WEC Spa: Toyota beats Cadillac to fastest FP3 time on drying track

Times set early in the one-hour session were around 20 seconds off the dry pace set on Thursday, but improved steadily before a final flurry of quick times saw several different manufacturers take turns atop the leaderboard.

It was Kobayashi’s #7 GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar that ended up fastest with a 2m08.702s effort, despite the Japanese running wide at Blanchimont after he passed a GTE Am Porsche at the apex.

That put him 0.734s ahead of Earl Bamber’s #2 Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh, which had spun a few minutes earlier at the Bruxelles Hairpin.

However, it was still 6.831s down on the best dry time posted by Antonio Giovinazzi’s #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar in FP2.

Will Stevens moved Jota’s new #38 Porsche 963 up to third, as Antonio Felix da Costa enjoyed the bulk of running to acclimatise to the new machine after missing Thursday’s running on Formula E simulator duty.

Stevens’ 2m10.434s lap was however only the fourth-fastest time overall, as Ferdinand Habsburg whisked his #31 WRT ORECA-Gibson 07 LMP2 machine around 0.166s quicker than Stevens and 0.961s up on his nearest class rival.

That honour fell to Gabriel Aubry’s Vector Sport ORECA, who pipped the #8 Toyota to fifth overall, with Ryo Hirakawa the only driver inside the top 10 overall not to set his best time on the final tour.

#2 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R: Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Richard Westbrook (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Sebastien Bourdais took the second Ganassi Cadillac to fifth in the 13-car Hypercar field after its running was curtailed early in FP2.

Behind Filipe Albuquerque’s #22 United Autosports ORECA LMP2, Antonio Fuoco put the best of the Ferrari LMHs ninth overall ahead of Albuquerque’s team-mate Josh Pierson, who at one point was six seconds quicker than his nearest class rival before falling back late on.

Romain Dumas had been fastest of all with four minutes to go in the Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 LMH before dropping back to 11th overall and the seventh of the Hypercar entries on a 2m12.032s lap as conditions continued to improve.

That was enough to move him ahead of both factory Porsche Hypercars, with Fred Makowiecki glancing the tyre barriers at Stavelot in the #5 Penske-run 963 and having to pit after his gravelly excursion.

Several Hypercar crews didn’t set a competitive time late in the session when track was at its best, including the #51 Ferrari in which Giovinazzi was for some time the quickest on a 2m14.305s.

That only proved to be the 15th fastest time in the final reckoning, just behind the #6 Penske Porsche of Kevin Estre – another not to punch for truly competitive times in the dying minutes.

The two Peugeot 9X8 LMH machines of Nico Muller and Mikkel Jensen had run Giovinazzi close in the middle phase of the session, but also elected not to run at the end.

Vanwall’s Vandervell 680 LMH completed the Hypercar field in the hands of Tom Dillmann after losing time recovering from a spin for Esteban Guerrieri at La Source.

The flurry of late improvements in LMP2 that ended with Habsburg on top also meant the class’s long-time leader ended up eighth at the flag.

The #36 Signatech-run Alpine of Matthieu Vaxiviere had led the way from Pierson’s team-mate Tom Blomqvist until conditions improved and was joined in not setting its best time near the end by the #28 Jota machine that David Heinemeier-Hansson took over the grass at Pif-Paf.

#31 Team WRT Oreca 07 - Gibson: Sean Gelael, Ferdinand Habsburg-Lothringen, Robin Frijns (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

The GTE Am class was headed by Matteo Cressoni’s #60 Iron Lynx Porsche 911 RSR-19.

The Italian’s 2m25.726s lap proved 3.355s faster than Casper Stevenson in the TF Sport-run #777 D’Station Aston Martin.

Lilou Wadoux spun into the Turn 9 barriers in her #83 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo to bring out a full course yellow, but it still ended up third quickest on the timesheets courtesy of Alessio Rovera.

The #54 AF Ferrari was repaired after Thomas Flohr was clouted by Diego Alessi in a crash at Radillon which caused FP2 to be red-flagged, but the latter’s #21 machine didn’t appear as a replacement chassis is being sourced from Italy.

WEC Spa - FP3 results:

Cla	Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval
1	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	22	2'08.702
2	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook	Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	16	2'09.436	0.734	0.734
3	Sean Gelael Ferdinand Habsburg Robin Frijns	Oreca 07	LMP2	21	2'10.268	1.566	0.832
4	Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens Ye Yifei	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	22	2'10.434	1.732	0.166
5	Ryan Cullen Matthias Kaiser Gabriel Aubry	Oreca 07	LMP2	21	2'11.229	2.527	0.795
6	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	22	2'11.344	2.642	0.115
7	Sébastien Bourdais Renger van der Zande Jack Aitken	Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	15	2'11.585	2.883	0.241
8	Frederick Lubin Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque	Oreca 07	LMP2	20	2'11.732	3.030	0.147
9	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	21	2'11.803	3.101	0.071
10	Josh Pierson Tom Blomqvist Oliver Jarvis	Oreca 07	LMP2	19	2'11.943	3.241	0.140
11	Romain Dumas Olivier Pla Franck Mailleux	Glickenhaus 007	HYPERCAR	20	2'12.032	3.330	0.089
12	Dane Cameron Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	21	2'12.744	4.042	0.712
13	Doriane Pin Mirko Bortolotti Daniil Kvyat	Oreca 07	LMP2	20	2'13.349	4.647	0.605
14	Kevin Estre Andre Lotterer Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	19	2'14.289	5.587	0.940
15	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi	Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	21	2'14.305	5.603	0.016
16	Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	20	2'14.567	5.865	0.262
17	Filip Ugran Bent Viscaal Andrea Caldarelli	Oreca 07	LMP2	21	2'15.837	7.135	1.270
18	Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	21	2'15.966	7.264	0.129
19	Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri Jacques Villeneuve	Vanwall Vandervell 680	HYPERCAR	15	2'18.198	9.496	2.232
20	Rui Andrade Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz	Oreca 07	LMP2	19	2'19.052	10.350	0.854
21	Matthieu Vaxiviere Julien Canal Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	20	2'20.031	11.329	0.979
22	David Heinemeier Hansson Pietro Fittipaldi Oliver Rasmussen	Oreca 07	LMP2	20	2'21.928	13.226	1.897
23	Andre Negrao Memo Rojas Olli Caldwell	Oreca 07	LMP2	21	2'22.791	14.089	0.863
24	Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Albert Costa	Oreca 07	LMP2	20	2'23.216	14.514	0.425
25	Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Alessio Picariello	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	15	2'25.726	17.024	2.510
26	Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson Tomonobu Fujii	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	19	2'29.280	20.578	3.554
27	Luis Perez Companc Lilou Wadoux Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	14	2'29.691	20.989	0.411
28	Takeshi Kimura Scott Huffaker Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	20	2'30.412	21.710	0.721
29	PJ Hyett Gunnar Jeannette Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	20	2'30.463	21.761	0.051
30	Ben Keating Nicolas Varrone Nick Catsburg	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE AM	19	2'30.541	21.839	0.078
31	Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	16	2'30.952	22.250	0.411
32	Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	11	2'31.107	22.405	0.155
33	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	11	2'31.350	22.648	0.243
34	Ian James Daniel Mancinelli Alex Riberas	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	19	2'31.629	22.927	0.279
35	Christian Ried Mikkel Pedersen Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	12	2'31.773	23.071	0.144
36	Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Rahel Frey	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	19	2'32.134	23.432	0.361
37	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Harry Tincknell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	19	2'33.144	24.442	1.010
38	Diego Alessi Simon Mann Ulysse De	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	0
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