- In FIA World Endurance Championship practice Thursday, Team WRT's Robin Frijns was fastest overall in Free Practice No. 1 with a lap at 124.863 mph in his LMP2 class ORECA 07-Gibson. This lap was six-hundredths of a second faster than United Autosports' Filipe Albuquerque. Teammate Oliver Jarvis was third, followed by JOTA
Sport's Will Stevens and Team Penske's Felipe Nasr.
The headlining Hypercar class was topped by Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus' Romain Dumas with a lap at 124.113 mph, good for fifth overall, three-quarters of a second slower than Frijns. Dumas' lap was nearly two-thirds of a second faster than Toyota GAZOO Racing's Mike Conway. Sebastien Buemi in the second Toyota was third in class, back in 13th
overall.
The factory Porsches were the fastest of all the GT runners. Porsche GT Team's Kevin Ester was fastest with a lap at 116.413 mph, three-tenths of a second faster than teammate Gianmaria Bruni. The AF Corse Ferraris of Alessandro Pier Guidi and Miguel Molina were over a second off the pace in third and fourth, while Corvette Racing's Tommy Milner was
fifth.
In GTE-Am, the No. 46 Porsche of Team Project 1's Matteo Cairoli was fastest with a lap at 115.215 mph, fifth of the GT runners. Cairoli ended up more than four-tenths of a second faster than TF Sport's Marco Sorensen in his Aston Martin. Ben Barnicoat in the second Team Project 1 Porsche was third, then D'Station Racing's Tomonobu Fujii.
Northwest AMR's David Pittard rounded out the top five.
- Free Practice No. 2 early this morning saw Nasr put the yellow and blue colors of Team Penske on top of the speed chart with a lap at 125.899 mph. This was three-eighths of a second faster than Jarvis. Prema's Louis Deletraz was third in LMP2, followed by Albuquerque and Stevens.
Olivier Pla was fastest in the Hypercar class with a lap at 125.877 mph, good for second overall, only two-hundredths of a second slower than Nasr. Pla was a quarter of a second faster than Brendon Hartley in the No. 8 Toyota. Jose Maria Lopez was third fastest.
Porsche GT Team's Michael Christensen was fastest in GTE-Pro with a lap at 116.010 mph. This was six-tenths of a second faster than AF Corse's James Calado. Teammate Antonio Fuoco was third, then Porsche's Richard Lietz.
GTE-Am was led by Cairoli again with a lap at 115.536 mph. Cairoli was six-tenths of a second faster than Dempsey-Proton Racing's Sebastian Priaulx. Iron Lynx's Giancarlo Fisichella was third in his Ferrari, then Spirit of Race's Gabriel Aubry. GR Racing's Riccardo Pera was fifth.
The session ended seven minutes due to Northwest AMR's Paul Dalla Lana going off-course and sweeping gravel onto the track at Stavelot. While Dalla Lana did not crash, the cleanup took too long to allow for the session to restart.
- Free Practice No. 3, which wrapped up at 9 a.m. ET this morning, saw Toyota GAZOO Racing's Kamui Kobayashi turn in the fastest lap of the weekend to this point at 127.143 mph. The lap was two-tenths of a second faster than Hartley. Signatech Alpine's Matthieu Vaxiviere was third.
In LMP2, Deletraz was fastest with a lap at 126.090 mph, the best LMP2 lap of the weekend and eight-tenths off of Kobayashi's lap in third overall. Deletraz was nearly six-tenths of a second faster than Frijns. Albuquerque was third fastest, then Stevens and Nasr.
Christensen was fastest in GTE-Am with a lap at 117.708 mph, more than four-tenths of a second faster than teammate Bruni. Pier Guidi was third, then Molina and Corvette Racing's Nick Tandy.
In GTE-Am, the No. 46 Team Project 1 Porsche was fastest again, but this time with Mikkel Pedersen at the wheel with a lap at 115.752 mph. Pedersen was six-tenths of a second faster than Dempsey-Proton Racing's Harry Tincknell. Sorensen was third fastest, then Barnicoat and Jan Heylen in the Dempsey-Proton Racing No. 88.
The session did have one red flag when Pipo Derani beached the Glickenhaus in the gravel at Stavelot. The car was minimally damaged, allowing the No. 708 to return to the track later in the session.
