As it did in Silverstone, United Autosports’ #22 ORECA 07 Gibson has ended up fastest in both free practice sessions here in Spa. Filipe Albuquerque set the British-flagged team’s fastest time, a 2:01.705, four-tenths slower than the crew’s best time in FP1.
Completing the top three was the Cool Racing ORECA, which also finished up second in FP1, and the sister United Autosports ORECA, Will Owen, Alex Brundle and Ryan Cullen seemingly already up to speed with their new #32.
The best of the Dunlop runners was again, G-Drive Racing with its championship-leading Aurus 01 managing a 2:02.940.
The LMP2 class had its car count reduced by two in the session, with the #28 IDEC Sport (which ended with the fifth-fastest time) and #31 Algarve Pro Racing ORECAs both having significant incidents that brought out red flags.
Paul Loup Chatin was the first to hit trouble in the opening minutes of the session. The Frenchman had an off at Raidillon in what DSC understands was a similar accident to Job van Uitert’s in private testing earlier this week. Chatin climbed out of the car under his own power, with the car significantly damaged. At this point, it appears unlikely that IDEC’s title-contending ORECA will be able to take part in the rest of the weekend.
The second incident came 20 minutes later, Henning Enqvist ending up nose-first into the barriers at the start of the Kemmel Straight on driver’s left. The impact was hard, the Swede lost the rear of the ORECA and went head-on into the barriers, sending him up in the air and eventually back across the circuit on driver’s right.
He too is ‘ok’ and climbed out under his own power.
A third red flag came out just before the end of the session, bringing running to a halt early. This was for the #8 Nielsen Racing Ligier coming to contact with the #20 High Class Racing ORECA, James Littlejohn ending in the barriers at Pouhon. The team has told DSC that the car has only suffered light damage and will be out for Qualifying.
The fastest time beyond LMP2 came from the fastest GTE car on this occasion. The #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche of Matteo Cairoli was by far the quickest GTE driver and was a few tenths faster than the quickest LMP3 runner.
Second in GTE was Nicklas Nielsen in the Luzich Ferrari, with a 2:16.986, with JMW’s 488 GTE third.
Top of LMP3 was Ultimate’s Ligier, Matthieu Lahaye topping the class with a 2:15.897. M Racing’s M30 made it a Norma 1-2, with the first of the Ligier’s, the #13 from Inter Europol, slotting in third.
Qualifying later today starts at 12:18 local time.
