Fuoco puts Ferrari atop opening Spa WEC practice

Ferrari AF Corse’s No. 50 499P ran fastest in the opening practice session ahead of Saturday’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, with Antonio Fuoco, the pole winner at Imola, setting a 2m02.955s during the opening run of this morning’s session, displacing the satellite No. 83 499P of Robert Kubica from the top of the timesheets.

Second, 0.564s off Fuoco, eventually went to Alex Riberas in the No. 009 Aston Martin THOR Team Valkyrie. The Spaniard was the biggest mover following the opening flurry of lap times, ensuring a fast start for the British marque.

Riberas was, in turn, only 0.004s ahead of the No. 36 Alpine Endurance Team A424 of Frederic Makowiecki, with Kubica’s 2m03.650s proving fast enough to hold on to fourth.

The No. 36 Alpine was fifth, ahead of BMW M Team WRT’s pair of M Hybrid V8s, with the No. 007 Aston Martin, No. 94 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 and No. 51 Ferrari completing the top 10.

Mathys Jaubert improved late on to place his No. 17 Genesis Magma Racing GMR-001 an encouraging 13th overall after the team’s first-ever laps of the Spa circuit. His lap was 1.983s off the top time, but 0.18s ahead of the championship-leading, Imola-winning No. 8 Toyota Racing TR010 Hybrid.

In LMGT3, Charlie Eastwood was quickest in the No. 34 Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R, with a 2m18.388s. The Corvette factory driver initially went fastest with a 2m18.388s, before improving further on his next lap to secure the top spot.

Alessio Rovera was second in the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 Evo, 0.366s off Eastwood, with Marvin Kirchhöfer third aboard the No. 10 Garage 59 McLaren LMGT3 Evo.

Fourth went to Jose Maria Lopez’s No. 87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F LMGT3, with the No. 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 making it five different marques in the top five.

FP1 was interrupted by a single, six-minute full course yellow to clear gravel at Les Combes, but ran with no significant incident until Yasser Shahin stopped at Turn 13 with under three minutes to go, which prompted a red flag that brought the session to an early end.

All 35 cars covered at least 25 laps, with three cars, the No. 50 Ferrari, No. 15 BMW and No. 8 Toyota, sharing the top spot on the mileage chart.

UP NEXT: Free Practice 2 will be held later today at 3:40pm local time.

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