +4.647 | +0.390 |
|
11TH
|
Team Wrt
Andrade R. Kubica R. Deletraz L. |
#41
|
 |
2:06.633 | +4.762 | +0.115 |
|
12TH
|
Hertz Team Jota
Felix Da Costa A. Stevens W. Ye Y. |
#38
|
 |
2:06.711 | +4.840 | +0.078 |
|
13TH
|
Inter Europol Competition
Smiechowski J. Scherer F. Costa A. |
#34
|
 |
2:06.759 | +4.888 | +0.048 |
|
14TH
|
Vector Sport
Cullen R. Kaiser M. Aubry G. |
#10
|
 |
2:06.791 | +4.920 | +0.032 |
|
15TH
|
Prema Racing
Ugran F. Viscaal B. Caldarelli A. |
#9
|
 |
2:06.933 | +5.062 | +0.142 |
|
16TH
|
United Autosports
Pierson J. Blomqvist T. Jarvis O. |
#23
|
 |
2:07.086 | +5.215 | +0.153 |
|
17TH
|
Prema Racing
Pin D. Bortolotti M. Kvyat D. |
#63
|
 |
2:07.145 | +5.274 | +0.059 |
|
18TH
|
Jota
Heinemeier-Hansson D. Fittipaldi P. Rasmussen O. |
#28
|
 |
2:07.167 | +5.296 | +0.022 |
|
19TH
|
Alpine Elf Team
Vaxiviere M. Canal J. Milesi C. |
#36
|
 |
2:07.914 | +6.043 | +0.747 |
|
20TH
|
Floyd Vanwall Racing Team
Dillmann T. Guerrieri E. Villeneuve J. |
#4
|
 |
2:08.557 | +6.686 | +0.643 |
|
21ST
|
Alpine Elf Team
Negrão A. Rojas M. Caldwell O. |
#35
|
 |
2:08.969 | +7.098 | +0.412 |
|
22ND
|
Porsche Penske Motorsport
Estre K. Lotterer A. Vanthoor L. |
#6
|
 |
2:10.875 | +9.004 | +1.906 |
|
23RD
|
AF Corse
Flohr T. Castellacci F. Rigon D. |
#54
|
 |
2:15.736 | +13.865 | +4.861 |
|
24TH
|
Kessel Racing
Kimura T. Huffaker S. Serra D. |
#57
|
 |
2:16.786 | +14.915 | +1.050 |
|
25TH
|
Gr Racing
Wainwright M. Pera R. Barker B. |
#86
|
 |
2:16.993 | +15.122 | +0.207 |
|
26TH
|
Proton Competition
Hardwick R. Robichon Z. Tincknell H. |
#88
|
 |
2:17.172 | +15.301 | +0.179 |
|
27TH
|
Richard Mille AF Corse
Perez Companc L. Wadoux L. Rovera A. |
#83
|
 |
2:17.230 | +15.359 | +0.058 |
|
28TH
|
Cadillac Racing
Bourdais S. Van Der Zande R. Aitken J. |
#3
|
 |
2:17.364 | +15.493 | +0.134 |
|
29TH
|
Iron Lynx
Schiavoni C. Cressoni M. Picariello A. |
#60
|
 |
2:17.437 | +15.566 | +0.073 |
|
30TH
|
Iron Dames
Bovy S. Gatting M. Frey R. |
#85
|
 |
2:17.532 | +15.661 | +0.095 |
|
31ST
|
AF Corse
Alessi D. Mann S. De Pauw U. |
#21
|
 |
2:17.585 | +15.714 | +0.053 |
|
32ND
|
Project 1 – Ao
Hyett P. Jeannette G. Cairoli M. |
#56
|
 |
2:17.802 | +15.931 | +0.217 |
|
33RD
|
Porsche Penske Motorsport
Cameron D. Christensen M. Makowiecki F. |
#5
|
 |
2:17.818 | +15.947 | +0.016 |
|
34TH
|
D’station Racing
Hoshino S. Stevenson C. Fujii T. |
#777
|
 |
2:17.941 | +16.070 | +0.123 |
|
35TH
|
Ort By Tf
Al Harthy A. Dinan M. Eastwood C. |
#25
|
 |
2:18.053 | +16.182 | +0.112 |
|
36TH
|
Dempsey – Proton Racing
Ried C. Pedersen M. Andlauer J. |
#77
|
 |
2:18.278 | +16.407 | +0.225 |
|
37TH
|
Northwest Amr
James I. Mancinelli D. Riberas A. |
#98
|
 |
2:18.671 | +16.800 | +0.393 |
|
38TH
|
Corvette Racing
Keating B. Varrone N. Catsburg N. |
#33
|
 |
2:19.163 | +17.292 | +0.492 |