Toyota beats Porsche by just 0.036s in Free Practice 1 at Spa

The track action began under cloudy skies but a dray track at Spa-Francorchamps this morning. The closeness of the first race last month looks set to continue as Toyota beat Porsche in the first Free Practice session but by just 0.036s!

Mike Conway set the best time of the session in the #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing TS 050 HYBRID to out-pace Brendon Hartley’s Porsche 919 Hybrid.

Andy Priaulx continued his excellent form with the fastest lap in the LMGTE Pro class with the #67 Ford Chip Ganassi Ford GT he shares with Harry Tincknell and Pipo Derani.

The Headlines from FP1......

• British ace in #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing 0505 HYBRID sets best time of 1m57.940s to claim top time in 90-minute session
• Brendon Hartley sets second fastest time in final ten minutes with a 1m57.976s to go within 0.036s of Conway’s best time
• Hartley suffers contact with #66 Ford GT of Olivier Pla during session but without significant damage
• Jose-Maria Lopez sits out the weekend as he recovers from Silverstone injury so Conway and Kobayashi race as a duo
• Neel Jani sets third best time in #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid
• Sebastien Buemi claims fourth in #8 Toyota ahead of third car which sees Yuji Kunimoto make debut in low-drag configured car
• Tight LMP2 class sees Gustavo Menezes lead the way in Signatech Alpine Matmut entry.
• American is just 0.091s ahead of G-Drive Racing ORECA time of 2m04.262s set by Alex Lynn
• CEFC Manor TRS Racing claim third place in LMP2 as Simon Trummer claims a 2m04.301s best lap time
• Andy Priaulx continues superb form by placing P1 in #67 Ford GT.
• Guernseyman peaks on 2m16.802s to head #91 Porsche 911 RSR
• Second Ford GT of Olivier Pla and Stefan Mucke places third
• Dempsey-Proton Porsche 911 RSR on top of LMGTE Am as Matteo Cairoli sets best lap of 2m18.089s
• Gulf Racing second as Ben Barker sets early session best of 2m18.730s
• Second Free Practice session scheduled for 16.45 this afternoon

All times can be found HERE