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

The quite incredible and totally unexpected turn-about in the weather at Spa continued through to Friday morning, with clear blue skies and hot sunshine baking off the early morning mists across the Ardennes.

That was the welcome news. From the paddock came a mixed bag of updates on various issues arising from yesterday’s track and pitlane action. The Status GP team continued to pack away their kit after yesterday’s decision to withdraw from this weekend’s event. Alexander Sims admits that the accident was a huge shock, and has put his hand up to making a mistake, following others through Eau Rouge a little too closely. He hates the fact that he’s let the rest of the team down, but that said; the error is totally uncharacteristic of a driver who is widely regarded as a very safe pair of hands. The tub has been inspected by the Lola engineers and passed as fit.

Adding to the list of pre-Le Mans team woes, confirmation this morning that Frédéric Fatien sustained a broken ankle whilst undertaking a simulated driver change in the pitlane after yesterday’s practice session. He is reported to have stepped back during the change, and caught his foot on a wheel lying on the ground behind him. He tripped awkwardly, and went down across his ankle. The injury puts him out of the car for several weeks, and effectively rules him out of the Gulf Racing Middle East squad for Le Mans.

Better news from JRM after their frustrating day on Thursday. The team traced the problem that curtailed their running to a component in the brake bias set-up, and successfully fixed that. They have also taken the opportunity to complete a full and scheduled engine change ahead of final practice and qualifying.

James Rossiter only did three laps on Thursday in the #32 Lotus Lola while the team worked on some minor issues with the car. They were confident that those have been addressed, so the plan had been to let James loose to set some quick times.

The session got under way spot on time at 10:00, but only ten cars took to the track in the opening moments.  Aside from a spin for the #45 though, the first few laps were largely uneventful, but then the first of the Audi flying-lap times popped up onto the screens, and they were impressive. Instantly onto the pace, 2:02.328 from Bonanomi in the #4 R18 Ultra, followed swiftly by a 2:02.726 from Marc Gené, and both were immediately quicker than anything seen the day before.

An initial quick lap from Ryan Dalziel in the Starworks HPD had the #44 LMP2 car running fifth overall before Jonny Kane blasted through in the Strakka LMP1 HPD to post a 2:09.093.

Thirteen minutes gone and Lotterer had a moment in the #1 R18 e-tron Hybrid, running off the track, but recovering without consequence. Staying on the black stuff was Nicolas Prost in the Rebellion Lola Toyota, moving through to sixth, just behind Kane, with a 2:08.653.

In LMP2, aside from that impressive run from Dalziel, making his debut at Spa, second quickest inside the opening quarter hour was Elton Julian in the Greaves Zytek Nissan, with Warren Hughes third-quickest in the Murphy Prototypes Oreca 03 #48. The four Audis aside, most cars had yet to improve on their Thursday times.

Twenty minutes completed and Andrea Belicchi moved through as the fastest of the petrol-powered cars, clocking 2:05.767 to become one of the first non-Audis to set an improved time, and move to within four one-hundredths of Dindo Capello’s best in the #2 R18 Hybrid. Two laps later and Prost snuck through to sixth with a two oh-seven.

Dalziel’s 2:10.405 held top-notch in LMP2 for some while, until Ayari came through with a 2:09.170 in the Pecom Racing Oreca, 24 minutes gone. The first reports of rain (at Stavelot) came seconds later, and then it turned heavy almost throughout the track.

It took only moments for a number of cars to encounter problems with the change of conditions. We even had the sight of one of the Lola Lotuses sliding into the pitlane entry, and partially blocking the track. Problems for the #12 Rebellion Lola as well, struggling at the other end of the pits. We then had the rare sight of an Audi, the #1 R18 e-tron Hybrid (Lotterer) overshooting the ‘new’ Bus Stop and having to recover the track almost opposite the pitlane entry.

With the track officially ‘wet’, almost every car returned to the pitlane for a change in boots, to the point where just a single car remained on track. That situation was rectified as a succession of cars returned with fresh tyres – probably ‘inters’ – as the rain eased off.

The #17 Pescarolo Dome had been one of those to head back out on new rubber, but a slow ascent of the pitlane exit ended with a temporary halt on the wide run through Blanchimont, before Bourdais fired the Judd back into life and returned to the pits.

Needless to say, times deteriorated with the track conditions, and a number of drivers were challenged to some entertaining slides and spins, including the #35 and #43, but thankfully without any contact with the scenery. The drivers of cars 26 and 15 were threatened with “investigation” for overtaking under yellows.

With forty minutes gone, the grey clouds had passed and the track was coming back to speed again, with some drivers finding the last couple of sectors quicker than they had previously. One or two posted improvements, particularly in the GT ranks, where Makowiecki set a new fastest time for the #59 with a 2:20.759 to move quickest in GTE-Pro. Giancarlo Fisichella followed that with a 2:21.418 to consolidate his claim to second-quickest in the category. Richard Lietz then moved third for Felbermayr in the #77.

Another driver pushing hard, and able to do so for the first time all weekend, was Peter Dumbrek, getting to grips with the #22 JRM HPD and up to 9th overall. Also lighting up the screens somewhat, Neel Jani in the #12 Rebellion Lola to move third overall, just ahead of Allan McNish in the #2 R18 Ultra. Just prior we’d had the odd sight of seeing the #12 being pushed along the pitlane by the marshals. McNish reacted immediately to Jani’s time by snatching the place back with a 2:03.607. His next lap included an overall fastest middle sector to post another improvement, but Fassler’s response was even more emphatic, clocking a 2:01.998 to set the first sub-two seen all weekend, comfortably quickest overall.

Five minutes to go and Robert Kauffman had an off in the #61 at the end of the Kemmel Straight, catching the barriers a glancing blow and sustaining some damage to the rear of the AF Corse-Waltrip Ferrari. He’d just been passed by Pons in the IMSA Performance Porsche, and then locked up on the entry into Les Combes, tagged the rear of the Porsche, and lost control. The #44 was also a spinner, and then one of the Corvettes joined the ballet. With the Starworks HPD temporarily stranded the session concluded with red flags two minutes before the scheduled end.

Just in time, Stefan Mucke made a significant improvement in the AMR Vantage to move quickest in GTE-Pro. In GTE-Am, Jean-Philippe Belloc quickest (2:40.949) in the #70 Larbre Corvette ahead of the #67 IMSA Performance Porsche and the #58 Luxury Racing F458 third. There was also a last-lap improvement from Sam Hancock in the #38 Zytek Nissan, 2:13.623, to stand 23rd overall and end an otherwise frustrating session for Jota.

So a third and final clean-sweep in practice for the Spa 6 Hours from Audi, and with a full 1.5 seconds covering the quartet of R18s. A strong showing from the Rebellion Toyotas cannot disguise the persistent dominance of the diesel-powered cars, with more than three seconds separating the quickest diesel from the fastest petrol-engined Lola. Matters in LMP2 remain far more fluid, with five different chassis manufacturers in the top seven and roughly two seconds covering the top eight.