Tincknell puts Aston Martin on top in second Barcelona WEC practice

Aston Martin THOR Team’s No. 007 Valkyrie set the pace in the second practice session of the FIA World Endurance Championship’s first race weekend in Barcelona this afternoon. Harry Tincknell led the way for the team, setting a 1m31.712s – the fastest lap of the meeting so far – early in the session on a set of soft tires.

“P5 in the first session and P1 in the second session is great for the Valkyrie. I’m looking forward to qualifying tomorrow; hopefully we get to do it this time after missing it in Fuji. Hopefully we can be right at the front. But it’s not easy; it’s so low-grip, we’re sliding around all over the place,” Ticknell said.

The running order changed significantly from the opening practice as teams focused on long run pace and made setup tweaks. The No. 17 Genesis GMR-001 ended up second courtesy of a Mathys Jaubert 1m31.750s with the Michelin medium compound tires. 

The No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari, which topped FP1, finished third after Robert Kubica’s 1m21.795s over six laps to kick off proceedings. The two factory 499Ps, which were quick during the morning, ended up seventh (No. 50) and 12th (No. 51), four tenths and 1.2s off, respectively. 

Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA’s No. 12 V-Series.R was fourth. Will Stevens reeled off a 1m31.804s as part of a long run from the car, which utilized a single set of three mediums and a right-front soft for the duration of the session to monitor tire deg.

“It was quite a good day, and we’ve learned a lot. There’s a lot of tire degradation for everyone, as expected at this track. That’s always been the case in Barcelona,” No. 12 driver Norman Nato said. “At the moment, the tricky part is trying to balance the setup and driving style to manage the tires. It’s not an easy one, and traffic with the GTs is also very tricky.

“We’ve been preparing for qualifying and doing some longer runs for the race. As I said, this is by far the track with the most tire degradation of the season, so that’s clearly our main focus at the moment. Overall, it was quite a clean day, so we’ll see what tomorrow brings.”

The No. 7 Toyota was fifth, with the No. 38 JOTA Cadillac sixth.

In LMGT3, Garage 59’s No. 58 McLaren LMGT3 EVO ended up three tenths faster than the No. 78 AKKODIS ASP Lexus at the top of the order. The best time in the car came from Finn Gehrsitz, a 1m41.650s.

Hadrien David came closest to bettering his time, with a 1m41.994s. The No. 79 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG took third spot with a 1m42.180s.

As a whole, it was another pretty uneventful session, with no major incidents to report or significant weather changes.

Practice continues tomorrow, though FP3 is split into two halves, scheduled for either side of LMGT3 and Hypercar qualifying. FP3 for the LMGT3 runners is up first, and will take place in the morning at 8:50am local time. The Hypercar-only hour will take place at 12:40pm. The change was made in part to spread out track time for fans, as there’s no support series on the bill, and to help accommodate the double-duty GT drivers traveling between the WEC event in Barcelona and the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup finale at Portimao this weekend. 

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