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WEC Spa: Ferrari leads the way in FP1 as new manufacturers impress

Ferrari WEC Antonio Fuoco Porsche Antonio Giovinazzi Lamborghini Spa (Facility) BMW Aston Martin Chevrolet

Antonio Fuoco led the way in the 90-minute session with a time that gave him a margin of more than a second over team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi.

Fuoco posted a 2m05.690s early in Free Practice 1 aboard the #50 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar, which compared with Giovinazzi’s 2m06.831s in the #51.

The times from Ferrari, which dominated last month’s Imola WEC round before strategic errors cost it victory, were some way behind those set in first free practice 12 months ago at Spa.

The fastest Ferrari driver was Fuoco with a 2m04.632s at a time when the 499P was 13kg lighter under the Balance of Performance.

Two of the manufacturers with new Hypercar contenders this year led the chase of Ferrari on the commencement of track activities at the third round of this year’s WEC.

Daniil Kvyat took third spot in the factory Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63 LMDh, just ahead of Nicolas Lapierre in the best of the Signtech-run Alpine A424 LMDhs.

Kvyat’s 2m06.998s left him 1.3s off the pace, while Lapierre was only two hundredths behind on 2m07.020s.

#63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx Lamborghini SC63: Mirko Bortolotti, Andrea Caldarelli, Daniil Kvyat (Photo by: Paul Foster)

Yifei Ye took fifth position in the Ferrari run by AF on a customer basis, courtesy of a 2m07.087s, while Neel Jani rounded out the top six with a 2m07.180s aboard the Proton Porsche 963 LMDh.

The two factory Porsches took seventh and eighth, Laurens Vanthoor’s 2m07.393s giving him a margin of one tenth over Frederic Makowiecki, who ended up on 2m07.522s.

The top Peugeot 2024 9X8 LMH was the #93 car in which Nico Muller posted a 2m07.580s to take ninth, while the second Alpine rounded out the top 10 with a 2m07.633s from Paul-Loup Chatin.

Toyota, winner last time out in the WEC at Imola in April, took 11th in the times with a lap from Sebastien Buemi that was nearly two seconds off the pace around the 4.35-mile Spa lap.

Cadillac ended up 13th with its solo Ganassi-run V-Series.R driven by Earl Bamber, while quickest of the Jota customer Porsches was the British team’s #12 entry in the hands of Callum Ilott.

Isotta Frachini brought up the rear in Hypercar with its Tipo 6 LMH Competizione driven by Jean-Karl Vernay.

The TF Sport Chevrolet team led the way in LMGT3 with Daniel Juncadella.

The Spaniard’s 2m21.885s at the wheel of the #82 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3-R put him more than three-tenths up on the AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 in which Davide Rigon got down to 2m22.220s.

#82 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R: Hiroshi Koizumi, Sebastien Baud, Daniel Juncadella (Photo by: Emanuele Clivati | AG Photo)

Aston Martin took third with the Heart of Racing entry with Daniel Mancinelli at the wheel, with Michele Gatting fourth driving the Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2.

BMW, which claimed class honours at Imola, lined up fifth with Maxime Martin, while the United Autosports McLaren rounded out the top six.

Second free practice begins at 17:30 local time.

WEC Spa FP1 Results

   
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2
   
Cla Team # Drivers Car Laps Time Interval km/h
1
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
50 Italy A. Fuoco Spain M. Molina Denmark N. Nielsen Ferrari 499P 34

2'05.690

   200.607
2
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
51 Italy A. Pier Guidi United Kingdom J. Calado Italy A. Giovinazzi Ferrari 499P 38

+1.141

2'06.831

 1.141 198.803
3
Lamborghini Iron Lynx HYPERCAR
63 Italy M. Bortolotti Italy A. Caldarelli Russian Federation D. Kvyat Lamborghini SC63 36

+1.308

2'06.998

 0.167 198.541
4
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
36 France N. Lapierre Germany M. Schumacher France M. Vaxiviere Alpine A424 34

+1.330

2'07.020

 0.022 198.507
5
AF Corse HYPERCAR
83 Poland R. Kubica Israel R. Shwartzman China Y. Yifei Ferrari 499P 34

+1.397

2'07.087

 0.067 198.402
6
Proton Competition HYPERCAR
99 Switzerland N. Jani France J. Andlauer Porsche 963 30

+1.490

2'07.180

 0.093 198.257
7
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
6 France K. Estre Germany A. Lotterer Belgium L. Vanthoor Porsche 963 37

+1.703

2'07.393

 0.213 197.926
8
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
5 Australia M. Campbell Denmark M. Christensen France F. Makowiecki Porsche 963 33

+1.832

2'07.522

 0.129 197.725
9
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
93 Denmark M. Jensen Switzerland N. Müller Peugeot 9X8 2024 27

+1.890

2'07.580

 0.058 197.635
10
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
35 France P. Chatin France J. Gounon France C. Milesi Alpine A424 33

+1.943

2'07.633

 0.053 197.553
11
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
8 Switzerland S. Buemi New Zealand B. Hartley Japan R. Hirakawa Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 35

+1.986

2'07.676

 0.043 197.487
12
BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR
20 South Africa S. Van Der Linde Netherlands R. Frijns Germany R. Rast BMW M Hybrid V8 33

+2.051

2'07.741

 0.065 197.386
13
CADILLAC RACING HYPERCAR
2 New Zealand E. Bamber United Kingdom A. Lynn Cadillac V-Series.R 38

+2.074

2'07.764

 0.023 197.351
14
BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR
15 Belgium D. Vanthoor Italy R. Marciello Germany M. Wittmann BMW M Hybrid V8 35

+2.174

2'07.864

 0.100 197.197
15
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
12 United Kingdom W. Stevens United Kingdom C. Ilott Porsche 963 32

+2.286

2'07.976

 0.112 197.024
16
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
7 United Kingdom M. Conway Japan K. Kobayashi Netherlands N. de Vries Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 36

+2.461

2'08.151

 0.175 196.755
17
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
94 United Kingdom P. di Resta France L. Duval Peugeot 9X8 2024 29

+2.675

2'08.365

 0.214 196.427
18
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
38 United Kingdom J. Button United Kingdom P. Hanson Denmark O. Rasmussen Porsche 963 29

+2.981

2'08.671

 0.306 195.960
19
Isotta Fraschini HYPERCAR
11 Canada A. Serravalle
C. Bennett
France J. Vernay 		Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 Competizione LMH 32

+4.021

2'09.711

 1.040 194.389
20
TF Sport LMGT3
82 Japan H. Koizumi
S. Baud
Spain D. Juncadella 		Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 33

+15.195

2'20.885

 11.174 178.971
21
Vista AF Corse LMGT3
54 Switzerland T. Flohr Italy F. Castellacci Italy D. Rigon Ferrari 296 GT3 31

+15.530

2'21.220

 0.335 178.546
22
Heart of Racing Team LMGT3
27 United Kingdom I. James Italy D. Mancinelli Spain A. Riberas Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 32

+15.697

2'21.387

 0.167 178.336
23
IRON DAMES LMGT3
85 Belgium S. Bovy Switzerland R. Frey Denmark M. Gatting Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 27

+16.196

2'21.886

 0.499 177.708
24
TEAM WRT LMGT3
46 United Kingdom A. Al Harthy Italy V. Rossi Belgium M. Martin BMW M4 GT3 33

+16.250

2'21.940

 0.054 177.641
25
United Autosports LMGT3
59 J. Cottingham N. Costa Switzerland G. Saucy McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 27

+16.345

2'22.035

 0.095 177.522
26
IRON LYNX LMGT3
60 Italy C. Schiavoni Italy M. Cressoni
F. Perera
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 29

+16.400

2'22.090

 0.055 177.453
27
TEAM WRT LMGT3
31
D. Leung
Indonesia S. Gelael Brazil A. Farfus 		BMW M4 GT3 31

+16.585

2'22.275

 0.185 177.222
28
AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3
87 Japan T. Kimura
E. Masson
Argentina J. Lopez 		Lexus RC F GT3 31

+16.616

2'22.306

 0.031 177.184
29
Manthey EMA LMGT3
91
Y. Shahin
M. Schuring
Austria R. Lietz 		Porsche 911 GT3 R 33

+16.618

2'22.308

 0.002 177.181
30
Vista AF Corse LMGT3
55 France F. Heriau France S. Mann Italy A. Rovera Ferrari 296 GT3 29

+16.777

2'22.467

 0.159 176.984
31
TF Sport LMGT3
81 Belgium T. Van Rompuy Portugal R. Andrade Ireland C. Eastwood Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 33

+16.797

2'22.487

 0.020 176.959
32
Proton Competition LMGT3
88 Italy G. Roda
M. Pedersen
Norway D. Olsen 		Ford Mustang GT3 26

+16.943

2'22.633

 0.146 176.778
33
D'Station Racing LMGT3
777 France C. Mateu
E. Bastard
Denmark M. Sorensen 		Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 29

+17.030

2'22.720

 0.087 176.670
34
United Autosports LMGT3
95 United Kingdom J. Caygill Chile N. Pino Japan M. Sato McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 31

+17.267

2'22.957

 0.237 176.377
35
Proton Competition LMGT3
77 United States R. Hardwick Canada Z. Robichon United Kingdom B. Barker Ford Mustang GT3 24

+17.617

2'23.307

 0.350 175.946
36
Manthey PureRxcing LMGT3
92
A. Malykhin
J. Sturm
Austria K. Bachler 		Porsche 911 GT3 R 34

+17.978

2'23.668

 0.361 175.504
37
AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3
78
A. Robin
Russian Federation T. Boguslavskiy Japan R. Miyata 		Lexus RC F GT3 22

+18.857

2'24.547

 0.879 174.437
View full results  
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