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WEC - Porsche 1-2 in Belgium qualifying

06.05.16
WEC - 2016 WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps Qualifying
wec, WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Porsche, Ferrari

Porsche claimed their first font row lock out since Bahrain with the no1 919 hybrid of Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley finishing the 25 minute session 0.7 seconds ahead of their teammates Marc Lieb and Neel Jani in the no2 Porsche. 

The session was red flagged 10 minutes into the session when a rear section of the no4 Bykolles Racing Team CLM-AER fell off at the bottom of Radillion and the debris had to be recovered by the marshals.  At the restart the two Porsches continued to hold the advantage, which they held until the chequered flag 15 minutes later.

Toyota will head up the second row for tomorrow’s WEC 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps, 1.9 seconds behind the lead Porsche and alongside the no8 Audi with a gap of just 0.018s separating the two cars.  The no5 Toyota heads up row 3 with the no7 Audi R18 taking the final spot for the LMP1 manufacturers, 2.122s behind the no1 Porsche.

The no13 Rebellion R-One of Dominik Kraihamer and Alexandre Imperatori was the quickest of the LMP1 Privateers with a 2m01.547 lap, 0.6 seconds ahead of the no12 Rebellion and 2 seconds ahead of the no4 Bykolles CLM.

G-Drive Racing Sets New Qualifying Lap Record in LMP2

The no26 G-Drive Racing Oreca 05-Nissan of Rene Rast and Roman Rusinov took their second pole position in two races with Rast posting a quick lap towards the end of the red flag interrupted session to put the Russian team at the top of the LMP2 grid for tomorrow’s race.  The 2m07.363 average lap beat last year’s best LMP2 time by 0.398s, which was also set G-Drive. 

The no36 Signatech Alpine of Nicolas Lapierre and Gustavo Menezes was second fastest with a 2m07.822 lap, 0.214 ahead of the no45 Manor Oreca05 of Roberto Mehri and Matthew Rao.

Ferrari Capitalise on Practice Pace to Claim 1-2 in LMGTE Pro

Ferrari will start the WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps at the head of the LMGTE field after Davide Rigon and Sam Bird, in the no71 F488 GTE claimed their second pole position of the season.  The Silverstone race winners finished ahead of James Calado and Gianmaria Bruni in the no51 AF Corse Ferrari with a 0.3 second advantage, with the no97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Fernando Rees and Richie Stanaway just 0.026s behind the second placed Ferrari.

Ford finished the session in fourth and fifth place, with the no66 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford GT of Stefan Mucke and Olivier Pla posting a time seven tenths adrift of the lead Ferrari and 0.038s ahead of the sister Ford GT driven by Marino Franchitti and Andy Priaulx.

Aston Martin Storm to Pole in LMGTE Am

The no98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage of Pedro Lamy and Paul Dalla Lana posting a 2m20.351 two lap average time to claim pole position by a comfortable 1.8 second margin over the no83 AF Corse Ferrari of Rui Aguas and Francois Perodo.  The no88 Abu Dhabi Proton Competition Porsche that claimed pole position at Silverstone could only manage to claim third at Spa, missing out on second by just 0.013s.

 

With the grid now set for the WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps all eyes are now focused on the race tomorrow afternoon, which is Round 2 of the FIA World Endurance Championship.  The race will get underway at 14h30 and concludes at 20h30.