Top Again for Toyota in Free Practice Two
Toyota topped the timesheets again at the end of an incident-filled free practice two. Mike Conway set a time on lap five that would remain unbeaten.
In a repeat from this morning, Toyota Gazoo Racing took the top two spots on the timesheets in free practice two at Spa. The session was marked by two red flags, a full course yellow and plenty of track limits warnings. This afternoon's glory may have gone to Fernando Alonso, but it was Mike Conway in the #7 car that set the pace in the evening. On lap five, Conway threw down an apparently unbeatable gauntlet, a lap time of 1:56.172 - more than two seconds quicker than Alonso's time in FP1. Second fastest, unsurprisingly, went the way of the sister car which sits six tenths behind. The gap back to the privateers seems to have grown massively since FP1. Dragonspeed with their BR1 ran third quickest with a 1:58.835, a time not dissimilar to Thomas Laurent's time in the earlier session. Perhaps the privateers have reached the peak of their performance while Toyota are just getting started.
The #31 Dragonspeed topped the LMP2 times again, thanks to 2:02.991 set on lap nine by Pastor Maldonado. Jackie Chan DC Racing climbed up the order, finishing with a time good enough for second quickest. Meanwhile, G-Drive managed to finish third fastest again. Interesting to note, the top three times were set by Orecas, but the Ligier of Larbre Competition sits in fourth.
Lap 12 saw the #66 Ford of Olivier Pla, Stefan Mucke and Billy Johnson cross the line quickest. The 2:13.733 from Pla kept the team at the top for the remainder of the session. Tincknell, Priaulx and Kanaan in the #67 ended the session a second slower than their Ford teammates in third. Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz in the #91 Porsche split the two Fords with a 2:14.647.
The quickest time in GTE Am belonged to a Porsche again. However this time it was Ben Barker, Michael Wainwright and Alex Davidson in the #86 Gulf Racing car with a 2:16.113. Dempsey-Proton were only three tenths behind them with the #77, while Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy and Mathias Lauda's Aston Martin Vantage coming in third quickest.
Track action continues tomorrow with Free Practice Three starting at 11.00 local time, GTE qualifying at 15.00 and LMP qualifying at 15.35.
This article was originally published on Overtake Motorsport.
Shared with permission from the author.
Cover Image: Toyota Gazoo Racing
