Spa Friday Notebook

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

***Peugeot became the first manufacturer to score a maiden FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar pole since Cadillac in 2024, when Alex Lynn took the No. 2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R to the Hyperpole at Fuji Speedway. It came in the 28th qualifying attempt for the French manufacturer, which is the second longest-running OEM in the class, having debuted in 2022.

***For Malthe Jakobsen, he became the first Danish driver to claim an overall pole in WEC history. Tom Kristensen, who spent three seasons in the WEC prior to his retirement at the end of the 2014 season, remarkably never contributed or claimed a pole position in the world championship.

***Jakobsen said in the post-qualifying press conference that he was unsure on the status of the tires that were on his No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 at the time of the qualifying spin. Per regulations, each car is allowed a maximum of four-and-a-half sets of tires between qualifying and the six-hour race.

***When asked if several suspected flat-spotted tires could pose a compromise, Jakobsen said: “I haven’t even seen my engineer yet. I think that’s down to him to work out what the tire strategy will be and how badly damage the tires potentially are. To be honest, I haven’t looked 100 percent into the race strategy yet. I tried to just stay focused in qualifying as the qualifying driver. Tonight for sure they will give us some answer on the situation on where we’re standing. Hopefully it’s not too bad.”

***However, it has turned out to be a moot point, as the No. 94 Peugeot, and every Hypercar that took part in the initial qualifying session, will receive replacement fresh tires for the race after the stewards approved a derogation request from Michelin to replace the qualifying tires for “safety reasons.”

***Per the bulletin released on Friday evening, the replacement tires must be the same compound and specification used in qualifying and the replacement will be made “one tire for one tire” in order to have no effect on the allocation for the event.

***In addition to Peugeot’s first-ever WEC pole, fellow French Hypercar manufacturer Alpine had its best-ever combined qualifying to date, with the pair of A424s qualifying on the second row.

***Team principal Philippe Sinault said: “We are happy with the result as you can imagine. It’s the first time we put the two cars on the front like this. It’s a good signal that we made a good job during the winter. We have made huge progress. For the first time we have two cars at the same level.”

***Jules Gounon, who qualified fourth, behind teammate Charles Milesi added: “I think it’s a proud moment for Alpine to be on the world championship, with [the] 35 and 36 [cars] lining up P3 and P4. I think Philippe is very happy about that. Of course it was a very tight Hyperpole. I think tonight, going to sleep, there’s probably going to be six or seven drivers thinking they had it.”

***LMGT3 pole-sitter Hadrien David scored his fourth pole at Spa-Francorchamps in as many different disciplines. The Frenchman revealed he had previous poles here in the French F4 Championship, Formula Regional European Championship and Michelin Le Mans Cup, in LMP3 competition.

***The No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo has received a one-position grid penalty after it was determined by the stewards that Simon Mann impeded the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 of Clemens Schmid in LMGT3 Hyperpole. It promotes the No. 32 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO to a sixth place class start, with the No. 21 Ferrari now set to roll off from seventh.

***Anthony McIntosh says he “gave it everything” to try to make LMGT3 Hyperpole in the No. 69 WRT BMW but was unable to negate the 36 kg success penalty the car received for winning the Imola opener.

***McIntosh told Sportscar365: “It was a stretch for us, and I knew it was going to be a stretch. I told Parker [Thompson] and Dan [Harper, co-drivers], ‘Look, I’m either going to bring this home in P10 because that’s probably the best we can do or I’m going to bring it home in a trash can, so get the crew ready to repair the car.’ And I flew off the track a couple of times. I got two track limits, which I never get. I gave it everything and I left it all out there.”

***McIntosh’s efforts were ultimately good enough for only 17th on the grid as his attempts to get a tow from Blake McDonald’s Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R proved unsuccessful. Asked about prospects for the race, McIntosh added: “Life’s a box of chocolates and I have no idea what’s going to happen tomorrow.”

***Garage 59 driver Antares Au says he is still getting to grips with the McLaren 720S GT3 Evo after spending much of his career racing Porsche machinery. “In the Porsche, with the baseline you don’t get a lot of surprises,” he said when Sportscar365 asked about the learning process. “You open a bag of chips, and you know it’s curry chips from the get go. It won’t surprise you. It will not be the healthiest, it will not be the best, but it will be curry chips. Here, this can be really good or nothing – this car is really fast when it works.”

***Au praised the Garage 59 squad and his team-mate, McLaren factory driver Marvin Kirchhoefer, for helping him get up to speed. “When you’re driving different cars, you stop assuming a car does this and that and you start thinking so it’s good, but it’s less good because sometimes the things you take for granted aren’t there,” added Au, who explained the Garage 59 opportunity arose having known team co-owner Alexander West and several other members of the squad for many years.

***A steering problem that heavily hampered the crew’s Thursday practice running left Au on the back foot for qualifying and, after starting on pole at Imola last time out, neither McLaren progressed to Hyperpole at Spa.

***ORECA, in its capacity as a LMDh chassis supplier, has received a €3,000 ($3,500 USD) fine, of which €2,000 ($2,300 USD) is suspended for the remainder of the season, due to having a person working on-site that was not declared on its staff list.

***Hertz Team JOTA is debuting two brand-new Cadillac V-Series.R chassis this weekend, which completed rollouts at Varano just prior to last month’s 6 Hours of Imola season opener according to team founder and director Sam Hignett. Hignett told Sportscar365 that the team has created an operational cycle for its LMDh cars that will see new or refreshed chassis debut in the final European round prior to the 24 Hours of Le Mans each year.

***Hignett said the chassis will then go on to contest the flyaway rounds, while the British squad staying active at its workshop in between overseas rounds rebuilding and prepping the previous cars to go back into service for the following season. It’s understood JOTA is on the second of a current three-year contract with Cadillac in the WEC.

***Heart of Racing Team boss Ian James said its expansion into a two-car Aston Martin LMGT3 effort has allowed for a complete open-book approach between the pair of Vantage GT3 Evos, unlike before, despite both cars largely run by Prodrive, but under different banners. D’station Racing (2024) and Racing Spirit of LeMan (2025) were the previous single-car teams alongside the No. 23 Heart of Racing effort, which has been ever-present since the category’s launch.

***James told Sportscar365: “It was really two separate teams. Now it’s a much more integrated effort. We do all the briefings together, all the engineering together. We share all the data. We’re making more progress. Two is always stronger than one.”

***While the CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa’s clash with the Sahlen’s Six Hours of The Glen will prevent Heart of Racing from contesting next month’s Belgian endurance classic, James said they will still make their “annual pilgrimage” to Spa in early July for the Hankook 25 Hours of Fun Cup race, where the team brings around 30 guests to take turns driving shotgun in VW Beetle-inspired tube-framed race cars, which of note, are manufactured by WRT.

***Laurens Vanthoor will be taking part in the first proper test of the McLaren MCL-HY later this month at Imola according to McLaren Endurance Racing executive director James Barclay, who revealed they and the Belgian’s current employer, Porsche, have mutually agreed on a calendar of test dates for this year.

***As announced on Friday, Vanthoor will be loaned out to McLaren for the 2027 WEC season while focusing on an endurance-only program with Porsche Penske Motorsport in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship next year. He will then become a fully exclusive McLaren Hypercar driver in 2028.

***Barclay told reporters: “Porsche have been really, really fantastic and supportive. Kudos to them. They, like us, are racers and they also understand their drivers have a wish and desire to compete in WEC and Le Mans. We have an agreement that he can join us for some of our test program, obviously with his priority be in his IMSA program.”

***Expanding further on how the deal with Vanthoor came about, Barclay said: “He has a contract with Porsche and that relationship was important that it was managed that way. I know Thomas [Laudenbach, Porsche Motorsport boss] and team at Porsche well from my time in Formula E as well. There’s a very respectful relationship between the two of us. Once Laurens had shown his interest to join us and we had that conversation, it was one where we could then, as a group, have a conversation together and say, ‘Right, what’s the best way to make this happen, respecting his Porsche contract and giving him the freedom for the future.'”

***When asked by Sportscar365 if Vanthoor could also be incorporated into McLaren’s GT3 activities, which is managed by McLaren Automotive under the leadership of Giorgio Sanna, Barclay said: “The program with us is purely for Hypercar. Who says what in the future, but for now, the focus and what we’ve discussed is purely for Hypercar.”

***Vanthoor, meanwhile, is celebrating his 35th birthday today.

***While the MCL-HY completed its initial rollout earlier this week at Varano, Sportscar365 understands that Ford’s yet-to-be-named LMDh car is slated for an initial shakedown in August, with a proper test scheduled at Silverstone in September. Despite previous rumors, the car is not expected to be revealed next month at Le Mans, but with a fourth driver instead set to be announced alongside the previously confirmed Logan Sargeant, Seb Priaulx and Mike Rockenfeller.

***Hyundai Motorsport team principal Cyril Abiteboul is on-site for the second WEC race of the Genesis Magma Racing program, with technical director Francois-Xavier ‘FX’ Demaison leading efforts in Portugal for the Korean manufacturer’s FIA World Rally Championship program this weekend.

***Spa/Portugal is currently the only conflicting weekend between the two championships, although it’s understood a similar split leadership approach would be taken if there are any future clashes based on potential end-of-year calendar changes amid the current unrest in the Middle East.

***Akkodis ASP driver Tom Van Rompuy said it has been “quite a smooth transition” getting used to the Lexus this year after spending the past two seasons racing a Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R. “It’s quite an easy car to drive,” he said of the Lexus. It’s a bit of an old spec as we know, so it has its limitations, but it also has its positives.”

***Van Rompuy is one of four Belgian drivers on the WEC grid for their home race and is the most recent to have triumphed in the series, having topped LMGT3 at Fuji last year.

***The 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps gets underway on Saturday at 2 p.m. CEST (8 a.m. EST) with coverage available on FIAWEC+, the official streaming service which is now also available for Apple and Android users. The race will also stream live on HBO Max in the U.S., TNT Sports in the UK and Eurosport 2 in mainland Europe, along with additional options owned by WarnerBros. Discovery.

***Martin Haven, Anthony Davidson and Graham Goodwin will lead the international broadcast feed, with Bruce Jouanny and Shea Adam in the pit lane. Radio Show Limited’s live and free coverage, available on RS1, will be anchored by John Hindhaugh, Johnny Palmer and Bruce Jones.

Stephen Lickorish contributed to this report

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