Nasr Narrowly Beats Pla to Overall Top Spot in Spa FP2

Team Penske LMP2 driver Felipe Nasr narrowly beat Glickenhaus Racing’s Olivier Pla to the overall top spot in Free Practice 2 for the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa.

Nasr scaled the 37-car leaderboard in the No. 5 Oreca 07 Gibson, with a time of 2:04.443 that he produced around 20 minutes into the 90-minute session.

Free Practice 2 kicked off Friday’s FIA World Endurance Championship track action at Spa and will be followed by a shorter FP3 and qualifying later in the day.

Nasr, who tested Porsche Penske Motorsport’s LMDh car at the same circuit three weeks ago, used his fastest lap to move above early leader Brendon Hartley who posted a 2:04.692 in the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.

Pla also eclipsed Hartley’s effort later in the session with a 2:04.464 for the No. 708 Glickenhaus 007 Pipo, but the Frenchman came up just 0.021 seconds short of beating Nasr’s outright benchmark.

Hartley settled for third overall and second in Hypercar, behind a one-two result for different American teams, while Oliver Jarvis ranked fourth-quickest in the No. 23 United Autosports Oreca.

Louis Deletraz completed the top five with a 2:05.020 for Prema, while Jose Maria Lopez was sixth in the table and a single tenth behind the Swiss LMP2 driver.

Porsche led Ferrari in the GTE-Pro classification courtesy of a 2:14.366 effort from Michael Christensen aboard the No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR-19.

The Danish driver ended up around six-tenths clear of second-placed James Calado in the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, with Antonio Fuoco third in the Italian marque’s sister No. 52 machine.

A late improvement from Richard Lietz put the No. 91 Porsche in fourth, ahead of the No. 64 Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.

GTE-Am was led by Matteo Cairoli who submitted a time of 2:15.604 behind the wheel of the No. 46 Team Project 1 Porsche.

Cairoli, who also set the pace in Free Practice 1 on Thursday, was the only GTE-Am driver to break the 2m 15s barrier around the 4.35-mile circuit during the second session.

Sebastian Priaulx was second in the No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche, with Giancarlo Fisichella third for Ferrari squad Iron Lynx.

FP2 was terminally red-flagged with seven minutes to go due to debris on track after Paul Dalla Lana’s Aston Martin Vantage GTE went through the gravel at Stavelot.

There was also a short Full Course Yellow after around 10 minutes of running due to Simon Mann going off in the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari.

The third and final Free Practice session is due to begin at 2 p.m. CEST (8 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Free Practice 2