Spa WEC: #7 Toyota beats sister car to pole
Toyota's #7 crew secured pole position for this weekend's Spa FIA World Endurance Championship round, beating the points-leading #8 car by almost half a second.
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Sharing the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway both outpaced their opposite numbers in the #8 machine, Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi.
Kobayashi posted a 1m53.812s to end up half a second quicker than Nakajima in the #8 car, before Conway went slightly faster with a 1m53.683s to end up a similar margin ahead of Buemi.
That gave the #7 Toyota a 1m53.747s average, which compared with the #8 entry's 1m54.243s. A late rain shower and red flag - caused by the ByKolles stopping along the start/finish straight - denied the #8 crew a chance to improve its time in the closing minutes.
Conway said: "I got a good lap, and it's always rewarding when you do that.
"It's good to get the point for fastest lap, but we know the race tomorrow is going to be hard with the poor weather that has been forecast, so it will be all about making the right calls."
The SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1 qualified by Sergey Sirotkin and Egor Orudzhev ended up best of the rest on a 1m54.711s average, just under one second off pole.
They were nine tenths up on the best of the Rebellion R-13s in fourth place, Gustavo Menezes and Thomas Laurent ending up on 1m55.640s.
The second of the AER-engined BR1s was a further four tenths back in the hands of team newcomer Stoffel Vandoorne and Vitaly Petrov.
Bruno Senna and Andre Lotterer were less than one hundredth of a second behind in sixth position aboard the second of the Rebellions.
Jean-Eric Vergne and Job van Uitert claimed the LMP2 pole position in G-Drive Racing's Aurus-badged Oreca.
Van Uitert had been fourth after the first runs, before Vergne posted the fastest P2 time of the 25-minute session for the prototypes for a 2m00.674s average and the pole.
Gabriel Aubry and Stephane Richelmi were just over half a second in arrears in the best of the Jackie Chan DC Racing Orecas on 2m01.225s.
That was three tenths up on the sister Jota Sport-run car in which Will Stevens had been fastest after the first runs.
Ford takes pole in GTE
Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell snatched GTE Pro pole for Ford right at the end of their session.
The #67 Ganassi Ford GT had been fourth after the first runs with a 2m13.571s from Priaulx, but Tincknell briefly moved the car up to second with a 2m12.973s.
Priaulx was then given a new set of tyres to try to improve on his time before the end of the 25 minutes and found seven tenths with a 2m12.797s.
That gave them a 2m12.285s average, which put them less than a tenth of a second up on the Aston Martin Vantage GTE of Maxime Martin and Alex Lynn.
Martin, who had been third after the first runs, had been given another shot after Lynn went three tenths quicker than his Belgian teammate.
Martin then went quicker still with 2m12.698s, which briefly put them on pole prior to Priaulx's improvement.
The BMW M8 GTE of Augusto Farfus and Antonio Felix da Costa, who posted the single quickest laps in class, took third and was the fastest of the GTE Pro qualifiers not to go for an additional run.
They ended up with a 2m12.977s average, just a couple of hundredths behind the Aston.
The second BMW ended up fourth in the hands of Nicky Catsburg, who was fastest after the first runs, and Martin Tomczyk.
Porsche, which leads the manufacturers' and drivers' standings, ended up seventh and eighth with its pair of mid-engined 911 RSRs, while two AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTEs brought up the rear of the 10-car field.
TF Sport Aston Martin claimed a first GTE Am pole with Charlie Eastwood and Salih Yoluc.
Prototype results:
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Avg Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 |
Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'53.747 | |
2 | 8 |
Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima Fernando Alonso |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'54.243 | 0.496 |
3 | 17 |
Stéphane Sarrazin
Egor Orudzhev Sergey Sirotkin |
BR Engineering BR1 | LMP1 | 1'54.711 | 0.964 |
4 | 3 |
Nathanael Berthon
Thomas Laurent Gustavo Menezes |
Rebellion R13 | LMP1 | 1'55.640 | 1.893 |
5 | 11 |
Mikhail Aleshin
Vitaly Petrov Stoffel Vandoorne |
BR Engineering BR1 | LMP1 | 1'56.018 | 2.271 |
6 | 1 |
Neel Jani
Andre Lotterer Bruno Senna |
Rebellion R13 | LMP1 | 1'56.021 | 2.274 |
7 | 26 |
Roman Rusinov
Job Van Uitert Jean-Eric Vergne |
Aurus 01 | LMP2 | 2'00.674 | 6.927 |
8 | 38 |
Ho-Pin Tung
Gabriel Aubry Stéphane Richelmi |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'01.225 | 7.478 |
9 | 37 |
David Heinemeier Hansson
Jordan King Will Stevens |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'01.558 | 7.811 |
10 | 31 |
Roberto Gonzalez
Pastor Maldonado Anthony Davidson |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'01.816 | 8.069 |
11 | 36 |
Nicolas Lapierre
Andre Negrao Pierre Thiriet |
Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 2'01.832 | 8.085 |
12 | 4 |
Tom Dillmann
Oliver Webb Paolo Ruberti |
ENSO CLM P1/01 | LMP1 | 2'02.246 | 8.499 |
13 | 29 |
Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries |
Dallara P217 | LMP2 | 2'03.959 | 10.212 |
14 | 28 |
François Perrodo
Matthieu Vaxiviere Norman Nato |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'04.967 | 11.220 |
15 | 50 |
Erwin Creed
Romano Ricci Nicholas Boulle |
Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 2'06.234 | 12.487 |
View full results |
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Avg Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 67 |
Andy Priaulx
Harry Tincknell |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 2'12.885 | |
2 | 97 |
Alex Lynn
Maxime Martin |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 2'12.952 | 0.067 |
3 | 82 |
Augusto Farfus
Antonio Felix da Costa |
BMW M8 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 2'12.977 | 0.092 |
4 | 81 |
Martin Tomczyk
Nick Catsburg |
BMW M8 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 2'13.313 | 0.428 |
5 | 95 |
Marco Sorensen
Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 2'13.341 | 0.456 |
6 | 66 |
Stefan Mücke
Olivier Pla |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 2'13.392 | 0.507 |
7 | 92 |
Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 2'13.683 | 0.798 |
8 | 91 |
Richard Lietz
Gianmaria Bruni |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 2'13.836 | 0.951 |
9 | 51 |
Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 2'14.060 | 1.175 |
10 | 71 |
Davide Rigon
Sam Bird |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 2'14.182 | 1.297 |
11 | 90 |
Salih Yoluc
Euan Hankey Charles Eastwood |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE AM | 2'16.061 | 3.176 |
12 | 88 |
Gianluca Roda
Giorgio Roda Matteo Cairoli |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'16.171 | 3.286 |
13 | 56 |
Jörg Bergmeister
Patrick Lindsey Egidio Perfetti |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'16.390 | 3.505 |
14 | 77 |
Christian Ried
Riccardo Pera Matt Campbell |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'17.005 | 4.120 |
15 | 98 |
Paul Dalla Lana
Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE AM | 2'17.093 | 4.208 |
16 | 54 |
Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 2'17.173 | 4.288 |
17 | 61 |
Luis Perez Companc
Matteo Cressoni Matthew Griffin |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 2'17.288 | 4.403 |
18 | 86 |
Michael Wainwright
Benjamin Barker Thomas Preining |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'19.225 | 6.340 |
19 | 70 |
Motoaki Ishikawa
Olivier Beretta Eddie Cheever III |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | ||
View full results |
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