Mixed weather day at Spa

This season’s seventh round of FIA World Endurance Championship was run at Spa Francorchamps, in a typical Spa weather.

The first free practice went without problems, on a dry track.

SMP Racing #17 and #11 1-2 in LMP1, in front of Toyota Gazoo Racing #8 and #7, while Rebellion Racing #3 and #1 were P5 and P6 – with ByKolles Racing Team #4 as the last car in the class.

Signatech Alpine Matmut #36 was the quickest car in LMP2, ahead of G-Drive Racing #26 and Racing Team Nederland #29.

Aston Martin Racing #97 was the fastest in the GTE Pro catgory, in front of Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK #67 and BMW Team MTEK #82.

Gulf Racing Porsche #86 was the quickest in GTE Am, followed by Spirit of Race Ferrari #54 and Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche #77.

The weather did a one-eighty for FP2, where it began to rain twenty minutes before the practice started.

SMP Racing #17 was in trouble after a few minutes, where Stephane Sarrazin held still at the bottom of Eau Rouge, but he could continue by himself. BMW Team MTEK #82 stopped on the track, which triggered a red flag.

When the practice got restarted, it didn’t take long before Sarrazin again found himself in trouble as he aquaplanned off track in Blanchimont, and hit the armco hard. But physically he should be okay. It caused another red flag, so that his car could get removed.

We got the third red flag when Nick Boulle in Larbre Competition #50 stopped on the start-finish straight.

Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK #66 with Olivier Pla had a little incident on the track, but could continue.

The practice was ended a minute earlier when Signatech Alpine Matmut #36 Pierre Thiriet stopped in the middle of the track.

Toyota Gazoo Racing #8 was fastest in LMP1, ahead of #7 and SMP Racing #11.

DragonSpeed #31 was the quickest LMP2 car, in front of TDS Racing and Jackie Chan DC Racing #38.

Aston Martin Racing #95 with Nicki Thiim and Marco Sørensen was fastest in GTE Pro, followed by Porsche #91 and AMR #97.

Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche #77 finished P1 in GTE Am, ahead of MR Racing Ferrari #70 and Gulf Racing Porsche #86.

There isn’t much to read from the times, especially in FP2, since the weather conditions (read the rain intensity) changed so much, that some drivers could be lucky to set a good time compared to others.

But the weather forecast varies for the rest of the week, so we can’t predict how it will be under practice and qualifying tomorrow, and nevertheless on Saturday.