Toyota's No. 7 takes WEC pole at Spa after Ferrari's time deleted

Toyota’s No. 7 GR010 HYBRID will start from pole position in tomorrow’s FIA WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps after a dramatic qualifying session in Belgium.

Kamui Kobayashi set the quickest lap for the Japanese team, which denied Ferrari its second pole of the season after Antonio Giovanazzi had his best time deleted after the checkered flag.

Antonio Giovanazzi briefly stunned Kamui Kobayashi and the Toyota crew members in the garage with a sensational 2m00.777s at the end of Hypercar qualifying in the No. 51 Ferrari AF Corse 499P. But a track limits violation at Turn 7 – the exit of Les Combes – meant race control was forced to delete the time, handing the top spot back to Toyota and muting the celebrations in the Ferrari pit.

Kobayashi’s best was 2m00.812s, just 0.024s faster than Miguel Molina, whose time would eventually turn out to be Ferrari's fastest. The Spaniard in the No. 50 499P will start second, ahead of the No. 51 which will line up third after the post-session decision from race control cost the car two grid spots.

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Overall it was an extremely tight session in Hypercar, as the top four set times within 0.3s of each other.

Just outside the top three was the best of the LMDh cars in the field, the No. 2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, following a 2m01.041s from Earl Bamber, who looked to be pushing the car to its absolute limit on his flyer.

The No.3 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R will start fifth following its overnight engine change. Sebastien Bourdais did extremely well to put the car in the top five after what’s been a tough weekend so far for the guest-entered IMSA crew, which is utilizing a brand-new chassis that lost a lot of practice time to a minor fire.

The other brand new LMDh chassis in the field, the No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963, will start seventh after Will Stevens' performance. Notably, the car set a faster time than both Peugeots and the No. 5 factory Penske-run Porsche.

What about the championship-leading No. 8 Toyota? It will start from the back after Brendon Hartley had an off which stopped the session at Raidillon just two minutes into Hypercar qualifying. The Kiwi was running at a reduced speed trying to warm his tires, but had the car snap on him when he touched the curb on the driver’s left at the crest, sending him into the barriers at the top of the hill.

Hartley was OK, but couldn’t continue as the car needed to be recovered by marshals after the hit. It was the second of two red flags in qualifying, both caused by incidents at Raidillon. The other came earlier on during the GTE Am session.

United Autosports’ No. 23 ORECA, which won last time out in Portimao, will start from the front in LMP2, after a superb 2m05.979s lap from Tom Blomqvist.

Blomqvist got the job done for United Autosports in LMP2. Motorsport Images

Blomqvist was the only driver to set a time under 2m05s. It would not be bettered by the other drivers in the dying moments, and marked a perfect return to the team after he was forced to miss Round 2 due to a clash with the IMSA race at Long Beach.

“Really good job by United Autosports who gave me a great car," Blomqvist said to RACER. "I didn’t have a super-clean build-up to quali, so I had to trust my instincts for the session. Our car is currently P4 in the championship so it’s a case of chipping away after our Sebring disappointment.