The Rebels topped the timing sheet in Thursday’s Free Practice one session with Frenchman Norman Nato running the #1 Rebellion R13 – Gibson around the 7km Spa Francorchamps track in 2:02.469. The next two fastest laps were set by Nato’s teammates Gustavo Menezes (2:02.625) and Bruno Senna (2:03.425). Oliver Webb set the fourth fastest lap in the #4 ByKolles Enso CLM P1/01. The fastes Toyota driver was Mike Conway in the #7 TS050 Hybrid who set a 2:03.632. This all meant that Rebellion topped thew sheets, ByKolles were second and the #7 Toyota was third.
In the LMP2 class, the yellow #29 Oreca 07 – Gibson of Racing Team Nederland set the time to beat with Giedo Vand Der Garde clocking in a 2:03.888. Anthony Davidson set a 2:03.935 to put Jota’s Good Year liveried ‘Mighty 38’ Oreca 07 in second spot and Phil Hanson rounded out the top three with a 2:04.119 in his #22 United Autosports Oreca 07. Algarve Pro’s #25 Oreca did not run due to the team being in isolation following a positive Covid-19 test for Gabriel Aubry this morning, who while scheduled to drive for Jota this weekend, drove for APR at last weekend’s European Le Mans Series round here at Spa.
The GTE Pro class was tight as ever with the Porsche GT Team eventually coming out top as Michael Christensen set a 2:16.057 in the #92 Porsche 911 RSR – 19. Maxime Martin made good use of his home track knowledge setting a 2:16.308 in his #97 Aston Martin Vantage AMR to hold second spot whilst the #91 Porsche closed out the top three with a 2:16.349 thanks to Gianmaria Bruni.
In GTE Am, 0.16n of a second seemed to be the magic number, being the gap between each of the first, second and third cars. At the top of the pile was the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE Am of Nicklas Nielsen which clocked in a lap of 2:17.853. 0.167 seconds behind him was Augusto Farfus in the #98 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR and 0.162 seconds behind him was Matteo Cairoli in the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR.
