WEC – Porsche takes pole at Spa-Francorchamps

Porsche took his first pole with the 919 Hybrid at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. In conditions made complicated by a drying track, the No. 14 of Lieb-Dumas-Jani set the best time on the four best laps achieved with an average of 2'01"198 achieved by the Swiss and the German. There Toyota No. 8 by Davidson-Stone-Buemi was beaten by 6 tenths while the first Audi, the n°2 of Tréluyer-Lotterer-Fässler, is in third place by more than a second.

The second TS040 driven by Sarrazin-Wurz-Nakajima is almost two seconds behind but is still ahead of the Porsche n°20 of Webber-Bernhard-Hartley and the two other R18s, the n°1 of Duval-Kristensen-Di Grassi ahead of the No. 3 Bonanomi-Albuquerque. On the other hand, the beginnings are difficult for Rebellion R-One. No. 13 of Cheers-Heidfeld-Beche is behind the LMP2s while the #12 of Belicchi-Kraihamer-Leimer couldn't even qualify due to recurring software problems since the start of testing.

In LMP2, it was KCMG which took pole with the Oreca 03-Nissan of Bradley-Howson-Imperatori which was credited with an average time of 2'12"103 which was ahead of the n°27 of SMP Racing of Mediani-Minassian-Zlobin. The sister car of the Russian team was unable to leave the pits after Viktor Shaitar went off the track during the second free practice session.

Unsurprisingly given its performance during free practice, pole in the GTE Pro category went to the Ferrari n°51 of Bruni-Vilander who achieved an average time of 2'32"338 despite the wet track conditions at the start of the session. Aston Martin follows by less than two tenths with the #97 of Turner-Mücke-Senna ahead of the two Team Manthey Porsches, the #92 of Makowiecki-Holzer occupying third place ahead of the #91 of Pilet-Bergmeister. The #99 Vantage of MacDowall-O'Young-Rees is only fifth in the category despite being only seven tenths behind pole!

The fight was also close in GTE Am even if it was again AF Corse which won with the n°61 of Venturi-Cioci-Perez Companc. With an average of 2'33"962, the Ferrari snatched first place from the Prospeed Compétition Porsche n75 driven by Collard-Perrodo-Vaxivière by only two hundredths of a second!

The start of the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps will be tomorrow at 14:30 p.m.