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Autosport
Autosport
Sport
James Newbold

WEC Spa: Giovinazzi leads Ferrari 1-2 in second practice

Giovinazzi’s #51 499P Le Mans Hypercar dipped under the benchmark time set in opening practice by Sebastien Buemi’s #8 Toyota GR010 LMH, posting a best lap of 2m01.871s.

That proved 1.278s faster than Molina in the second Ferrari, which spent much of the first half of the session in the garage before its 2m03.149s lap.

Earl Bamber put the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh third with a 2m03.338s early in the 90-minute session before the first of two red flags triggered as two Hypercars hit trouble.

The sister Ganassi #3 Cadillac which is contesting the full IMSA SportsCar Championship season and making a WEC cameo at Spa stopped on track in Renger van der Zande’s hands at the same time as Dane Cameron’s #5 Penske-run Porsche 963 LMDh lost power.

The second works Porsche also lost track time as Andre Lotterer stopped the #6 machine with hybrid problems.

Ryo Hirakawa improved to fourth in the lead #8 Toyota shortly before the second red flag caused by an incident involving the GTE Am Ferrari 488 GTE Evos of Thomas Flohr and Diego Alessi at Raidillon.

The Japanese logged a 2m04.380s which was 2.509s off the outright pace and over a second slower than its FP1 effort.

#2 Cadillac Racing Cadillac V-Series.R - Hybrid: Earl Bamber, Alex Lynn, Richard Westbrook (Photo by: Paul Foster)

Jean-Eric Vergne put the first of the Peugeot 9X8 LMHs into fifth on a 2m05.180s ahead of the garagiste Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 of Olivier Pla.

The second Toyota, the #7 in which Kamui Kobayashi managed a 2m05.729s, was 3.858s down on the Ferrari in seventh but comfortably clear of Nico Muller’s #94 Peugeot and Jota’s customer 963.

A 2m06.711s lap from Ye Yifei was 2.337s faster than the car managed in Will Stevens’ hands in FP1 as the team continues to blood in its newly-arrived machine following its preliminary shakedown at Weissach last week.

The Vanwall Vandervell 680 LMH was the last of the Hypercars to set a representative time, as Jacques Villeneuve punched in a 2m.08.557s shortly before the stoppage.

In LMP2, Robin Frijns set the pace in the #31 WRT ORECA-Gibson 07, going 0.410s quicker than Filipe Albuquerque’s #22 United Autosports example.

The Portuguese, who returns to the cockpit after missing the last round in Portimao on IMSA duty at Long Beach, couldn’t match the 2m06.108s lap from 2022 outright podium finisher Frijns.

Louis Deletraz put the #41 WRT ORECA third, ahead of Fabio Scherer (InterEuropol Competition) and Gabriel Aubry’s Vector Sport example.

Prior to Flohr’s crash, Davide Rigon had moved the #54 AF Corse Ferrari to the head of the GTE Am timesheets with a 2m15.736s lap.

His fellow factory driver Daniel Serra settled into second, 1.050s in arrears, aboard the #57 Kessel Racing machine while Riccardo Pera (GR Racing) put the best of the Porsches third.

WEC Spa - FP2 results: 

Cla # Drivers Car Class Time Gap
1 51 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
Ferrari 499P HYPERCAR 2'01.871  
2 50 Italy Antonio Fuoco
Spain Miguel Molina
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Ferrari 499P HYPERCAR 2'03.149 1.278
3 2 New Zealand Earl Bamber
United Kingdom Alex Lynn
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
Cadillac V-Series.R HYPERCAR 2'03.338 1.467
4 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Japan Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 2'04.380 2.509
5 93 United Kingdom Paul di Resta
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
France Jean-Eric Vergne
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 2'05.180 3.309
6 708 France Romain Dumas
France Olivier Pla
France Franck Mailleux
Glickenhaus 007 HYPERCAR 2'05.545 3.674
7 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 2'05.729 3.858
8 31 Indonesia Sean Gelael
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
Netherlands Robin Frijns
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'06.108 4.237
9 94 France Loic Duval
United States Gustavo Menezes
Switzerland Nico Müller
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 2'06.128 4.257
10 22 Frederick Lubin
United Kingdom Philip Hanson
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'06.518 4.647
11 41 Portugal Rui Andrade
Poland Robert Kubica
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'06.633 4.762
12 38 Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Will Stevens
China Ye Yifei
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 2'06.711 4.840
13 34 Poland Jakub Smiechowski
Switzerland Fabio Scherer
Spain Albert Costa
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'06.759 4.888
14 10 Ireland Ryan Cullen
Matthias Kaiser
France Gabriel Aubry
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'06.791 4.920
15 9 Filip Ugran
Netherlands Bent Viscaal
Italy Andrea Caldarelli
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'06.933 5.062
16 23 United States Josh Pierson
United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'07.086 5.215
17 63 France Doriane Pin
Italy Mirko Bortolotti
Russian Federation Daniil Kvyat
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'07.145 5.274
18 28 Denmark David Heinemeier Hansson
Brazil Pietro Fittipaldi
Denmark Oliver Rasmussen
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'07.167 5.296
19 36 France Matthieu Vaxiviere
France Julien Canal
France Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'07.914 6.043
20 4 France Tom Dillmann
Argentina Esteban Guerrieri
Canada Jacques Villeneuve
Vanwall Vandervell 680 HYPERCAR 2'08.557 6.686
21 35 Brazil Andre Negrao
Mexico Memo Rojas
United Kingdom Olli Caldwell
Oreca 07 LMP2 2'08.969 7.098
22 6 France Kevin Estre
Germany Andre Lotterer
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 2'10.875 9.004
23 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
Italy Davide Rigon
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'15.736 13.865
24 57 Japan Takeshi Kimura
United States Scott Huffaker
Brazil Daniel Serra
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'16.786 14.915
25 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
Italy Riccardo Pera
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'16.993 15.122
26 88 United States Ryan Hardwick
Canada Zacharie Robichon
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'17.172 15.301
27 83 Argentina Luis Perez Companc
France Lilou Wadoux
Italy Alessio Rovera
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'17.230 15.359
28 3 France Sébastien Bourdais
Netherlands Renger van der Zande
United Kingdom Jack Aitken
Cadillac V-Series.R HYPERCAR 2'17.364 15.493
29 60 Italy Claudio Schiavoni
Italy Matteo Cressoni
Belgium Alessio Picariello
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'17.437 15.566
30 85 Belgium Sarah Bovy
Denmark Michelle Gatting
Switzerland Rahel Frey
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'17.532 15.661
31 21 Diego Alessi
France Simon Mann
Ulysse De
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'17.585 15.714
32 56 PJ Hyett
United States Gunnar Jeannette
Italy Matteo Cairoli
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'17.802 15.931
33 5 United States Dane Cameron
Denmark Michael Christensen
France Frédéric Makowiecki
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 2'17.818 15.947
34 777 Japan Satoshi Hoshino
Casper Stevenson
Japan Tomonobu Fujii
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'17.941 16.070
35 25 United Kingdom Ahmad Al Harthy
Michael Dinan
Ireland Charles Eastwood
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'18.053 16.182
36 77 Germany Christian Ried
Mikkel Pedersen
France Julien Andlauer
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'18.278 16.407
37 98 United Kingdom Ian James
Italy Daniel Mancinelli
Spain Alex Riberas
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'18.671 16.800
38 33 United States Ben Keating
Nicolas Varrone
Netherlands Nick Catsburg
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE AM 2'19.163 17.292
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