Jakobsen Spins, Gives Peugeot Maiden Pole at Spa

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

Malthe Jakobsen overcame a spin on his out-lap in qualifying to claim pole position for Saturday’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, giving Peugeot its maiden FIA World Endurance Championship pole position.

The Dane pedaled his No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 to a 2:00.653 lap time in Hyperpole, edging out the No. 12 Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.R of Will Stevens by 0.043 seconds.

Jakobsen was dinged for a track limits violation on the lap after setting his benchmark time, but it ultimately didn’t matter at the end of the ten-minute Hyperpole session.

It came after an impressive recovery, after spinning at Raidillon on his out lap, avoiding the barriers, in qualifying to end the segment second quickest, behind the No. 35 Alpine A424 of Charles Milesi, who was third in Hyperpole.

Jakobsen will share the No. 94 Peugeot with Theo Pourchaire and Loic Duval in Saturday’s second round of the season.

Alpine teammate Jules Gounon was fourth quickest, with Jack Aitken, in his JOTA Hypercar debut, completing the top-five in the No. 38 Cadillac.

The pair of Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyries qualified sixth and seventh in the hands of Marco Sorensen and Harry Tincknell, respectively, followed by Antonio Fuoco in the No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 499P, who was some four-tenths slower than Jakobsen’s pole run.

Stoffel Vandoorne and Dries Vanthoor completed the top-ten for Peugeot and BMW M Team WRT, respectively.

Neither of the Toyota GR010 Hybrids made it to Hyperpole, along with two of the three Ferraris, in arguably the biggest surprise of qualifying.

The No. 20 BMW will start 11th, ahead of the No. 8 Toyota and No. 83 Ferrari.

The pair of Genesis GMR-001s will line up 14th and 17th, respectively, with the No. 19 entry of Mathieu Jaminet outpacing both defending world champion Antonio Giovinazzi and Toyota’s Brendon Hartley.

Akkodis Lexus Takes Back-to-Back Spa LMGT3 Poles

Hadrien David took the No. 78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F GT3 to the LMGT3 pole, thanks to a chart-topping 2:16.612 in Hyperpole.

The Frenchman edged out the No. 27 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo of Zach Robichon by 0.194 seconds.

FIA Bronze-rated driver Tom van Rompuy barely put the Lexus into Hyperpole, qualifying tenth, as one of only two manufacturers to have both of cars make it through to the second session.

It marked the third LMGT3 class pole for Lexus and back-to-back for the Japanese brand at Spa.

The duo will be joined by Jose Maria Lopez in tomorrow’s race.

Ben Tuck made it three different GT3 brands in the top-three aboard the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 EVO, with the No. 87 Lexus and No. 88 Mustang completing the top-five in class.

The No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo will start sixth, ahead of the No. 32 WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO that was taken to Hyperpole by Darren Leung.

Neither of the Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3 Evos made it to Hyperpole, with the No. 58 entry set to start 11th in class.

The Imola class-winning No. 69 WRT BMW, meanwhile, will start second-to-last, owing to the success handicap to the Anthony McIntosh-qualified car, the same impacting the runner-up finishing No. 33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R, qualified by Blake McDonald.

The 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps gets underway Saturday at 2 p.m. CEST, with live coverage on the FIAWEC+ app, as well as on HBO Max (U.S.), TNT Sports (UK) and Eurosport 2 (Pan-Europe).

RESULTS: Qualifying

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