Porsche Leads Opening Hour at Spa

Photo: Vincent Wouters

Porsche leads the way with one hour complete in the FIA WEC Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

The pole-sitting No. 14 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Neel Jani holds a 6.8-second lead over Sebastien Buemi’s No. 8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid in second, with the No. 2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Andre Lotterer running in third.

While the pair of Porsches pulled away at the start, the No. 20 entry of Timo Bernhard pitted just after nine laps with a rear suspension issue that saw the German lose two laps in the garage.

The three Audis struggled through the opening laps but fuel-only stops for Lotterer and the No. 1 car of Loic Duval helped elevate to second and fourth, respectively, before both getting overtaken by Toyotas.

In LMP2, the No. 26 G-Drive Racing Morgan-Nissan of Olivier Pla leads the way, ahead of the No. 38 Jota Sport Zytek Z11SN of Harry Tincknell.

There was early trouble for both of the SMP Racing Oreca 03 Nissans, with the No. 27 car of Nicolas Minassian being handed a stop/go penalty for jumping the start.

Aston Martin Racing runs 1-2 in GTE-Pro, thanks to fuel-only stops for the Nos. 97 and 99 entries, whereas the No. 95 Young Driver AMR-backed Aston leads GTE-Am in the hands of Richie Stanaway.

The class pole-sitting No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari of Gimmi Bruni led early, but along with the Porsches, were unable to double-stint their Michelin tires and lost ground in the pits as a result.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John