Conway Leads Free Practice 1 at Spa

Photo: Toyota

Toyota has topped the time charts in Free Practice 1 for this weekend’s WEC Six Hours of Spa, in a closely fought opening session between Porsche.

Mike Conway took his No. 7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid to a best lap of 1:57.940 early in the 90-minute session, edging out the No. 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley by just 0.036 seconds.

Conway and co-driver Kamui Kobayashi are without Jose Maria Lopez this weekend, after the Argentinean was not cleared to race after sustaining vertebrae damage in his accident at Silverstone last month.

The No. 1 Porsche of Neel Jani was third quickest, although nearly one-second behind Conway’s pace-setting lap, with the No. 8 Toyota fourth and the debuting No. 9 Toyota, running in low-downforce aero this weekend, completing the top-five.

LMP2 was led by the No. 36 Signatech Alpine A470 Gibson of Gustavo Menezes, who reeled off a 2:04.171 lap early in the session.

The American was one-tenth quicker than the No. 26 G-Drive Racing Oreca 07 Gibson in second, with the No. 25 CEFC Manor TRS Racing entry completing the top-three.

Andy Priaulx topped GTE-Pro in the No. 67 Ford GT, with Matteo Cairoli quickest in GTE-Am in the No. 77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR.

The only notable incident came midway through the session when Brendon Hartley and Olivier Pla collided at La Source, although both cars continued. 

Free Practice 2 is set to begin at 4:45 p.m. local time.

RESULTS: Free Practice 1

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