Spa WEC: Rebellion leads Toyota in third practice
Rebellion Racing led the way in third practice for the FIA World Endurance Championship season opener at Spa, beating the best of the Toyotas by less than a second.
#1 Rebellion Racing Rebellion R-13: Andre Lotterer, Neel Jani, Bruno Senna
Erik Junius
Neel Jani was at the wheel of the #1 Rebellion R-13-Gibson when he set the best time of the session, a 1m57.120s - 1.7s quicker than the Swiss team managed on Thursday.
Toyota's TS050 Hybrids, however, were slower than they were in second practice, with Mike Conway's best of 1m57.939s in the #7 car 0.819s down on Jani and 1.8s slower than his own FP2 benchmark.
Rebellion had held a one-two until Conway set the #7 car's best time after taking over from Kamui Kobayashi, but Thomas Laurent's 1m58.124s was only good enough for third in the end.
The best of SMP Racing's Dallara-built, AER-powered BR Engineering BR1s was fourth fastest in the hands of ex-Toyota man Stephane Sarrazin, two tenths slower than the second Rebellion.
Kazuki Nakajima put the #8 Toyota fifth, 1.353s off the pace, with FP1 pacesetter Fernando Alonso only taking over the car for the final seven minutes of the hour-long session.
SMP Racing's second BR1, driven by Mikhail Aleshin, was sixth fastest, ahead of Pietro Fittipaldi aboard the Gibson-powered DragonSpeed car and the ByKolles CLM P1/01-Nissan of Oliver Webb.
For the third session in succession, the two Manor Ginetta G60-LT-P1s completed just a single installation lap each, prompting uncertainty about the British squad's participation in the event.
LMP2 was once again led by the DragonSpeed Oreca team, courtesy of a 2m02.281s best from ex-Formula 1 driver Pastor Maldonado.
Jean-Eric Vergne put G-Drive Racing's Oreca second, exactly two tenths slower, while Ho-Pin Tung was third fastest in the #37 Jota Sport-run Jackie Chan DC Racing entry.
Ford stays on top in GTE Pro
Ford led the way in GTE Pro once again, with Andy Priaulx setting the pace with a 2m13.693s in the #67 Ganassi-run GT.
That was enough to beat the lead BMW M8 GTE of Tom Blomqvist by six tenths of a second, with Olivier Pla in the #66 Ford a further 0.024s back in third.
Porsche's pair of mid-engined 911 RSRs were fourth and fifth in class, ahead of the best of the Ferrari 488 GTEs, while the quicker of Aston Martin's pair of new Vantage GTEs was seventh.
Matt Campbell set the pace in GTE Am in the #77 Proton Competition car, less than two tenths clear of fellow Porsche junior driver Matteo Cairoli in the sister #88 entry.
Third practice results:
Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Andre Lotterer Bruno Senna Neel Jani |
Rebellion R13 - Gibson | LMP1 | 1'57.120 | |
2 | 7 | Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'57.939 | 0.819 |
3 | 3 | Mathias Beche Thomas Laurent Gustavo Menezes |
Rebellion R13 - Gibson | LMP1 | 1'58.124 | 1.004 |
4 | 17 | Stéphane Sarrazin Matevos Isaakyan Egor Orudzhev |
BR Engineering BR1 - AER | LMP1 | 1'58.398 | 1.278 |
5 | 8 | Fernando Alonso Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'58.473 | 1.353 |
6 | 11 | Vitaly Petrov Mikhail Aleshin |
BR Engineering BR1 - AER | LMP1 | 1'59.147 | 2.027 |
7 | 10 | Henrik Hedman Ben Hanley Pietro Fittipaldi |
BR Engineering BR1 - Gibson | LMP1 | 1'59.719 | 2.599 |
8 | 4 | Oliver Webb Dominik Kraihamer Tom Dillmann |
ENSO CLM P1/01 - Nismo | LMP1 | 2'01.341 | 4.221 |
9 | 31 | Pastor Maldonado Nathanael Berthon Roberto Gonzalez |
Oreca 07 - Gibson | LMP2 | 2'02.281 | 5.161 |
10 | 26 | Jean-Eric Vergne Roman Rusinov Andrea Pizzitola |
Oreca 07 - Gibson | LMP2 | 2'02.481 | 5.361 |
11 | 38 | Ho-Pin Tung Stéphane Richelmi Gabriel Aubry |
Oreca 07 - Gibson | LMP2 | 2'03.357 | 6.237 |
12 | 36 | Nicolas Lapierre Pierre Thiriet Andre Negrao |
Alpine A470 - Gibson | LMP2 | 2'03.414 | 6.294 |
13 | 28 | Loic Duval François Perrodo Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Oreca 07 - Gibson | LMP2 | 2'03.524 | 6.404 |
14 | 37 | Nabil Jeffri Weiron Tan Jazeman Jaafar |
Oreca 07 - Gibson | LMP2 | 2'03.544 | 6.424 |
15 | 29 | Jan Lammers Giedo van der Garde Frits van Eerd |
Dallara P217 - Gibson | LMP2 | 2'04.732 | 7.612 |
16 | 50 | Fernando Rees Romano Ricci Erwin Creed |
Ligier JSP217 - Gibson | LMP2 | 2'06.401 | 9.281 |
17 | 67 | Harry Tincknell Tony Kanaan Andy Priaulx |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 2'13.693 | 16.573 |
18 | 82 | Antonio Felix da Costa Tom Blomqvist |
BMW M8 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 2'14.225 | 17.105 |
19 | 66 | Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla Billy Johnson |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 2'14.249 | 17.129 |
20 | 92 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 2'14.363 | 17.243 |
21 | 91 | Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 2'14.367 | 17.247 |
22 | 51 | James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 2'14.568 | 17.448 |
23 | 77 | Christian Ried Matt Campbell Julien Andlauer |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'15.410 | 18.290 |
24 | 97 | Jonathan Adam Maxime Martin Alex Lynn |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 2'15.457 | 18.337 |
25 | 71 | Sam Bird Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 2'15.460 | 18.340 |
26 | 88 | Khaled Al Qubaisi Matteo Cairoli Giorgio Roda |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'15.586 | 18.466 |
27 | 90 | Salih Yoluc Euan Hankey Charlie Eastwood |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE AM | 2'15.778 | 18.658 |
28 | 81 | Nick Catsburg Martin Tomczyk |
BMW M8 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 2'16.185 | 19.065 |
29 | 56 | Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey Egidio Perfetti |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'16.493 | 19.373 |
30 | 61 | Matt Griffin Mok Weng Sun Keita Sawa |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 2'17.471 | 20.351 |
31 | 70 | Olivier Beretta Eddie Cheever III Motoaki Ishikawa |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 2'17.545 | 20.425 |
32 | 54 | Giancarlo Fisichella Francesco Castellacci Thomas Flohr |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 2'17.662 | 20.542 |
33 | 98 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE AM | 2'17.688 | 20.568 |
34 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Ben Barker Alex Davison |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'18.363 | 21.243 |
35 | 95 | Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim Darren Turner |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 2'18.493 | 21.373 |
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