24h Le Mans
After Toyota at Silverstone (UK), Porsche recorded the fastest time in qualifying this afternoon at Spa-Francorchamps (Belgium), the stage for the second round of the World Endurance Championship. The Japanese manufacturer’s three cars followed closely behind, setting the scene for a tremendous battle when the race gets underway tomorrow!
The LMP1s put on quite a show in qualifying. Just as Toyota appeared to be heading for a second successive pole position, three-time Le Mans winner André Lotterer made his move. His time added to that of teammate Neel Jani puts the #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid into pole position. The German car leads the three Toyota TS050 Hybrids (#7, #9 and #8, in order), followed by the second Porsche, #2, with little more than a second separating the five LMP1 hybrids!
The only red flag of the two qualifying sessions involved the LMP2 class. CEFC Manor TRS Racing’s former Formula One driver Vitaly Petrov in the #25 Oreca 07 – Gibson crashed just after the Brussels hairpin. Jean Eric Vergne in the #24 sister car had clocked the best time in the class until G-Drive Racing’s #26 Oreca 07 – Gibson (Pierre Thiriet/Alex Lynn/Roman Rusinov) claimed its second successive pole position. It leads from the two Alpines (#36 and #35) of French outfit Signatech Alpine Matmut. Barely a whisker separates the top LMP2 cars too as the gap between the first four is less than four-tenths of a second!
Despite clocking the fastest time in the third practice session this morning, Ferrari had been rather quiet in qualifying until AF Corse eclipsed the two Ford GTs. The #71 Ferrari 488 GTE of Davide Rigon and Sam Bird will therefore start from pole position. This pair were also fastest in qualifying at Spa-Francorchamps last year and went on to win the race. Will they follow suit tomorrow? Time will tell! The two Ford GTs, #66 and #67 in that order, will line up behind the Italian machine. The new Porsche 911 RSRs and the two Aston Martin Vantages are further back, however – nearly two seconds down on the leading Ferrari.
There was greater suspense in store in LMGTE Am than in the Pro class. While the #77 Porsche 911 RSR of Dempsey-Proton Racing had dominated the session almost from start to finish, the #98 Aston Martin Vantage of Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla Lana and Mathias Lauda came through in the final minutes to snatch pole and relegate the German car to second place. The #54 Ferrari 488 GTE entered by Spirit of Race makes up the top three.
The six-hour race starts at 14:30 tomorrow, Saturday 7 May, and will therefore end after nightfall.
Photo (Pascal Saivet / VSA): The #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid during practice for the WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
