Rebellion Racing set the fastest time of the first Free Practice session at Spa as the FIA WEC gets back to racing this weekend with the 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps. Norman Nato posted a 2:02.489 in the #1 R13 Gibson, the Rebellion team opting to use the high downforce set-up for their car in pursuit of Championship points.
That effort was good enough for just over a seconds advantage over the #4 ByKolles a 2:03.515 from Oliver Webb their best of the session with the #7 and #8 Toyotas, running in their traditional pre-Le Mans low downforce configuration, and with hefty Success handicap measures a tenth and three tenths behind respectively, Mike Conway and Kazuki Nakajima the quickest in either car.
All three Rebellion drivers managed a best effort quicker than the ByKolles.
LMP2 saw the #25 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca miss the session as the team awaited results of COVID-19 screening tests following the earlier indicated positive for their ELMS driver Gabriel Aubry.
The session was headed by the Racing Team Nederland #29 Oreca, Giedo van der Garde with a 2:03.888, half a tenth off the #8 Toyota.
Next up was the #3 Jota Oreca (Anthony Davidson), with United Autosports #22 a couple of tenths further back (Phil Hanson).
In GTE Pro the #92 Porsche (Michael Christensen) topped the times with a 2:16.057, a quarter second clear of the #97 Aston Martin (Maxime Martin) with the #91 Porsche (Gianmaria Bruni) close behind, the second Porsche one of a number of cars to attract the attention of the Race Director on track limits, and one of five that were instructed to perform a 5 minute stop and hold for their continued reluctance to keep it on the grey stuff.
Amongst the others was the #83 AF Corse Ferrari, 2:17.853 their best (Nicklas Nielsen), topping GTE Am but Francois Perrodo tried the patience of Eduardo Freitas perhaps a little too much, a further warning after his 5 minute stop-go and he was summoned to Race Control where the biscuits and coffee were understood to be nowhere to be seen, he was black-flagged personally for the remainder of the session, the same fate befalling Salih Yoluc in the #90 TF Sport, another car to receive a 5 minute stop-go, as did the #86 Gulf Racing Porsche and the #62 Red River Sport Ferrari!
The #98 Aston Martin finished the session second in the class in the hands of Augusto Farfus with the minty-fresh #56 Team Project 1 Porsche (Mentos Matteo Cairoli) making it three makes in the top 3.
Pic courtesy Rebellion Racing
