Robin Frijns posted a 2m05.475s early in the session aboard the #31 WRT Oreca 07, which stood as the quickest time of the opening 90-minute practice period on Friday afternoon.
It was the first time this season that a P2 car has ended up ahead of the Hypercar class contenders, although the secondary prototypes were quickest in three of the four sessions at the official pre-season prologue test at Sebring ahead of the championship opener in March.
Frijns ended up just six hundredths clear of Filipe Albuquerque in the best of the two United Autosports Orecas that took second and third positions overall in FP1.
Albuquerque’s 2m05.538s compared with a 2m05.885s teammate Oliver Jarvis in the sister car.
Will Stevens made it four P2s in the top four with a 2m05.967s in the fastest of the two Orecas entered by the British JOTA team.
The solo Glickenhaus was fastest in the Hypercar category in fifth position overall in the hands of Romain Dumas.
The Frenchman’s 2m06.233s in the Pipo-engined Glickenhaus 007 Le Mans Hypercar gave him a six-tenth advantage over the next best car in class, the first of the Toyota LMHs.
Mike Conway set a 2m06.876s in the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, which has been rebuilt around a new monocoque after Jose Maria Lopez’s accident at Sebring, to take eighth place overall on the timesheets.
Sandwiched between the top two in the Hypercar category in sixth and seventh positions were the Penske Oreca LMP2 driven by Felipe Nasr and the second WRT entry with Norman Nato at the wheel.
The second Toyota finished the session in 13th position on a 2m08.802 from Sebastien Buemi, while the Sebring-winning Signatech Alpine team brought up the rear of the class.
Nicolas Lapierre set a 2m07.291s round the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps in the grandfathered LMP1 Alpine-Gibson A480, which has lost 20kW or 26bhp under the Balance of Performance for this weekend.
The free practice times from Toyota’s GR010 were significantly down on those it achieved on the design’s debut at Spa last year.
Kamui Kobayashi was quickest in class across the trio of practice sessions in 2021 with a 2m02.518s.
The Toyotas are running with a significantly different BoP to the 2021 championship opener: they are 30kg heavier, have less power and can only deploy hybrid power at 190km/h rather than last year’s 120km/h.
Kevin Estre ended up fastest in the #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 with a 2m14.583s, which gave him a margin of three tenths over teammate Gianmaria Bruni’s 2m14.906s.
Ferrari took third and fourth positions with its pair of AF Corse-run 488 GTE Evos.
Alessandro Pier Guidi’s 2m15.801s just shaded the 2m15.813s from Miguel Molina in the sister car.
The solo Chevrolet Corvette C8.R brought up the rear in GTE Pro courtesy of a 2m16.372s from circuit debutant Tommy Milner.
Matteo Cairoli went four tenths faster than Milner with 2m15.982s to top the GTE Am times aboard his Project 1 Porsche.
The session was red-flagged after approximately a minute as a result of a temporary IT failure in race control, but the session ran its full duration of an hour and a half on its resumption.
The red flag was also shown after the chequered flag had fallen when Ryo Hirakawa stopped the #8 Toyota on the Kemmel Straight in a simulated hybrid failure requested by the FIA.
Practice for the Spa 6 Hours, round two of the 2022 WEC, resumes at 9:05 local time on Friday. A further session of practice precedes qualifying at 18:20 for Saturday’s race.
2022 WEC Spa 6 Hours - FP1 results
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 31 |
 Sean Gelael  Robin Frijns  René Rast | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'05.475 | |
| 2 | 22 |
 Philip Hanson  Filipe Albuquerque  Will Owen | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'05.538 | 0.063 |
| 3 | 23 |
Alex Lynn Oliver Jarvis Josh Pierson | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'05.885 | 0.410 |
| 4 | 38 |
 Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'05.976 | 0.501 |
| 5 | 708 |
 Olivier Pla Romain Dumas  Pipo Derani | Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 2'06.233 | 0.758 |
| 6 | 5 |
Dane Cameron Emmanuel Collard Felipe Nasr | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'06.435 | 0.960 |
| 7 | 41 |
Rui Andrade  Ferdinand Habsburg Norman Nato | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'06.757 | 1.282 |
| 8 | 7 |
Mike Conway  Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez | Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 2'06.876 | 1.401 |
| 9 | 45 |
Steven Thomas  James Allen Rene Binder | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'06.950 | 1.475 |
| 10 | 9 |
 Robert Kubica  Louis Deletraz  Lorenzo Colombo | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'07.097 | 1.622 |
| 11 | 28 |
 Oliver Rasmussen Edward Jones  Jonathan Aberdein | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'07.211 | 1.736 |
| 12 | 83 |
François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'07.217 | 1.742 |
| 13 | 8 |
Sébastien Buemi  Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa | Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 2'07.271 | 1.796 |
| 14 | 36 |
Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere | Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 2'07.291 | 1.816 |
| 15 | 34 |
Jakub Smiechowski Alex Brundle Esteban Gutierrez | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'07.686 | 2.211 |
| 16 | 35 |
Jean Baptiste Lahaye Matthieu Lahaye François Heriau | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'07.808 | 2.333 |
| 17 | 1 |
Lilou Wadoux Sébastien Ogier Charles Milesi | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'08.581 | 3.106 |
| 18 | 10 |
Nico Müller  Ryan Cullen Sébastien Bourdais | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'08.621 | 3.146 |
| 19 | 44 |
 Miro Konopka Tijmen van der Helm Bent Viscaal | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 2'09.112 | 3.637 |
| 20 | 92 |
Michael Christensen Kevin Estre | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 2'14.583 | 9.108 |
| 21 | 91 |
Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 2'14.906 | 9.431 |
| 22 | 51 |
Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 2'15.801 | 10.326 |
| 23 | 52 |
 Miguel Molina Antonio Fuoco | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 2'15.813 | 10.338 |
| 24 | 46 |
Matteo Cairoli Mikkel Pedersen Nicolas Leutwiler | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'15.982 | 10.507 |
| 25 | 64 |
Tommy Milner Nick Tandy | Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 2'16.372 | 10.897 |
| 26 | 33 |
Ben Keating Henrique Chaves Marco Sorensen | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'16.398 | 10.923 |
| 27 | 56 |
Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'16.417 | 10.942 |
| 28 | 777 |
Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Charlie Fagg | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'16.844 | 11.369 |
| 29 | 98 |
 Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Nicki Thiim | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'16.914 | 11.439 |
| 30 | 88 |
Fred Poordad Patrick Lindsey  Jan Heylen | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'16.947 | 11.472 |
| 31 | 77 |
Christian Ried Sebastian Priaulx Harry Tincknell | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'16.982 | 11.507 |
| 32 | 86 |
Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'17.332 | 11.857 |
| 33 | 21 |
Simon Mann Christoph Ulrich  Toni Vilander | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'17.374 | 11.899 |
| 34 | 54 |
Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Nick Cassidy | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'17.429 | 11.954 |
| 35 | 85 |
Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Sarah Bovy | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'17.659 | 12.184 |
| 36 | 60 |
Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Giancarlo Fisichella | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'18.154 | 12.679 |
| 37 | 71 |
Franck Dezoteux Pierre Ragues Gabriel Aubry | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'18.465 | 12.990 |
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