Alpine climbed to the top of the Hypercar timesheets in Thursday’s afternoon practice session in Belgium as the French manufacturer went one-two at a happy hunting-ground, while Aston Martin led the way in LMGT3.
Alpine Endurance Team set the pace in the day’s second 90-minute free practice session, as the 35 entries for the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps continued preparations for Saturday’s second round of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship campaign
Jules Gounon set a peak time of 2m01.816s in the #36 Alpine A424 Hypercar that he will share with countrymen Frédéric Makowiecki and Victor Martins
That effort bettered the 2m02.090s lap achieved by the #35 sister car, as António Félix da Costa, Charles Milesi and Ferdinand Habsburg completed the first ever Alpine one-two in a FIA WEC Hypercar session
Improving its pace and performance from FP1, BMW M Team WRT placed third with the #20 car crewed by Robin Frijns, René Rast and Sheldon van der Linde, as the local squad continued to showcase its new-look BMW Hypercar
The sister #15 BMW placed fifth, sandwiching the highest of the two Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin entries, with Marco Sørensen posting the quickest lap time in the #009; similarly running just two drivers in Belgium, the sister #007 Valkyrie claimed the eighth-fastest lap
The highest-placed Ferrari in the session was the FP1-topping #50 Ferrari AF Corse 499P, as the Prancing Horse looks to repeat its 2025 victory with the #51 car
Team Peugeot TotalEnergies placed seventh with the #94 9X8, as the ‘Lions’ predominantly focused on a long stint programme during FP2
The top ten was completed by the #83 AF Corse Ferrari in ninth, and the #7 TOYOTA RACING entry, with the Japanese manufacturer appearing to struggle for outright speed after its win in the curtain-raising contest at Imola last month
The session was interrupted by two red flag periods, the first for track clearance procedures and the second for the retrieval of the Tom Van Rompuy-driven #78 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus LMGT3 car
LMGT3
The returning Eduardo Barrichello, now piloting the #23 Heart of Racing Aston Team Martin Vantage he shares with Gray Newell and Jonny Adam, headed the times
The Brazilian stopped the clocks on a 2m17.769s to outpace the pursuing pack by 0.202s, but Newell incurred a five-minute stop-and-go penalty for track limit violations in the final moments of the session
At the head of the chase was the Racing Team Turkey by TF Corvette, which continued to show significant speed after topping FP1 – but the #34 entry was also handed a five-minute stop-and-go penalty for track abuse violations during the session
Third in LMGT3 in FP2 was the #79 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG driven by Matteo Cressoni, Lin Hodenius and Johannes Zelger
The #21 VISTA AF Corse Ferrari continued to show strong pace in free practice as Simon Mann, François Hériau and Alessio Rovera, as the trio chase back-to-back victories at Spa after their 2025 success
Akkodis ASP Team concluded proceedings in fifth and sixth positions, as the #78 Lexus led the #87 RC F, but the session ended dramatically for the squad as Tom Van Rompuy lost a wheel in sector three
The third Free Practice session at the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa is scheduled for 10:10 local time tomorrow (Friday, 7 May).
All of FIA WEC. All of endurance racing’s greatest battles. Watch live and on demand with FIAWEC+ – the official streaming platform of the FIA World Endurance Championship, wherever you are, whenever you want, including the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans. Stream FIA WEC live with FIAWEC+.
