Spa WEC: Kobayashi gifts Toyota first Hypercar pole

Kobayashi, who shares the #7 car with Mike Conway and Jose Maria Lopez, set a time of 2m00.747s in the first qualifying session of the World Endurance Championship's new Hypercar era, half a second quicker than teammate Kazuki Nakajima in the #8 sister car.

During a cold but dry qualifying session United Autosports' Filipe Albuquerque confirmed his rapid pace from testing by proving to be the class of the LMP2 field, claiming pole by six tenths in the #22 Oreca 07-Gibson and taking third overall.

After a delayed run out, the third and last car in the Hypercar class, the grandfathered Alpine A480-Gibson LMP1 car, was fourth in the hands of Nicolas Lapierre, behind both Toyotas and the United LMP2.

The #26 G-Drive Aurus 01-Gibson took second in LMP2 and fifth overall courtesy of Nyck de Vries, followed by fellow Dutchman Giedo van der Garde in the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca.

#92 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR - 19: Kevin Estre, Neel Jani

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

In GTE Pro Kevin Estre took a superb pole in the #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19, going three seconds quicker than his 2020 pole time to set laps of 2m11.715s and then a 2m11.219s.

Estre, the only driver to dip below the 2m12 benchmark all week, was 1.1s quicker than AF Corse's Miguel Molina in the #52 Ferrari, the Spaniard setting a 2m12.351s after his first lap was deleted for track limits.

In the second works Porsche Richard Lietz was third with a lap of 2m12.370s, with the second Ferrari of Alessandro Pier Guidi less than a tenth behind. Corvette brought up the rear of the five-car class with a time of 2m13.106s by Antonio Garcia on the C8.R's first appearance outside North America.

TF Sport's Ben Keating came out on top of an Aston Martin duo to take pole in GTE Am, setting a lap of 2m14.660s in the #33 Vantage. Keating was nine tenths quicker than Paul Dalla Lana in the #98 Aston, following by Andrew Haryanto in the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche.

The GT segment was red flagged twice for two major crashes on the Raidillon. Early on Christian Ried lost control over his #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche, spinning into the tyre barriers at high speed.

Moments after the restart Egidio Perfetti suffered a carbon copy of Ried's crash in the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche. Both drivers were able to step out of their cars unaided, but their teams will face a long night to repair the cars in time for tomorrow's six-hour race.

The WEC Spa 6 Hours starts on Saturday May 1 at 1.30pm CET and will be streamed live on Motorsport.tv.

Results (Hypercar and LMP2)

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Avg Time	Gap
1	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	2'00.747
2	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	2'01.266	0.519
3	22	Philip Hanson Fabio Scherer Filipe Albuquerque	Oreca 07	2'02.404	1.657
4	36	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	2'02.652	1.905
5	26	Roman Rusinov Franco Colapinto Nyck de Vries	Aurus 01	2'02.984	2.237
6	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert	Oreca 07	2'03.435	2.688
7	70	Esteban Garcia Loic Duval Norman Nato	Oreca 07	2'03.475	2.728
8	25	John Falb Rui Andrade Roberto Merhi	Aurus 01	2'03.485	2.738
9	28	Sean Gelael Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist	Oreca 07	2'03.516	2.769
10	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	2'03.625	2.878
11	21	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Ben Hanley	Oreca 07	2'03.816	3.069
12	24	Patrick Kelly Gabriel Aubry Simon Trummer	Oreca 07	2'03.869	3.122
13	31	Robin Frijns Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	2'03.915	3.168
14	34	Jakub Smiechowski Renger van der Zande Alex Brundle	Oreca 07	2'04.207	3.460
15	1	Tatiana Calderon Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser	Oreca 07	2'05.284	4.537
16	20	Jan Magnussen Anders Fjordbach Dennis Andersen	Oreca 07	2'05.522	4.775
17	44	Miro Konopka Tom Jackson Darren Burke	Ligier JSP 217	2'07.051	6.304
View full results

Results (GTE):

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Avg Time	Gap
1	92	Kevin Estre Neel Jani	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	2'11.219
2	52	Daniel Serra Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	2'12.351	1.132
3	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	2'12.370	1.151
4	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	2'12.443	1.224
5	63	Antonio Garcia Oliver Gavin	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	2'13.106	1.887
6	33	Ben Keating Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	2'14.660	3.441
7	98	Paul Dalla Lana Augusto Farfus Marcos Gomes	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	2'15.615	4.396
8	88	Andrew Haryanto Marco Seefried Alessio Picariello	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	2'16.319	5.100
9	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	2'16.367	5.148
10	83	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	2'17.560	6.341
11	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	2'17.719	6.500
12	85	Rahel Frey Katherine Legge Manuela Gostner	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	2'18.452	7.233
13	86	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	2'18.813	7.594
14	60	Claudio Schiavoni Andrea Piccini Matteo Cressoni	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	2'20.356	9.137
15	56	Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera	Porsche 911 RSR - 19
16	77	Christian Ried Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19
17	777	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson	Aston Martin Vantage AMR
View full results