Spa WEC: Sirotkin leads SMP 1-2 in first practice

Sirotkin, who made his WEC debut for SMP in the Sebring 1000 Miles, set a laptime of 1m56.264s in the #17 BR Engineering BR1-AER with just under 30 minutes of the 90-minute session remaining.

That followed Vandoorne's lap of 1m58.236s in the sister #11 car, which had the Belgian head of the times and half a second up on the two Toyota TS050 Hybrids.

SMP's surge pushed the Toyotas down to third and fourth places, with early pacesetter Sebastien Buemi's 1m58.742s putting the #8 car 2.478s off the pace.

Mike Conway was a further four tenths down in the #7 machine and only two tenths up on the quickest of the Rebellion R-13s, the #3 of Gustavo Menezes.

Bruno Senna followed in sixth place in the second of the Rebellions, 4.171s down on Sirotkin.

Seventh overall was the best of the LMP2s, the newly-Michelin-shod Signatech Alpine Oreca entry of Andre Negrao.

The Brazilian driver's 2m03.441s put the #36 car ahead of early pacesetter Jean-Eric Vergne in the Aurus-badged G-Drive Racing Oreca, as well as the remaining LMP1, the ByKolles ENSO CLM P1/01.

Tom Dillmann set the best lap in the Gibson-powered #4 car, more than seven seconds slower the overall benchmark.

GTE Pro was headed by Aston Martin, courtesy of a 2m15.290s laptime from local driver Maxime Martin at the wheel of the #97 Vantage GTE.

Harry Tincknell's last-ditch effort in the quicker of the Ford GTs was identical, but the #67 was classified second, ahead of Antonio Felix da Costa in the #82 BMW M8 GTE.

Ford and Aston Martin's respective second cars were fourth and fifth, ahead of the #81 BMW, while Porsche's pair of 911 RSRs filled out seventh and eighth ahead of the two Ferrari 488 GTEs.

An early lap from Ben Barker put Gulf Racing at the head of the GTE Am times in the Gulf Racing Porsche, less than a tenth ahead of Giancarlo Fisichella in the Spirit of Race Ferrari.

The TF Sport Aston Martin was black-flagged for "constant track limits abuse" while Euan Hankey, returning to the team for the first time since last year's Le Mans 24 Hours, was at the wheel.

Practice results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	17	Stéphane Sarrazin Egor Orudzhev Sergey Sirotkin	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	1'56.264
2	11	Mikhail Aleshin Vitaly Petrov Stoffel Vandoorne	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	1'58.236	1.972
3	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Fernando Alonso	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'58.742	2.478
4	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'58.877	2.613
5	3	Nathanael Berthon Thomas Laurent Gustavo Menezes	Rebellion R13	LMP1	1'59.106	2.842
6	1	Neel Jani Andre Lotterer Bruno Senna	Rebellion R13	LMP1	2'00.435	4.171
7	36	Nicolas Lapierre Andre Negrao Pierre Thiriet	Alpine A470	LMP2	2'03.441	7.177
8	26	Roman Rusinov Job Van Uitert Jean-Eric Vergne	Aurus 01	LMP2	2'03.677	7.413
9	4	Tom Dillmann Oliver Webb Paolo Ruberti	ENSO CLM P1/01	LMP1	2'03.891	7.627
10	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries	Dallara P217	LMP2	2'04.349	8.085
11	31	Roberto Gonzalez Pastor Maldonado Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'04.496	8.232
12	38	Ho-Pin Tung Gabriel Aubry Stéphane Richelmi	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'04.616	8.352
13	37	David Heinemeier Hansson Jordan King Will Stevens	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'04.907	8.643
14	28	François Perrodo Matthieu Vaxiviere Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	2'04.909	8.645
15	50	Erwin Creed Romano Ricci Nicholas Boulle	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	2'06.603	10.339
16	97	Alex Lynn Maxime Martin	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	2'15.290	19.026
17	67	Andy Priaulx Harry Tincknell	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	2'15.290	19.026
18	82	Augusto Farfus Antonio Felix da Costa	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	2'15.406	19.142
19	66	Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	2'15.648	19.384
20	95	Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	2'16.254	19.990
21	81	Martin Tomczyk Nick Catsburg	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	2'16.311	20.047
22	91	Richard Lietz Gianmaria Bruni	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	2'16.330	20.066
23	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	2'16.489	20.225
24	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	2'16.499	20.235
25	71	Davide Rigon Sam Bird	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	2'16.701	20.437
26	86	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'17.068	20.804
27	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	2'17.138	20.874
28	77	Christian Ried Riccardo Pera Matthew Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'17.579	21.315
29	90	Salih Yoluc Euan Hankey Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	2'17.786	21.522
30	56	Jörg Bergmeister Patrick Lindsey Egidio Perfetti	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'17.881	21.617
31	98	Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	2'17.959	21.695
32	88	Gianluca Roda Giorgio Roda Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'18.113	21.849
33	61	Luis Perez Companc Matteo Cressoni Matthew Griffin	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	2'18.744	22.480
34	70	Motoaki Ishikawa Olivier Beretta Eddie Cheever III	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	2'18.810	22.546
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