Two red flags at Raidillon as Toyota take overall pole at Spa
With lap times being deleted left, right and centre it was only after the initial celebrations by the No. 51 Ferrari team were dampened when Antonio Giovinazzi's pole lap was deleted, the No. 7 Toyota was named overall pole sitters for the Totalenergies 6 Hours of Spa tomorrow.
Spa qualifying did not fail to entertain us the a red flag stoppage in the LMGTEAm session when the No. 56 Project 1 Porsche spectacularly left the track on the run up to Radilion, an incident which was mirrored in a much slower fashion by the No. 8 Toyota.
In Hypercar qualifying, all 13 cars left the pit lane but only 12 made it back under their own power, as without even setting a representative time Brendon hartley in the No. 8 Toyota left the track in a very odd incident going up Raidillon in what could only be described as a lazy spin after the rear of the car appeared to loose traction for no reason, Brendon commented on the radio he wasn't even pushing.
The session restarted with 12 minutes on the clock, and without the use of tyre warmers this year it took some time for the field to get up speed on the cooling track. There were several drivers having moments, notably Molina in the No. 50 Ferrari dipping into the gravel on the exit of Courbe Paul Frére which is one of the fastest parts of the circuit.
As the times started to tumble towards the end of the session, for a time several different manufacturers were in the top 3 positions but ultimately after Giovanazzi's lap in the No 51 Ferrari was deleted due to track limits the No. 7 Toyota took pole with the No. 50 Ferrari joining it on the front row, 3rd is the No. 51 Ferrari and 4th the No. 2 Cadillac.
Full category results are below.
LMP2 Qualifying
A similar story was told in the LMP2 qualifying session with drivers taking time to warm their tyres up before attempting quick laps, and again a considerable amount of quick times were being deleted.
The session was fairly uneventful with no incident, it was the No. 23 United Autosports car that took pole by a hefty magain compared to the next 7 runners, over the No. 41 Team WRT. The gap between 1st and 2nd was almost half a second whereas the next 7 cars were covered by 1 second. 3rd is the No. 63 Prema Racing Car.
Full results below.
LMGTEAm Qualifying
In the red flag interrupted LMGTEAm qualifying only 12 of the 14 cars completed the session, the No. 21 AF Corse car did not take part in the session due the incident yesterday with the No. 54 Ferrari at Raidillon which destroyed the No.21. The AF Corse team have acquired a new chassis for the race tomorrow and will run but had to sit out qualifying while they worked on the new car. The team (No. 21) will also have to serve a 30 second stop and hold penalty during the race due to the incident.
The second car not to finish the session was the No. 56 Project 1 Porsche of PJ Hyett after a spectacular but familiar incident at Raidillon. PJ seemed to loose the rear of the Porsche coming up the hill, ultimately destroying the front of the car - this caused the session to be stopped while the car was recovered.
The session restarted with six and a half minutes remaining on the clock, as the drivers were pushing for pole the No. 33 Corvette took the lead but eventually fell back to 4th overall which appears to be a good result for the team despite carrying 45kg of winning weight.
The No. 25 ORT by TF Aston Martin took the pole with a barn storming lap by Ahmed AL Harthy gaining a gap of 2 seconds of a equally impression last lap dash by Sarah Bovy in the No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche, who some might say enabled a Spa 'cheat mode' on the lap prior using the escape lane at the end of the Kemmel Straight to avoid the Les Combes section and gain some time and reduce tyre wear. 3rd is the No. 88 Proton Competition Porsche.
Full results below.
And the grid for the race - http://fiawec.alkamelsystems.com/Results/12_2023/03_SPA%20FRANCORCHAMPS/469_FIA%20WEC/202304291245_Race/01_Grid_Race.PDF
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