No.78 Lexus on LMGT3 pole for WEC 6 Hours of Spa
- Aaron Carroll
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
Hadrien David and Tom van Rompuy have given the No.78 Akkodis ASP Lexus pole position in LMGT3 for tomorrows World Endurance Championship (WEC) 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, ahead of the No.27 Aston Martin and the No.77 Ford Mustang.
As it happened
Qualifying
At 14:30 local time, the light at the end of the pit lane went green for LMGT3 qualifying. This first session was 15 minutes long, and the teams could only send out their bronze drivers.
As always with this first of two sessions, it would be the top 10 going through to Hyperpole, so the top of the timing sheet didn't matter as much as positions 11-18.
The No.58 Garage 59 McLaren of Alexander West had an issue pulling away from the green light at the start, but he got going after holding the queue up for a short period of time.
Petru Umbrărescu in the No.87 Lexus went to the top about halfway through with the first representative time of the session, after the first half was spent getting the tyres up to peak operating temperature.
2:17.2 was the time, with no one else under a 2:18 for a couple of minutes. Stefano Gattuso in the No.88 Ford Mustang was the first to get close to the Lexus, four tenths back from Umbrărescu's best.
With five minutes to go, both McLaren's were in the elimination zone - the No.58 11th and the No.10 14th - despite the car looking the quickest of the LMGT3 bunch in Free Practice. West improved in the No.58, but stayed 11th, just under a tenth away from the top 10.
Yasser Shahin had the pressure on him, after a track limits lap put him last. On his penultimate lap he was improving, but just missed out on the top 10. 0.06 of a second away. West improved on his penultimate lap too, but just re-overtook Shahin, the margins still tiny.
Bale McDonald in the No.33 TF Corvette was in the drop zone too, but he came into the pits to signal the end of his session. Antares Au in the No.10 couldn't improve either, neither could Gray Newell in the No.23 Aston Martin, Johannes Zelger in the No.79 Mercedes and Thomas Flohr in the No.54 Ferrari.
Shahin backed off his last lap and pit, so it was just West and Anthony McIntosh in the No.69 BMW left to finish. Neither of them could find the time, so that was it for both of their days.
Results - LMGT3 Qualifying drop zone
11th No.59 McLaren - West
12th No.92 Porsche - Shahin
13th No.23 Aston Martin - Newell
14th No.33 Corvette - McDonald
15th No.10 McLaren - Au
16th No.79 Mercedes - Zelger
17th No.69 BMW - McIntosh
18th No.54 Ferrari - Flohr
Hyperpole
10 drivers were left, with another 12 minutes for them to fight for pole. This time, it was the Silver drivers in the car, as per the rules.
Clemens Schmid in the No.87 Lexus was straight onto the pace, a 2:16.9 putting him top with just three minutes gone in the session. Everyone else took an extra lap to get some heat into the tyres, before they attempted to challenge the Austrian's time.
Hadrien David in the sister No.78 was going much quicker, setting a 2:16.6 to top his teammate. Simon Mann slotted into third in the No.21 Ferrari, six tenths off the top. Zachaire Robichon in the No.27 Aston Martin and Ben Tuck in the No.77 Ford both split the Lexus', two and two and a half tenths back respectively.
Schmid came back into the pits with two minutes to go, so he would not be better than fourth on the grid tomorrow. Rui Andrade in the No.61 Mercedes improved from 10th to eighth with one minute to go, but after that no one else could improve their times. The timing sheets were full of yellow sector times.
So the No.78 sealed pole position, ahead of the No.27 and No.77.
Results - LMGT3 Qualifying Top 10
1st No.78 Lexus - David
2nd No.27 Aston Martin - Robichon
3rd No.77 Ford - Tuck
4th No.87 Lexus - Schmid
5th No.88 Ford - Levorato
6th No.21 Ferrari - Mann
7th No.32 BMW - Gelael
8th No.61 Mercedes - Andrade
9th No.91 Porsche - Boguslavisky
10th No.34 Corvette - Yoluc
