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Kobayashi Leads Toyota 1-2 in Final Spa Practice

Kamui Kobayashi leads Toyota one-two in final practice at Spa, Glickenhaus finds the gravel…

Photo: MPS Agency

Toyota Gazoo Racing went one-two in the final practice session for the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa, while Glickenhaus’ Pipo Derani had an off-track moment at Campus.

Kamui Kobayashi set the fastest time during the hour-long session, posting a 2:03.225 aboard the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.

In doing so, he improved upon the time of 2:03.427 set by teammate Brendon Hartley aboard the sister No. 8 Toyota, which ended the session second overall.

This marks the first time this weekend that a Hypercar led a practice session overall after Team WRT and Team Penske were quickest in first and second practice, respectively.

An LMP2 contender did complete the overall top three, with Prema’s Louis Deletraz reeling off a 2:04.454 aboard his No. 9 Oreca to end the afternoon session third. 

Deletraz was half a second up on the No. 36 Alpine A480-Gibson of Nicolas Lapierre, who came in as the third fastest Hypercar.

While Toyota and Alpine ended running at the top of the times, Glickenhaus Racing had a more troublesome session when Pipo Derani caused a full course yellow less than ten minutes into the session.

Derani found the gravel at Stavelot aboard the No. 708 Glickenhaus 007 Pipo and had to be lifted out, although the car returned to the track later in the session.

The American squad ended the session 15th overall behind the majority of LMP2 runners.

Team WRT’s Robin Frijns went second quickest in LMP2, 0.569 seconds behind Deletraz.

United Autosports’ Filipe Albuquerque completed the top three, ahead of the No. 38 JOTA Oreca of Will Stevens, Penske’s Felipe Nasr and Alessio Rovera for AF Corse.

Vector Sport took seventh, ahead of Realteam by WRT and Richard Mille Racing Team’s Charles Milesi.

Rene Binder completed the top ten for Algarve Pro Racing, with JOTA’s Jonathan Aberdein the last LMP2 runner ahead of the lone Glickenhaus.

Porsche continued to set the pace in GTE-Pro as it looks for a third consecutive class victory

Kevin Estre set the best lap by posting a 2:13.102 aboard the No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR-19, which improved upon an earlier effort set by co-driver Michael Christensen.

Gianmaria Bruni was second ahead of the two AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evos of James Calado and Antonio Fuoco, respectively.

Corvette Racing was fifth, with Nick Tandy’s best lap 1.1 seconds off the pace.

Team Project 1 led GTE-Am thanks to a late flyer from Mikkel Pedersen, who posted a 2:15:351 aboard the No. 46 Porsche to outpace Dempsey-Proton Racing’s Harry Tincknell.

Marco Sorensen rounded out the top three for TF Sport.

Qualifying for the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa starts at 18.20 p.m. local time.

RESULTS: Free Practice 3

Davey Euwema is Sportscar365's European Editor. Based in The Netherlands, Euwema covers the FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, among other series.

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