Hirschi Tops Friday Practice at Spa

Photo: Vision Sport Agency

Jonathan Hirschi went quickest in the opening Free Practice session for the Four Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on Friday afternoon, leading a close Oreca 07 Gibson 1-2 classification.

The Swiss driver posted a lap time of 2:04.796 in his No. 39 Graff-run Oreca, beating DragonSpeed’s Ben Hanley by just 0.036 seconds.

Hugo de Sadeleer and Nathanael Berthon put the United Autosports and Panis Barthez Competition Ligier JS P217 Gibsons into third and fourth, meanwhile.

Cetilar Villorba Corse’s entry was the fastest Dallara P217 Gibson with Andrea Belicchi coming fifth with a time one second slower than the pacesetter. 

Ligier JS P3 Nissans populated the top seven positions in the LMP3 class with AT Racing’s Mikkel Jensen the fastest driver in the class with a lap time of 2:15.004.

He was three tenths quicker than Wayne Boyd in the No. 3 United Autosports car, meanwhile.

Matteo Cairoli led the way in GTE with his Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR, lapping at 2:17.888, while Darren Turner was second in class driving the Beechdean AMR Aston Martin Vantage GTE.

Free Practice 2 will get underway at 9:55 a.m. local time on Saturday.

RESULTS: Free Practice 1

Jake Kilshaw

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist. He is a graduate of Politics and International Relations.