WEC Spa: Giovinazzi leads Ferrari 1-2 in second practice

Giovinazzi’s #51 499P Le Mans Hypercar dipped under the benchmark time set in opening practice by Sebastien Buemi’s #8 Toyota GR010 LMH, posting a best lap of 2m01.871s.

That proved 1.278s faster than Molina in the second Ferrari, which spent much of the first half of the session in the garage before its 2m03.149s lap.

Earl Bamber put the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh third with a 2m03.338s early in the 90-minute session before the first of two red flags triggered as two Hypercars hit trouble.

The sister Ganassi #3 Cadillac which is contesting the full IMSA SportsCar Championship season and making a WEC cameo at Spa stopped on track in Renger van der Zande’s hands at the same time as Dane Cameron’s #5 Penske-run Porsche 963 LMDh lost power.

The second works Porsche also lost track time as Andre Lotterer stopped the #6 machine with hybrid problems.

Ryo Hirakawa improved to fourth in the lead #8 Toyota shortly before the second red flag caused by an incident involving the GTE Am Ferrari 488 GTE Evos of Thomas Flohr and Diego Alessi at Raidillon.  

The Japanese logged a 2m04.380s, which was 2.509s off the outright pace and over a second slower than the car's FP1 effort.

#2 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R - Hybrid: Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Richard Westbrook

Photo by: Paul Foster

Jean-Eric Vergne put the first of the Peugeot 9X8 LMHs into fifth on a 2m05.180s ahead of the garagiste Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 of Olivier Pla.

The second Toyota, the #7 in which Kamui Kobayashi managed a 2m05.729s, was 3.858s down on the Ferrari in seventh but comfortably clear of Nico Muller’s #94 Peugeot and Jota’s customer 963.

A 2m06.711s lap from Ye Yifei was 2.337s faster than the car managed in Will Stevens’ hands in FP1 as the team continues to blood in its newly-arrived machine following its preliminary shakedown at Weissach last week.

The Vanwall Vandervell 680 LMH was the last of the Hypercars to set a representative time, as Jacques Villeneuve punched in a 2m.08.557s shortly before the stoppage.

In LMP2, Robin Frijns set the pace in the #31 WRT ORECA-Gibson 07, going 0.410s quicker than Filipe Albuquerque’s #22 United Autosports example.

The Portuguese, who returns to the cockpit after missing the last round in Portimao on IMSA duty at Long Beach, couldn’t match the 2m06.108s lap from 2022 outright podium finisher Frijns.

Louis Deletraz put the #41 WRT ORECA third, ahead of Fabio Scherer (InterEuropol Competition) and Gabriel Aubry’s Vector Sport example.

Prior to Flohr’s crash, Davide Rigon had moved the #54 AF Corse Ferrari to the head of the GTE Am timesheets with a 2m15.736s lap.

His fellow factory driver Daniel Serra settled into second, 1.050s in arrears, aboard the #57 Kessel Racing machine while Riccardo Pera (GR Racing) put the best of the Porsches third.

WEC Spa - FP2 results: 

Cla	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi	Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	2'01.871
2	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	2'03.149	1.278
3	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook	Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	2'03.338	1.467
4	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	2'04.380	2.509
5	Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	2'05.180	3.309
6	Romain Dumas Olivier Pla Franck Mailleux	Glickenhaus 007	HYPERCAR	2'05.545	3.674
7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	2'05.729	3.858
8	Sean Gelael Ferdinand Habsburg Robin Frijns	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'06.108	4.237
9	Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	2'06.128	4.257
10	Frederick Lubin Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'06.518	4.647
11	Rui Andrade Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'06.633	4.762
12	Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens Ye Yifei	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	2'06.711	4.840
13	Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Albert Costa	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'06.759	4.888
14	Ryan Cullen Matthias Kaiser Gabriel Aubry	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'06.791	4.920
15	Filip Ugran Bent Viscaal Andrea Caldarelli	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'06.933	5.062
16	Josh Pierson Tom Blomqvist Oliver Jarvis	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'07.086	5.215
17	Doriane Pin Mirko Bortolotti Daniil Kvyat	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'07.145	5.274
18	David Heinemeier Hansson Pietro Fittipaldi Oliver Rasmussen	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'07.167	5.296
19	Matthieu Vaxiviere Julien Canal Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'07.914	6.043
20	Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri Jacques Villeneuve	Vanwall Vandervell 680	HYPERCAR	2'08.557	6.686
21	Andre Negrao Memo Rojas Olli Caldwell	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'08.969	7.098
22	Kevin Estre Andre Lotterer Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	2'10.875	9.004
23	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'15.736	13.865
24	Takeshi Kimura Scott Huffaker Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'16.786	14.915
25	Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'16.993	15.122
26	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Harry Tincknell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'17.172	15.301
27	Luis Perez Companc Lilou Wadoux Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'17.230	15.359
28	Sébastien Bourdais Renger van der Zande Jack Aitken	Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	2'17.364	15.493
29	Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Alessio Picariello	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'17.437	15.566
30	Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Rahel Frey	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'17.532	15.661
31	Diego Alessi Simon Mann Ulysse De	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'17.585	15.714
32	PJ Hyett Gunnar Jeannette Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'17.802	15.931
33	Dane Cameron Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	2'17.818	15.947
34	Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson Tomonobu Fujii	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'17.941	16.070
35	Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'18.053	16.182
36	Christian Ried Mikkel Pedersen Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'18.278	16.407
37	Ian James Daniel Mancinelli Alex Riberas	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'18.671	16.800
38	Ben Keating Nicolas Varrone Nick Catsburg	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE AM	2'19.163	17.292
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