FIA GT Championship

Total 24 Hours of Spa: Free Practice Report

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

Under a clear blue sky and the temperature around 30 degrees centigrade the first free practice of the Total 24 Hours of Spa took place. The session was supposed to last 90 minutes but was cut short by two red flags. At the end of the session there was a surprise in first place.

The moment the light at the end of the F1 pit went green the cars started to roll out with Phoenix Racing being the first ones out. The session went on with cars going in and out of pitlane until about half an hour into the session when the red flag came out all of a sudden.
Xavier Pompidou in the Trackspeed Racing Porsche 997 GT3 RSR had come to a halt on the middle of the track at Les Combes. With his car in a rather dangerous position the race director did what he should do and interrupted the session.

As soon as everything was safe again the session was restarted and cars went out again. Things went well for quite a while until about 15 minutes before the end of the session. Once again the session was red flagged after an accident at Les Combes. Christophe Pillon lost control of the SRT Corvette C6.R and slammed into the barrier head-on. Moments later the BMS Scuderia Italia Ferrari 430 GT2 also spun through the grass at almost the same spot. When Pillon then lost his front hood on the straight to Pouhon while travelling back to the pit the race director decided it was enough for this session.

When the red flag came out it was the Larbre Competition Saleen S7R that had set the quickest lap time while driven by Pedro Lamy, a 2:16.981. Jetalliance Racing was second fastest, at just over three tenths of a second from the Saleen and the #6 Phoenix Racing Corvette completed the top three.

In GT2 it was the #50 AF Corse Ferrari that set the fastest time of the session (2:23.231). Four tenths of a second slower was the #61 Prospeed Competition in second place while the #55 CR Scuderia Ferrari was third fastest at seven tenths of a second from the AF Corse Ferrari.