Frijns Quickest in LMP2-Led Opening Practice at Spa

Robin Frijns set the fastest lap in opening practice for the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa in a delayed session that was led by LMP2 runners.

Frijns posted the quickest time of 2:05:475 in the opening exchanges of the session aboard the No. 31 Team WRT Oreca 07 Gibson and would remain at the top throughout.

He went 0.063 quickest than the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca of Filipe Albuquerque, who had teammate Oliver Jarvis aboard the No. 23 sister car for company in third place.

Behind them, the No. 38 JOTA Oreca was fourth and led the quickest Hypercar, which was the No. 708 Glickenhaus 007 Pipo of Romain Dumas.

Dumas reeled off a lap of 2:06:361 to go quickest in class and fifth overall, beating the 2:06:876 that was set earlier in the session by the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid driven by Mike Conway. 

Conway ended Thursday’s running in seventh overall and second in class, behind LMP2 entries from Team Penske and Realteam by WRT.

Sebastien Buemi ended the session third in class in the second Toyota, ahead of Alpine’s Nicolas Lapierre in fourth. 

The No. 8 Toyota came to a halt after the chequered flag with Ryo Hirakawa at the wheel.

The two Hypercars sat behind another chunk of LMP2 contenders from Algarve Pro Racing, JOTA, Prema and AF Corse to end the day in 13th and 14th overall.

The start of the session was hindered by a technical issue at race control, which saw it red-flagged almost immediately after it began. 

After fifteen minutes, the clock was reset and the session began properly at 15:45 p.m local time. 

Porsche topped GTE-Pro one-two, with Kevin Estre posting a fastest lap of 2:14:583 behind the wheel of the No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR-19.

The Frenchman, a class winner in last year’s Spa round, outpaced teammate Gianmaria Bruni by 0.323 seconds.

Alessandro Pier Guidi and Miguel Molina were third and fourth for AF Corse respectively, with both Ferrari 488 GTE Evos over a second off Porsche’s pace.

Corvette Racing ended the session in fifth with a best lap set by Tommy Milner, although the American squad’s time was slower than the fastest runner in GTE-Am.

That time came courtesy of the No. 46 Team Project Porsche of Matteo Cairoli, who posted a 2:15:982.

Cairoli bested TF Sport’s No. 33 Aston Martin Vantage AMR of Marco Sorensen, who sat atop the class for much of the early running with 2:16:398.

That time was ultimately good enough for second, with the No. 56 Team Project 1 Porsche of Ben Barnicoat rounding out the top three. 

The 90-minute session largely remained green throughout, except for a late Full Course Yellow within the last half hour caused by a spin for Ben Keating.

On-track running for the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship continues with the second free practice session at 9:05 a.m local time.

RESULTS: Free Practice 1