As if there wasn’t already drama enough on day one of the FIA World Endurance Championship 2021 Prologue, there was more drama on the second day of running.
The Belgian Spa Francorchamps track is one of the high-speed circuits on the schedule, with very limited run-off and instant penalty, if you run off the circuit.
Team Project 1 Porsche #46 is confirmed to be done for the week. Norwegian Anders Burchardt had a heavy shunt yesterday, that a new chassis is needed. The demand for 911 RSR-19 chassis is so high, that it’s impossible to get a spare car, so they have to miss the race this weekend.
There was a clash in the morning session today between Racing Team Nederland #29 and Iron Lynx Ferrari #85. Job van Uitert and Katherine Legge collided at the ultra-fast Blanchimont corner, and both cars were heavily damaged. Thankfully, both drivers are ok, but both teams need to build a new car ahead of the weekend.
Toyota Gazoo Racing #8 and Cetilar Racing Ferrari #47 made contact at Raidillon, resulting in damage to both cars, but no more than #8 could return shortly after. The Ferrari had to miss the rest of the afternoon.
Other than that, it was a day with much more running than the red flag-plagued Monday. There was a bit of Full Course Yellow here and there, with G-Drive Racing #25 being the cause of one of those when the car ground to a halt on the start-finish straight.
TF Sport Aston Martin #33, D’Station Racing Aston Martin #777, and JOTA #28 were all back on track, after both #33 and #28 needed a new chassis overnight – #777 was repairable, despite its big damage from yesterday.
Toyota Gazoo Racing #7 was fastest in the morning session amongst the Hypercars, while the sister car #8 was quickest in the afternoon. United Autosports USA #22 were close at claiming a full sweep of P1’s, after having been fastest in both sessions yesterday, and this afternoon – but they had to give up P1 for G-Drive Racing #26 this morning, grabbing second amongst the LMP2 cars themselves.
Porsche was the fastest in all practice sessions, with three times P1 for #92. while #91 closed the test off by being the fastest GTE Pro car. Team Project 1 Porsche #56 was fastest in the morning session for GTE Am cars, while TF Sport Aston Martin #33 was the fastest in the last practice session.
There is no track action on the Wednesday for the FIA WEC teams, but that is only just as well, since there were quite a few who need to their cars a bit of love and care, after two days of running.
The FIA WEC will run their first official practice session of 2021 on Thursday afternoon at 15.30 CET.