6 Hours of Spa: Porsche Lead The Way Ahead Of Qualifying

[Jack Hunsley]

As the WEC field prepares to go into qualifying later today it is the two Porsches who topped the time sheets just ahead of the #6 Toyota.

After Toyota were able to pull of a surprising 1-2 finish in Thursday's Free Practice 2 , Porsche returned to the top of the time sheets courtesy of Timo Bernhard's 1:56.465 with the sister #2 car 1.6 seconds behind. However, with the #6 Toyota in third place ahead of both Audi's, it looks as though we can be confident of an excellent battle in LMP1 come qualifying.

All was not plain sailing in LMP1 however, after both the #5 Toyota and #8 Audi suffered problems during the session, with a technical issue plaguing Toyota whilst the #8 Audi made contact with the #78 KCMG 911 with Loic Duval at the wheel. Audi however was able to repair the suspension damage and get the car back out on track later in the session.

In LMP2 G-Drive continued their good form this weekend with Rene Rast putting the #26 machine top of the time sheets ahead of the #36 DC Baxi Alpine and the #36 Signatech Alpine entries. Whilst in the GT classes it was the #51 AF Corse and #98 Aston Martin machines that lead the way as the field prepares to go into qualifying.

6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps - Free Practice 3 - Official Results

1. LMP1 - #1 Porsche Team (Bernhard, Webber, Hartley) - 1:56.465
2. LMP1 - #2 Porsche Team (Dumas, Jani, Lieb) - +1.698
3. LMP1 - #6 Toyota Gazoo Racing (Sarrazin, Conway, Kobayashi) - +1.862
4. LMP1 - #7 Audi Sport Team Joest (Fässler, Lotterer, Tréluyer) - +2.511
5. LMP1 - #5 Toyota Gazoo Racing (Davidson, Buemi, Nakajima) - +2.975
6. LMP1 - #8 Audi Sport Team Joest (Di Grassi, Duval, Jarvis) - +3.830
7. LMP1 - #13 Rebellion Racing (Tuscher, Kraihamer, Imperatori) - +6.286
8. LMP1 - #4 ByKolles Racing Team (Trummer, Webb, Rossiter) - +7.774
9. LMP1 - #12 Rebellion Racing (Prost, Piquet Jr, Heidfeld) - +8.253
10. LMP2 - #26 G-Drive Racing (Rusinov, Berthon, Rast) - +10.876
11. LMP2 - #35 Baxi DC Racing Alpine (Cheng, Tung, Panciatici) - +11.306
12. LMP2 - #36 Signatech Alpine (Menezes, Lapierre, Richelmi) - +11.646
13. LMP2 - #44 Manor (Graves, Stevens, Jakes) - +12.303
14. LMP2 - #43 RGR Sport by Morand (Gonzalez, Albuquerque, Senna) - +13.029
15. LMP2 - #27 SMP Racing (Minassian, Mediani) - +13.294
16. LMP2 - #42 Strakka Racing (Leventis, Watts, Kane) - +13.320
17. LMP2 - #38 G-Drive Racing (Dolan, Van Der Garde, Dennis) - +13.507
18. LMP2 - #37 SMP Racing (Petrov, Ladygin, Shaytar) - +13.690
19. LMP2 - #31 Extreme Speed Motorsport (Dalziel, Derani, Cumming) - +14.299
20. LMP2 - #45 Manor (Rao, Bradley, Merhi) - +14.541
21. LMP2 - #30 Extreme Speed Motorsport (Sharp, Brown, Van Overbeek) - +14.899
22. GTE Pro - #51 AF Corse (Bruni, Calado) - +21.409
23. GTE Pro - #71 AF Corse (Rigon, Bird) - +21.738
24. GTE Pro - #95 Aston Martin Racing (Thiim, Sørensen, Turner) - +22.265
25. GTE Pro - #97 Aston Martin Racing (Stanaway, Rees) - +22.790
26. GTE Pro - #67 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK (Franchitti, Priaulx, Tincknell) - +23.393
27. GTE Am - #98 Aston Martin Racing (Dalla Lana, Lamy, Lauda) - +23.395
28. GTE Pro - #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing (Lietz, Christensen) - +23.557
29. GTE Am - #50 Larbre Competition (Yamagishi, Ragues, Ruberti) - +24.029
30. GTE Am - #78 KCMG (Ried, Henzler, Camathias) - +24.302
31. GTE Pro - #66 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK (Johnson, Muecke, Pla) - +24.476
32. GTE Am - #88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing (Al Qubaisi, Hansson, Bachler) - +24.500
33. GTE Am - #83 AF Corse (Perrodo, Collard, Aguas) - +24.597
34. GTE Am - #86 Gulf Racing (Wainwright, Carroll, Barker) - +24.938​

 

[the_sigman]

Does ByKolles work with Audi? Those prototypes are similar looking from the outside

 

[Andrew Harper]

Interesting the pace of the Toyotas. Will be curious to see how qualifying turns out.

When I was at Silverstone there was a discussion on RLM that the design philosophy of the Toyota was they aimed for slippery and low drag (at the expense of some downforce) this meant that although they were more or less on the pace, Silverstone's layout was hurting them. Looks like Spa suits the car much more.

Tomorrows race could be great and Le Mans could be even better

Not sure about the gap between the #1 car and 2nd place car, did he do a fresh tyre run at the end?

EDIT: Well the Porsche Team seem to have had their Weetabix this morning for Quali. Two seconds faster than everyone else

 

[Nick Gregory]

2 seconds? RIP everyone else.

 

[Terra21]

Good to see fellow kiwi richie stanaway up there. To bad they got pipped at the end. Even though the aston martin's old its still good. I hope hartley doesn't write the porsche off again

 

[Andrew Harper]

2 seconds? RIP everyone else.

I'm still gonna watch it anyway!

At Silverstone Porsche had an interesting problem, they were the quickest car but the car was much more thirsty than the Audi. May not matter so much here but it will matter at Le Mans.

Can't remember if it was last year or the year before but Audi won at Spa simply because they stopped less than the competition (one or maybe two stops less if I remember)

So there is still gonna be a nice battle this afternoon

 

[Andrew Harper]

even though the aston martin's old its still good

Yep it's still delivering the goods. I was thinking the other day whether any of the new range would be eligible for GT classes. The new DB11 has a 6.0 V12 Twin Turbo which may make it not possible. not sure.

Yes, yes I would love to see a GTE Vulcan as well.....

 

[Terra21]

Yep aston is going in a new direction their ceo said the vulcan will be there last naturally aspirated car which is a shame

 

[Nick Gregory]

I think the replacement for the Vantage will probably have a twin-turbo V8, but Mercedes-based, so it'll sound like the devil gargling lava.