The LMP2 was on top of the timing board at the end of Free Practice 2, keeping the Hypercars at bay by 0.021s, continuing the trend from yesterday’s FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
Team Penske was the team to beat as the LMP2 class was on top of the timing board at the end of Free Practice 2, keeping the Hypercars at bay by 0.021s, continuing the trend from yesterday’s FIA World Endurance Championship 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
The session began with the status quo in place, with Toyota Gazoo Racing on top and setting the pace ahead of the Alpine Elf Team and Glickenhaus entrants, but the LMP2s quickly took over.
With a time of 2:04.443, Felipe Nasr produced the best lap of the session, beating the Toyota #8 by two-tenths of a second. This was the lead Team Penske would hold over Toyota, with only Olivier Pla’s Glickenhaus, which was two-thousandths of a second slower than the LMP2, separating the two.
Oliver Jarvis in the fastest of the two United Autosports cars, set a 2:04.821 to finish fourth overall, the fastest of the two United Autosports entries.
Their adversaries from yesterday, the 2021 champions WRT, were in 16th place overall, 2.2 seconds behind Team Penske. The cause of this drop in speed is unknown, but if it continues until final practice, the team would face a difficult qualification challenge.
The Prema ORLEN Team was fifth fastest, as the second Toyota four tenths back in sixth. United Autosports took seventh place, followed by the JOTA duo and the final Hypercar, Alpine. The AF Corse LMP2 car came in 11th overall, a fraction of a second behind Nasr.
Kevin Estre took the lead in GTE Pro once more, but the Ferrari entries, which had been expected to suffer this weekend due to Balance of Performance weightings, were separated into two.
Estre’s 2:14.366 appeared to be in a league of its own, with a six-tenths advantage over the chasing Pro group, but second through fourth were separated by two-tenths of a second. With both AF Corse cars outperforming Corvette Racing by at least half a second, the Italian team appears to be in a stronger position than previously thought.
In Am, Porsche was once again on top, with the #46 Team Project 1 leading the field. All Am vehicles ended 1.2 seconds slower than Estre’s pace.
Despite some troubles early in the session, the Dempsey Proton Racing #77 managed to record the second fastest time in class throughout the course of the 26 laps.
Sebastian Priaulx’s time of 2:16.240 came in the final moments of the session, putting them ahead of the Iron Danes in third place.
The Hypercars are expected to sandbag, which explains why they’re so mixed up with the LMP2 runners, and it’s believed that they’ll climb to the front of the pack in the final practice session.
The LMP2s, on the other hand, appear to be really strong, and if any of the top category cars demonstrate true pace, they might be in serious contention for the overall podium in tomorrow’s race.
