FIA WEC, 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps - First Free Practice Report

The first ninety-minute WEC practice session kicked off at 11:45, beneath characteristically grey skies but, for the time being at least, no rain, although the track carried a residue of damp patches from heavy overnight downpours.

All four Audis were quick to take to the track, with Rebellion, Oak, Pescarolo and Strakka making up the first tranche. First across the line was Tréluyer in the #1 Audi R18 e-tron Hybrid, with Dindo Capello following through in the #2 Hybrid. Bonanomi was straight back into the pits in the #4, followed by Capello next time around, but Duval pushed on in the last of the R18s, the #4 Ultra. Initial flying laps from the two who stayed on track were around the 2:06 mark, and five seconds or so clear of the quickest of the petrol-engined cars.

The first of these to show form was the #17 Pescarolo Dome in the hands of Sébastien Bourdais, but Danny Watts swept by with twelve minutes gone to move the Strakka Racing HPD to the top of the P1 petrol pile, if only for a short while.

Later to join than most of the pack, Elton Julian had the Greaves Zytek cresting the P2 times after ten minutes, with the similar Zytek car second-quickest in the hands of Sam Hancock. Alexander Sims in the Status GP Lola Coupé then came along to demote the Zyteks, posting a 2:10.717 to head P2.

Andrea Belicchi was the first of the petrol class to get within spitting distance of the Audis, clocking 2:07.239 on the quarter hour for the #13 Rebellion Toyota, and closing to within two seconds of Tréluyer’s best of 2:04.434.

Only five cars in the GTE-Pro category, with AF Corse having the upper hand as the session got under way. Bruni’s early-pace 2:20.915 in the #51 F458 topped the charts, but by only half a second or so over Stefan Mucke in the AMR Vantage V8 #97, with Makowiecki taking the Luxury Racing Ferrari to third.

In GTE-Am, Matt Griffin had the #81 AF Corse Ferrari leading the pack after twenty minutes, 2:23.828 being half a second better than Rui Aguas in the #61 AF Corse-Waltrip F458.

The top Audis continued to shave away a few tenths here and there. Tréluyer maintained his edge over the pack, holding top slot for the leading Hybrid with that earlier best of 2:04.434, but Duval closed to within six-one-hundredths in the #3 R18 Ultra, with Capello third in the second Hybrid and Belicchi fourth in the Rebellion Lola. That order was upset at 12:12 when Marco Bonanomi rejoined his colleagues to create an all-Audi lock-out at the sharp end. Less than half a second separated all four R18s.

That demoted Rebellion’s #13 to fifth, with Bourdais easing ahead of Danny Watts to place the #13 Pescarolo sixth just ahead of the Strakka Racing HPD.

After a quiet start, Nicolas Prost brought the second Rebellion through to 8th place with half an hour completed, tipping the JRM HPD into ninth. Unable to show a representative pace during the early period was the #15 Oak Racing, only six laps completed and a best of 2:14.069 suggested teething issues for the Pescarolo Judd. 

With those 30 minutes ticked off, LMP2 was being headed by the #30 Status GP Lola on 2:10.717, with the Team Lotus example, #32 in the hands of James Rossiter, making it a one-two for the Huntingdon brand. The gap was just over half a second. Third in P2 came Stéphane Sarrazin in the Starworks Motorsport HPD, narrowly easing Elton Julian in the best of the Zyteks down to fourth. The quickest of the Oreca Nissans at this stage was the ADR Delta #25, holding fifth in the hands of John Martin, but showing signs of picking up the pace.

All that changed as the session neared forty minutes when Soheil Ayari swept by with a new best for the Pecom Racing Oreca 03 #49, posting a vastly improved best of 2:10.652 to move ahead of the whole pack and lead P2. Another Oreca picking up the late pace was the Murphy Prototypes example, #48, with the evergreen Warren Hughes getting to grips with the set-up for Spa, ninth quickest in the eighteen-strong P2 field.

Half way through the session and the first glimmers of sunshine started to break through the clouds – likely to be the only sighting of the big yellow orb this weekend, if local forecasts are to be believed. Combining that with improving temperatures in air, track and tyres, and a number of significant improvements appeared on the screens.

The four R18s maintained the Audi dominance in P1, with the two Rebellion Toyotas two seconds adrift but heading the chasing pack of petrol-powered cars. Bourdais had the Pescarolo Dome in seventh, just over a second clear of Strakka’s HPD, with the JRM example ninth. After that hesitant start, the Oak Racing Pescarolo had narrowed the gap in tenth to less than a second on the JRM HPD, and made it a clean sweep of the overall top-ten by the full LMP1 collective.

In GTE-Pro, AF Corse topped and tailed the class, with Bruni’s 2:20.915 fastest, but a quickest of 2:23.621 from the squad’s second F458 only good enough to stand the #71 fifth in the class, 32nd overall. Marc Lieb had slotted the #77 Team Felbermayr Porsche into second place in GTE-Pro, just ahead of Mucke in the AMR Vantage. In GTE-Am, a similar situation persisted, with Matt Griffin’s earlier time for the #81 AF Corse F458 holding top slot, by three-tenths from Paolo Ruberti in the #88 Team Felbermayr Porsche.

The car making the best progress across the board as the session approached an hour was the Murphy Prototypes Oreca 03, still in the hands of Warren Hughes, and through to sixth in class.

The session had been largely without incident, but  with twenty minutes remaining that changed for Nick Leventis in the #21 Strakka HPD, locking up on a patch of oil through La Source and heading off into the tyres on the exit. The damage looked slight, but the car was pushed back behind the barriers. Nick later suggested that the team might be missing the afternoon session.

Change came to GTE-Am in those closing minutes as well, with Ruberti coaxing a 2:23.135 from the #88 Porsche to move ahead of Griffin.

Having grown accustomed (last season, at least) to seeing the Nissan-powered Oreca’s setting the pace in P2, it was status quo largely restored as the weekend’s opening session drew to a close, but only narrowly. Where once we might have seen a clean sweep, the mix was decidedly more spicy, with Lola (Status GP and Lotus), HPD (Starworks) and Zytek (Greaves and Jota) all threatening that authority strongly. Not much more than a second and a half covered the first ten cars, and over a lap of this length, that’s not a huge margin.

Adding further diversity to this impressively strong P2 field are the two Oak Racing Morgans. Rather in sympathy with their P1 cousin, both cars (#24 and #35) made tentative starts to the team's Spa challenge. The #24 completed just six laps before suffering suspension damage, but prospects improved dramatically for the #35. As the session drew to a close, Bas Leinders exploited his local knowledge to post a new best of 2:11.820. That was initially good enough for sixth in P2, until Brendon Hartley demonstrated exactly why he’s been picked to fill the third seat in the Murphy Prototypes Oreca. The New Zealander, making his sportscar debut, posted 2:11.758 after just three laps on track.

The chequered flag dropped at 13:15. In truth, not a thrilling session, but a full ninety minutes with no major incidents, and all 42 cars taking to the track. One suspects much more to come from the Audis, which made precious few improvements in the final hour or so, but excellent to see such strength and depth in LMP2, where the competition looks fierce.

MP