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WEC - The Scene is Now Set For Qualifying in Belgium

06.05.16
2016 WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps - Free Practice 3
weC, WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Porsche, Ferrari

Under a cloudless blue sky and bright sunshine the 34 cars taking part in the WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Round 2 of the FIA World Endurance Championship, took to the track for the final practice session before qualifying later today.

Porsche once again took the top two spots on the time sheets with the no1 919 hybrid of Timo Bernhard setting a 1m56.465 lap, the quickest of the weekend so far but still 1.7 seconds slower than the 2015 pole position two lap average time set by Bernhard and Hartley last year.  The no6 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi was third quickest, just 0.144 slower than the no2 Porsche of Neel Jani.  The no7 Audi was fourth and the no5 Toyota fifth.

The no8 Audi was sixth quickest after missing the whole of free practice 2 with an axle failure.  More problems dogged the R18 when Loïc Duval tangled with the no78 KCMG Porsche of Christian Ried at the last corner.  Damage to the front of the car saw Duval limp back to the pits around the entire 7km Spa-Francorchamps track. 

The no13 Rebellion Racing R-One AER was the quickest of the privateer entries with Dominik Kraihamer setting a 2m02.295 lap, 1.5 seconds ahead of the no4 Bykolles CLM-AER of James Rossiter.

G-Drive Racing were the quickest of the LMP2 competitors with Rene Rast setting a 2m07.341 lap, faster than the 2m07.761 two lap average pole position time set by the team in 2015. The Oreca 05-Nissan was 0.4 seconds faster than the two Alpines with the no35 Baxi DC Racing Alpine of Nelson Panciatici just ahead of the no36 Signatech Alpine of Nicolas Lapierre.

Ferrari took the top two spots in the LMGTE Pro class with the no51 F488 of Gimmi Bruni setting a 2m17.874, 0.33s ahead of the no71 Ferrari of Davide Rigon.  The no95 and no97 Aston Martins were third and fourth respectively ahead of the first of the Ford GTs.

Aston Martin was quickest in LMGTE Am with the no98 Vantage of Pedro Lamy setting a 2m19.860 lap, 0.6s ahead of the no50 Larbre Competition Corvette of Paolo Ruberti.

The next track session will be qualifying for the WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps with the LMGTE Pro and Am cars starting their 25-minute session 16h05 followed by the LMP1 and 2 cars at 16h40.