Aston Martin Edges Out Genesis to Top Barcelona FP2

Harry Tincknell put Aston Martin and Heart of Racing Team on top of the times in second practice for this weekend’s Barcelona FIA World Endurance Championship round.

The British driver set the quickest time of the day at the Spanish venue, a 1:31.712, during an incident-free 90 minutes of running on Friday afternoon, surpassing AF Corse Ferrari driver Robert Kubica’s FP1 benchmark of 1:31.891.

Genesis Magma Racing’s Mathys Jaubert came within 0.038 seconds of topping the session at the wheel of the brand’s No. 17 GMR-001, while Kubica was third aboard the No. 83 Ferrari 499P, a further 0.046 seconds back.

The only other driver to lap beneath the Polish driver’s best time from the morning was Will Stevens in the No. 12 Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA car, in fourth, with Barcelona’s high tire degradation ensuring all the best times were set in the opening minutes.

Rounding off the top five was the No. 7 Toyota TR010 Hybrid of Nyck de Vries.

Both Cadillac V-Series.Rs made the top six as Jack Aitken was sixth in the No. 38 car, ahead of the best of the works Ferraris, the No. 50 of Antonio Fuoco, and the points-leading No. 8 Toyota driven by Ryo Hirakawa.

BMW’s lead M Hybrid V8, the No. 15 car of Dries Vanthoor and the second of the Aston Martin Valkyries, the No. 009 car of home driver Alex Riberas, made up the top ten.

Peugeot’s lead 9X8 was 11th in the hands of Theo Pourchaire, while Alpine had a low-key session with its pair of A424s in 15th and 16th, led by Charles Milesi’s No. 35 car.

In LMGT3, Finn Gehrsitz set the best time aboard the No. 58 McLaren 720S GT3 Evo of 1:41.650, around two tenths slower than Alessio Rovera’s best time aboard the No. 21 Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo from earlier in the day.

Second-quickest was the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 of Hadrien David on a 1:41.994, followed by Lin Hodenius in the No. 79 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo.

Zacharie Robichon was a rare late improver to go fourth in the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, bumping down Parker Thompson’s No. 69 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO to fifth in the process.

Final practice for the 6H Barcelona takes place on Saturday, split between LMGT3 runners, who will have their session at 8:50 a.m. local time (2:50 a.m. EST), and Hypercar, whose session takes place after LMGT3 qualifying at 12:40 p.m. (6:40 a.m. EST).

RESULTS: Free Practice 2