During the first practice session of the FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the LMP2 class dominated by taking the top four spots on the time sheets.
The second round of FIA World Endurance Championship kicked off in Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps and the LMP2 class started the weekend on a high note after taking the top four spots on the timing board beating the Hypercars by a seventh of a second.
WRT’s Robin Frijns moved the class reigning champions into first place with a timing of 2:05.475 on his second lap of the session, a position they would not relinquish for the 90 minutes on the circuit.
The opening pace implies that the race on Saturday will be another WRT against United Autosports battle, as the three cars set the pace for the rest of the field. The Realtime by WRT had to settle for seventh place after finishing in the top four at the 1,000 Miles of Sebring.
The top three cars were separated by four tenths of a second, although the gap between the #22 United Autosports and Frijns’ fastest time was only 0.06s, thus the WRT’s lead was only minimal. The track is expected to be the same tomorrow, giving WRT an advantage in qualifying.
The #38 JOTA, which set a time barely half a second slower than the WRT, had a problem at the end of the session and came to a halt at the La Source exit. Despite the issue, the car ranked fourth.
Antonio Felix Da Costa was able to get the car rolling and back to the pits, earning the session’s only Full Course Yellow. The other glitch occurred when the FIA’s systems failed at the start, delaying the start by 15 minutes.
The Algarve Pro Racing finished ninth overall as the fastest Pro/Am LMP2 entry, barely behind the fastest Toyota Gazoo Racing car.
Only Glickenhaus Racing in P5 was able to keep within a second of the leads, with second in the Hypercar class (#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing) about 1.5 seconds behind.
The slowest of all the Hypercars was the BoP-affected Alpine Elf Team entry, which finished 14th overall, 1.8 seconds behind the leader. André Negro, Nicolas Lapierre, and Matthieu Vaxiviere, on the other hand, were just 0.020s behind the second Toyota.
The first two places in the GTE Pro class were locked out by Porsche GT Team. Kevin Estre was in fine form, setting the quickest GTE lap of the day, 2:14.583, which was three tenths faster than the sister car.
AF Corse outpaced the solitary Corvette Racing machine to finish third and fourth in class after getting no BoP alteration ahead of the weekend.
Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado finished third, barely over four tenths ahead of the Corvette despite being 1.1 seconds behind Estre (fifth in GTE Pro, sixth in GTE).
The fastest GTE Am car, #46 Team Project 1, managed to divide the AF Corse from the Corvette with a time of 2:15.983, four tenths faster than TF Sport. Ben Barnicoat beat the sister car by 0.435s in a Team Project 1 one-three.
GR Racing had a poor start to the session, marking their first appearance of the season after missing the 1,000 Miles of Sebring. They only completed four laps in the first 40 minutes, none of which were timed. However, due to Ben Barker’s 2:17.332, they finished ninth in class after their initial delay.
