SMP Racing top timesheets in FP1; Aston Martin and Ford neck and neck in LMGTE Pro
Russian LMP1 entrant SMP Racing showed incredible pace during the first free practice session at the TOTAL 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. The main headlines from FP1 are below.
• SMP Racing astound LMP1 rivals with new found pace in FP1
• Sergey Sirotkin laps fastest with a 1m56.264s lap to shock the paddock and claim comfortably the fastest time in the no.17 BR Engineering BR1-AER
• Stoffel Vandoorne hits the ground running at home track of Spa with second position in No.11 SMP Racing car
• Home hero sets best session lap time of 1m58.236s to consolidate SMP Racing’s surprise domination of first track running at Spa
• Toyota Gazoo Racing put in the shade in first session as No.8 car places third ahead of sister Toyota TS 050 HYBRID
• Sebastien Buemi and Mike Conway set times in No.8 and No.7 cars respectively but are 2.4s and 2.6s off SMP Racing cars
• In the LMGTE Pro class, Maxime Martin set the fastest lap in the No.97 Aston Martin Vantage
• Belgian ace laps in 2m15.290s after setting peak lap early in the 90-minute session
• No.67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing car driven by Harry Tincknell places second as British driver sets final lap best which is identical to Martin’s fastest
• BMW Team MTEK end session in third place with No.82 BMW M8 GTE car driven by Antonio Felix da Costa
• Ford Chip Ganassi No.66 duo of Stefan Mucke and Olivier Pla take fourth in class
• LMP2 sees points leading Signatech Alpine Matmut car head the class as Nicolas Lapierre sets 2m03.441s
• Lapierre’s best is 0.3s ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne’s 2m03.677s lap in the returning G-Drive Racing Aurus 01-Gibson.
• Third in LMP2 is the Racing Team Nederland Dallara which just heads the DragonSpeed Oreca in fourth
• Gulf Racing lead LMGTE Am as Ben Barker peaks with a 2m17.068s lap in the evocatively liveried Porsche 911 RSR
• Second in LMGTE Am is the title chasing Spirit of Race Ferrari as Giancarlo Fisichella sets a best of 2m17.316s lap
• Placing third was the Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR as Matt Campbell produces quickest lap of 2m17.579s for German team
The second free practice session is scheduled to begin at 16.25 local time. Live times can be followed HERE or download the official FIA WEC app.
