Sebastien Buemi set the pace in the first free practice session for the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Spa, with the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid driver setting a 2:02 982, over one and a half seconds faster than Antonio Fuoco in the second place #50 Ferrari 499P.
In third was Jose Maria Lopez, behind the wheel of the sister #7 Toyota, just a hundredth off Fuoco, with Alessandro Pier Guidi in fourth in the #51 Ferrari, 0.074 off Lopez.
The first of the Porsches was fifth, Laurens Vanthoor in the #6 Porsche 963. The #2 Cadillac V-Series.R of Alex Lynn was next up, followed by Michael Christensen in the other Porsche, #5. The fastest Peugeot was eighth, Gustavo Menezes over three seconds off in the #94 Peugeot 9X8.
Sebastien Bourdais, driving the #3 Cadillac, was ninth in the car’s first appearance in WEC.
In LMP2, Filipe Albuquerque was fastest in the #22 United Autosport Oreca 07-Gibson, with a 2:07.471. The #28 JOTA Oreca 07-Gibson of Pietro Fittipaldi was second, less than a tenth off the pace, with Tom Blomqvist third in the #23 United Autosports car.
Speaking of JOTA, the Hypercar new boys in the #8 JOTA Porsche 963, in the car’s first ever visit to a racetrack other than Porsche’s private proving ground, set a 2:09.0.48, with Will Stevens at the wheel.
In GTE-Am, Kessel Racing’s Daniel Serra set a 2:16.177 in the #57 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo. Second was another Ferrari, this time the #21 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo with Ulysse de Pauw at the wheel. Third in class was Charlie Eastwood, fresh from his European Le Mans Series overall race win at Barcelona. This time, however, the Irishman was driving the #25 ORT by TF Aston Martin Vantage AMR, almost a full second off Serra.
