Hartley Leads Porsche 1-2 in FP1 at Spa

Porsche has started the FIA World Endurance Championship weekend at Spa in the best way possible, with its pair of 919 Hybrids topping the time charts in opening Free Practice for Saturday’s Six Hours of Spa.

Brendon Hartley led the way in the sunny 90-minute session, reeling off a best lap of 1:58.012 in the No. 1 car.

The sister No. 2 Porsche of Neel Jani ended up second quickest, 0.565 seconds behind the Kiwi.

Toyota beat Audi to third, with the No. 6 TS050 Hybrid of Mike Conway 1.417 seconds behind the pacesetter and half a second quicker than the No. 7 Audi R18.

Tequila Patron ESM led the times in LMP2, with Pipo Derani’s No. 31 Ligier JS P2 Nissan occupying the top spot for the entire session.

René Rast’s No. 26 G-Drive Racing Oreca 05 Nissan posted the second fastest time (+0.055s), with the Signatech Alpine A460 Nissan of Stéphane Richelmi in third (+0.135s).

Aston Martin led the way in GTE-Pro and GTE-Am, with Jonny Adam setting a 2:19.296 in the No. 97 Vantage V8, 0.514 seconds in front of the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE of Gianmaria Bruni.

No significant incidents were reported during the session.

Free Practice 2 gets underway at 4:30 p.m. local time.

RESULTS: Free Practice 1