Mike Conway’s early 1:57.940 tour of Spa Francorchamps was quick enough to top the timings for the first Free Practice session of the 2017 6 Hours of Spa in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid. In the session, Conway and teammate Kamui Kobayashi – who will be sharing the car as a duo following the announcement that Jose Maria Lopez is unable to race – managed to complete 31 laps of the circuit.
Conway’s best time was just 0.036 quicker than the first of the two Porsche 919s which made up the top three, the #2 leading the #1. The gap to the #1 of Nick Tandy, Andre Lotterer and Neel Jani was almost a second however, with the quickest time set by the trio a 1:58.869.
Fourth and fifth on the screens were the other two Toyotas, with the #8 ending up ahead of the two following Sebastien Buemi’s 1:58.914. The third car, which this weekend is running Toyota’s low-drag Le Mans aero kit managed a 1:59.633 to go fifth.
The best lap in LMP2 meanwhile, was set by reigning champion Gustavo Menezes in the #36 Signatech Alpine A470, the American setting a 2:04.171 with just under half an hour remaining in the 90-minute session. Second quickest was the G-Drive Oreca after Alex Lynn topped the times early before Menezes set his best time. Lynn’s best effort was a 2:04.262 on the dry circuit.
Third in the second prototype division was the #25 Manor Oreca, just over a tenth slower than the leading Alpine. Further down the order the Tockwith Motorsport Ligier JS P217 – in the team’s first WEC session – finished up 10th in the class with a 2:06.607.
Ford topped GTE Pro with the Silverstone-winning trio of Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell and Pipo Derani in the #67 GT. The best time from the three was set by Andy Priaulx, who reeled off a 2:16.802 to go a tenth faster than the #91 Porsche in second and four quicker than the sister #66 GT in third.
After Ben Barker’s early 2:18.730 in the Gulf Racing Porsche, GTE Am was eventually topped by the Dempsey Proton Porsche with a 2:18.089. The fastest non-Porsche in the clean session which featured no stoppages was the Clearwater Ferrari which managed a 2:18.806 in third.
Free Practice 2 is set to begin at 16:45 local time in Belgium.
