Qualifying report
WEC Spa-Francorchamps
Spa WEC: Rebellion beats the Toyotas to pole
Rebellion took pole position for this weekend's Spa round of the FIA World Endurance Championship as the Swiss entrant continued its domination of the event.
Gary Watkins
Edited: Aug 15, 2020, 1:32 AM
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Gustavo Menezes and Norman Nato were fastest on their respective runs aboard the #1 Rebellion R-13, ending up with an average eight tenths clear of best of the Toyota TS050 Hybrids.
Menezes set the fastest time of the session with a 1m59.342s, which Nato followed up with a 1m59.813s on the same set of Michelin tyres.
That gave then a 1m59.577s average, which compared with 2m00.417s for #8 Toyota drivers Kazuki Nakajima and Brendon Hartley.
Menezes said: "On paper it looks like we've had the perfect weekend, but we've never had a good balance with the car. We had to make quite a few changes before qualifying, but now the car is there."
Nakajima posted a 1m59.628s on the first run to outpace Mike Conway in the #7 Toyota, who ended up more than a second down on a 2m00.762s.
The two Toyotas stayed on the same tyres for the second runs, Hartley's 2m01.206s giving him an advantage of one tenth over Kamui Kobayashi.
The Japanese driver's 2m01.378s gave him and Conway a 2m01.070s average in the #7 car.
The ByKolles team's ENSO CLM P1/01 ended up with a 2m01.589s average in the hands of Oliver Webb and Tom Dillmann to take fourth.
The United Autosports squad led the way in LMP2 with its solo Oreca 07. Paul di Resta was quickest on a 2m01.888s during the opening runs, which Phil Hanson followed up with a 2m02.409s.
Their 2m02.148s average put them more than a second and a half up on the JOTA Sport Oreca of Anthony Davidson and Roberto Gonzalez, who ended up on 2m03.956s.
Nicolas Lapierre and Antonin Borga took third aboard the Cool Racing Oreca, a further three tenths back.
The Racing Team Nederland Oreca ended up at the back of the P2 field after a succession of laps lost to track- limit violations by Giedo van der Garde and Job van Uitert. Van Uitert did not manage to post a valid lap time as a result.
Porsche duo Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre dominated qualifying to claim provisional GTE Pro pole by nearly half a second, only to be dropped to the back of the grid for a track limits infringement.
The reigning class world champions were fastest on their respective runs, setting times only three hundredths apart aboard their #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19.
Christensen posted a 2m14.223s to beat Aston Martin driver Maxime Martin's 2m14.406s by two tenths.
Estre followed it up with the fastest lap of the session, a 2m14.191s that put him six tenths up the 2m14.767s from Aston Martin driver Marco Sorensen.
That gave the Porsche drivers a 2m14.207s average, which put them clear of the two Aston Vantage GTEs. But Estre's lap was subsequently adjudged to have violated track limits, the loss of the time dropping them to the back of the field.
Alex Lynn's 2m14.865s in the #97 Aston he shares with Martin was just enough to stay ahead of their teammates and inherit the pole when Estre's time was scrubbed out.
Martin and Lynn ended up on 2m14.635s average, Sorensen and Nicki Thiim 2m14.643s.
Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz took fourth in class in the #91 Porsche with a 2m14.923s average. That was more than four tenths up on the best of the two AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTEs that filled the final two spots in the GTE Pro order.
Davide Rigon and Miguel Molina ended up just clear of teammates Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado in the #71 488 GTE, though both Ferraris were more than a second down on Christensen and Estre's initial average.
Matt Campbell and Christian Ried claimed GTE Am pole aboard their #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche 911 RSR with a 2m16.519s average, more than a tenth up on #56 Project 1 Porsche pairing of Matteo Cairoli and Egidio Perfetti.
Prototype qualifying:
Cla # Drivers Car Class Avg Time Gap 1 1 Bruno Senna
Gustavo Menezes
Norman Nato Rebellion R13 LMP1 1'59.577 2 8
Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima
Brendon Hartley Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 2'00.417 0.840 3 7
Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 2'01.070 1.493 4 4
Tom Dillmann
Bruno Spengler
Oliver Webb ENSO CLM P1/01 LMP1 2'01.907 2.330 5 22
Philip Hanson
Filipe Albuquerque
Paul di Resta Oreca 07 LMP2 2'02.148 2.571 6 38
Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa
Anthony Davidson Oreca 07 LMP2 2'03.697 4.120 7 42
Nicolas Lapierre
Antonin Borga
Alexandre Coigny Oreca 07 LMP2 2'03.956 4.379 8 37
Ho-Pin Tung
Ryan Cullen
Will Stevens Oreca 07 LMP2 2'04.198 4.621 9 36
Thomas Laurent
Andre Negrao
Pierre Ragues Alpine A470 LMP2 2'04.235 4.658 10 33
Mark Patterson
Kenta Yamashita
Anders Fjordbach Oreca 07 LMP2 2'04.710 5.133 11 47
Roberto Lacorte
Andrea Belicchi
Giorgio Sernagiotto Dallara P217 LMP2 2'05.547 5.970 12 35
Nobuya Yamanaka
Nick Foster Jr.
Roberto Merhi Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 2'18.997 19.420 13 29
Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde
Job Van Uitert Oreca 07 LMP2 2'02.744 3.167 View full results
GTE qualifying:
Cla # Drivers Car Class Avg Time Gap 1 97 Alex Lynn
Maxime Martin Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 2'14.635 2 95
Marco Sorensen
Nicki Thiim Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 2'14.643 0.008 3 91
Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 2'14.923 0.288 4 71
Davide Rigon
Miguel Molina Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 2'15.356 0.721 5 51
James Calado
Alessandro Pier Guidi Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 2'15.383 0.748 6 77
Christian Ried
Riccardo Pera
Matt Campbell Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'16.519 1.884 7 56
Egidio Perfetti
Laurents Hörr
Matteo Cairoli Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'16.649 2.014 8 57
Ben Keating
Felipe Fraga
Jeroen Bleekemolen Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'17.145 2.510 9 98
Paul Dalla Lana
Augusto Farfus
Ross Gunn Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'17.563 2.928 10 83
François Perrodo
Emmanuel Collard
Nicklas Nielsen Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'17.593 2.958 11 90
Salih Yoluc
Charles Eastwood
Jonathan Adam Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'17.658 3.023 12 54
Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Giancarlo Fisichella Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'18.314 3.679 13 88
Gianluca Giraudi
Ricardo Sanchez
Lucas Legeret Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'18.841 4.206 14 62
Bonamy Grimes
Johnny Mowlem
Charles Hollings Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'18.945 4.310 15 86
Michael Wainwright
Andrew Watson
Benjamin Barker Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'18.947 4.312 16 92
Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 2'14.223 View full results
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