Ferrari 1-2 in First Practice at Spa

Ferrari locked out the top two positions in first practice for this weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship round at Spa.

Antonio Fuoco set the pace in Thursday’s first 90-minute session aboard the No. 50 Ferrari 499P, his early effort of 2:05.690 putting him 1.141 seconds up on the sister No. 51 car wheeled by Antonio Giovinazzi.

The Prancing Horse’s nearest rival was Lamborghini, whose solo SC63 was 1.308 seconds off the pace in the hands of ex-Formula 1 racer Daniil Kvyat.

Next up in fourth was the best of the Alpine A424s, the No. 36 car of Nicolas Lapierre, just a further 0.014s behind Kvyat, while the top five was completed by the third-string No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari of Yifei Ye.

Porsche’s top representative was the No. 99 Proton Competition entry in which Neel Jani went sixth fastest, ahead of the two works Penske-run 963s.

The points-leading No. 6 Porsche was the quicker of the two in the hands of local driver Laurens Vanthoor, ahead of Frederic Makowiecki in the No. 5 car.

Rounding off the top ten were the best of the revised Peugeot 9X8s, the No. 93 car of Nico Mueller, and the No. 35 Alpine in which Paul-Loup Chatin set the best time.

Toyota endured a low-key start to the weekend with its pair of GR010 Hybrids ending up down in 11th and 16th places.

Sebastien Buemi produced the Japanese marque’s best lap of 2:07.676 aboard the No. 8 car, 1.986 seconds off the pace, while Mike Conway was a further half a second behind in the No. 7 Toyota.

In LMGT3, TF Sport’s No. 82 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R topped the times courtesy of an early effort of 2:20.885 from Daniel Juncadella.

That was enough to top the session by 0.355 seconds from the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Davide Rigon.

Daniel Mancinelli put the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo third-fastest, another tenth behind Rigon, ahead of Michelle Gatting in the Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 and Maxime Martin in the No. 46 WRT BMW M4 GT3.

A largely clean session was disrupted by only one full-course yellow to retrieve debris at Les Combes with 52 minutes left on the clock.

Second practice for the 6H Spa-Francorhamps is due to take place at 5:30 p.m. local time (11:30 a.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Free Practice 1