Action has got underway ahead of this weekend’s TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the third round of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship campaign, with the first of two 90-minute free practice sessions today.
In warm and sunny conditions, the #50 Ferrari AF Corse entry driven by Miguel Molina, Antonio Fuoco and Nicklas Nielsen emerged at the head of the timing screens, peaking with a best lap of 2m02.835s set by Antonio Fuoco.
The Prancing Horse continues its excellent start to the 2025 season, as it attempts to hunt down a hat-trick of victories in Belgium after successes in Qatar and Italy.
Making it a one-two in FP2 was the #83 AF Corse Ferrari, as Robert Kubica lapped just 0.222s shy of the top spot.
The #36 Alpine Hypercar, which claimed a memorable podium at Imola last time out, continued its impressive form as Mick Schumacher set a 2m03.094s late in the session to claim the third-fastest lap.
Team Peugeot TotalEnergies showed promising early pace again as the pair of 9X8 prototypes placed fourth and fifth, spearheaded by Paul di Resta’s 2m03.294s effort in the #93 entry.
The second of the Peugeots piloted by local ace Stoffel Vandoorne, Loïc Duval and Malthe Jakobsen was fifth, as the Dane posted the best lap for the #94 car on 2m03.573s.
Completing the top six in FP1 was the #15 BMW M Team WRT Hypercar driven this weekend by the duo of Raffaele Marciello and Kevin Magnussen, as Dries Vanthoor races at the Laguna Seca IMSA round.
Two incidents in the 90-minute session necessitated brief Full Course Yellow periods. These were triggered by Paul-Loup Chatin spinning his #35 Alpine at Les Combes and having to be rescued from the gravel, followed by a similar incident for Sébastien Bourdais in the #38 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota car at Campus Chicane.
A mere half-a-second blanketed the top four cars in the ultra-tight LMGT3 category, with the Akkodis ASP Lexus squad again featuring prominently in the final order.
The #78 RC F LMGT3 ultimately sat at the top of the times as a fastest lap of 2m18.432s was completed by Finn Gehrsitz to just shade the #21 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 driven by François Heriau, Alessio Rovera and Simon Mann, whose best time was set by the Italian.
Akkodis ASP welcomed a new face, Yuichi Nakayama, to its crew this week as the Super GT racer joins regular drivers Gehrsitz and Arnold Robin.
The sister #87 Lexus placed third, with Clemens Schmid, José María López and Petru Umbrarescu similarly targeting a champagne celebration on Saturday evening. The Argentine ace posted the quickest lap for the #87 car.
In fourth position was the leading Proton Competition Ford Mustang, the #88 car campaigned by Stefano Gattuso, Dennis Olsen and Giammarco Levorato. Olsen claimed the best time for that car with a lap of 2m18.969s.
That was six tenths-of-a-second ahead of the new-for-2025 Racing Spirit of Léman Aston Martin crewed by Eduardo Barrichello, Derek Deboer and Valentin Hasse Clot.
Rounding out the top six was the second of the Proton Ford Mustangs as Ben Tuck, Benjamin Barker and Bernardo Sousa started their Spa weekend off in solid fashion.
The second free practice session is scheduled to begin at 16:30 CET.
For the full FP1 classification, click HERE.
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