Spa WEC: Rebellion beats the Toyotas to pole
Rebellion took pole position for this weekend's Spa round of the FIA World Endurance Championship as the Swiss entrant continued its domination of the event.
Gustavo Menezes and Norman Nato were fastest on their respective runs aboard the #1 Rebellion R-13, ending up with an average eight tenths clear of best of the Toyota TS050 Hybrids.
Menezes set the fastest time of the session with a 1m59.342s, which Nato followed up with a 1m59.813s on the same set of Michelin tyres.
That gave then a 1m59.577s average, which compared with 2m00.417s for #8 Toyota drivers Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley.
Menezes said: "On paper it looks like we've had the perfect weekend, but we've never had a good balance with the car. We had to make quite a few changes before qualifying, but now the car is there."
Nakajima posted a 1m59.628s on the first run to outpace Mike Conway in the #7 Toyota, who ended up more than a second down on a 2m00.762s.
The two Toyotas stayed on the same tyres for the second runs, Hartley's 2m01.206s giving him an advantage of one tenth over Kamui Kobayashi.
The Japanese driver's 2m01.378s gave him and Conway a 2m01.070s average in the #7 car.
The ByKolles team's ENSO CLM P1/01 ended up with a 2m01.589s average in the hands of Oliver Webb and Tom Dillmann to take fourth.
The United Autosports squad led the way in LMP2 with its solo Oreca 07. Paul di Resta was quickest on a 2m01.888s during the opening runs, which Phil Hanson followed up with a 2m02.409s.
Their 2m02.148s average put them more than a second and a half up on the JOTA Sport Oreca of Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez, who ended up on 2m03.956s.
Nicolas Lapierre and Antonin Borga took third aboard the Cool Racing Oreca, a further three tenths back.
The Racing Team Nederland Oreca ended up at the back of the P2 field after a succession of laps lost to track- limit violations by Giedo van der Garde and Job van Uitert. Van Uitert did not manage to post a valid lap time as a result.
Porsche duo Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre dominated qualifying to claim provisional GTE Pro pole by nearly half a second, only to be dropped to the back of the grid for a track limits infringement.
The reigning class world champions were fastest on their respective runs, setting times only three hundredths apart aboard their #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19.
Christensen posted a 2m14.223s to beat Aston Martin driver Maxime Martin's 2m14.406s by two tenths.
Estre followed it up with the fastest lap of the session, a 2m14.191s that put him six tenths up the 2m14.767s from Aston Martin driver Marco Sorensen.
That gave the Porsche drivers a 2m14.207s average, which put them clear of the two Aston Vantage GTEs. But Estre's lap was subsequently adjudged to have violated track limits, the loss of the time dropping them to the back of the field.
Alex Lynn's 2m14.865s in the #97 Aston he shares with Martin was just enough to stay ahead of their teammates and inherit the pole when Estre's time was scrubbed out.
Martin and Lynn ended up on 2m14.635s average, Sorensen and Nicki Thiim 2m14.643s.
Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz took fourth in class in the #91 Porsche with a 2m14.923s average. That was more than four tenths up on the best of the two AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTEs that filled the final two spots in the GTE Pro order.
Davide Rigon and Miguel Molina ended up just clear of teammates Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado in the #71 488 GTE, though both Ferraris were more than a second down on Christensen and Estre's initial average.
Matt Campbell and Christian Ried claimed GTE Am pole aboard their #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche 911 RSR with a 2m16.519s average, more than a tenth up on #56 Project 1 Porsche pairing of Matteo Cairoli and Egidio Perfetti.
Prototype qualifying:
GTE qualifying:
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Avg Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 97 |
Alex Lynn
Maxime Martin |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 2'14.635 | |
2 | 95 |
Marco Sorensen
Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 2'14.643 | 0.008 |
3 | 91 |
Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 2'14.923 | 0.288 |
4 | 71 |
Davide Rigon
Miguel Molina |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 2'15.356 | 0.721 |
5 | 51 |
James Calado
Alessandro Pier Guidi |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 2'15.383 | 0.748 |
6 | 77 |
Christian Ried
Riccardo Pera Matt Campbell |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'16.519 | 1.884 |
7 | 56 |
Egidio Perfetti
Laurents Hörr Matteo Cairoli |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'16.649 | 2.014 |
8 | 57 |
Ben Keating
Felipe Fraga Jeroen Bleekemolen |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'17.145 | 2.510 |
9 | 98 |
Paul Dalla Lana
Augusto Farfus Ross Gunn |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'17.563 | 2.928 |
10 | 83 |
François Perrodo
Emmanuel Collard Nicklas Nielsen |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'17.593 | 2.958 |
11 | 90 |
Salih Yoluc
Charles Eastwood Jonathan Adam |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'17.658 | 3.023 |
12 | 54 |
Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'18.314 | 3.679 |
13 | 88 |
Gianluca Giraudi
Ricardo Sanchez Lucas Legeret |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'18.841 | 4.206 |
14 | 62 |
Bonamy Grimes
Johnny Mowlem Charles Hollings |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'18.945 | 4.310 |
15 | 86 |
Michael Wainwright
Andrew Watson Benjamin Barker |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'18.947 | 4.312 |
16 | 92 |
Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 2'14.223 | |
View full results |
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