Spa WEC Update: Porsche Maintains Lead Over Ferrari in Last Practice Session

Porsche remained at the forefront during the final practice session for the Spa 6 Hours World Endurance Championship round, with Kevin Estre once again surpassing Ferrari to establish the leading pace.

The French driver set an impressive time of 2 minutes and 4.125 seconds in the early stages aboard his #6 Penske Porsche Motorsport 963 LMDh. Similar to his performance in Thursday's second practice session, Estre maintained his lead throughout the entire hour-long session.

Estre surpassed the #51 Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar, briefly topped by James Calado, with the British driver's time falling short by 0.215 seconds.

Mikkel Jensen secured third place between the two factory Ferraris aboard the leading Peugeot 9X8 LMH, marking the second outing for the significantly modified 2024 specification machine. Antonio Fuoco, who set the benchmark time in FP1 with the #50 499P, followed closely behind.

Dries Vanthoor secured the fifth-fastest time in the leading WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 LMDh car, edging out the quickest Toyota GR010 LMH driven by defending Spa winner Kamui Kobayashi by a mere 0.008 seconds.

Brendon Hartley claimed seventh place in the sister #8 Toyota, overtaking Charles Milesi in the top Alpine A424 LMDh. Robin Frijns in the BMW and Callum Ilott in the Jota Porsche rounded up the top 10 ahead of the upcoming qualifying session.

Several Hypercar entries encountered incidents during their runs. Oliver Rasmussen, in the #38 Jota Porsche, suffered damage to the floor and bodywork after running wide at Blanchimont and traversing the grass and gravel.

In the final minutes, Earl Bamber spun his Chip Ganassi-operated Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh into the gravel at Les Combes but fortunately escaped without any damage. Meanwhile, the #83 Ferrari, managed by AF Corse, completed the fewest laps among all entrants due to spending over half an hour in the garage addressing a suspected electrical issue.

In the LMGT3 category, current points leader Alexander Malykhin surged to the top of the timesheets late in the session while driving his Pure Rxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R.

The UK-based Belarusian clocked a lap time of 2 minutes and 20.947 seconds, which was 0.261 seconds faster than the Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan.

Rahel Frey, substituting for Doriane Pin, who was occupied with Formula Regional European by Alpine duties at Hockenheim, set the car's best lap upon her return to the WEC.

Corvette factory driver Daniel Juncadella secured third place in the closing stages with the #82 TF Sport-run Z06 GT3.R. This car had earlier caused a full course yellow when Hiroshi Koizumi spun into the gravel at Les Combes.

Thomas Flohr claimed fourth position driving the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, ahead of the second Manthey-run Porsche piloted by Yasser Shahin.

Source: autosport