Toyota to lead FIA WEC field to green at Spa

May 4, 2018

Toyota to lead FIA WEC field to green at Spa

May 4, 2018

The FIA World Endurance Championship will open its 2018-’19 “Super Season” on Saturday in Spa-Francorchamps. To get there, they had a busy and news-heavy day of action on Friday.

Toyota Gazoo Racing will start on pole, but not with the car that was fastest in qualifying.

While the No. 7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid had a best two-lap average of 1:54.583, that car was excluded from the session with an administrative error discovered afterwards.

This car’s fuel flow meter was incorrectly identified and as such, sends the car to the pit lane for the race start. Toyota accepted responsibility for the mistake.

With this penalty, the sister No. 8 car will start on overall and LMP1 class pole. This car features two-time Formula 1 World Champion Fernando Alonso alongside Sebastien Buemi and Kazuki Nakajima.

Only six of the 10 cars entered in LMP1 had a registered time. Beyond Toyota, two of the privateer teams had difficult days.

The field dwindled by two with the CEFC TRS Manor Racing Ginettas unable to race, following a lack of funds available to the team to materialize.

Meanwhile worse news occurred at DragonSpeed, where Pietro Fittipaldi suffered a high-speed accident at Eau Rouge. The young Brazilian was conscious, but taken to a hospital with suspected leg fractures, per a statement from the FIA.

Fittipaldi was set to make his FIA WEC debut, and was substituting for Renger van der Zande in that team’s car. The Dutchman races full-time in IMSA with the Konica Minolta Wayne Taylor Racing Cadillac team.

Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK locks out the front row in GTE-Pro, with the No. 67 Ford GT ahead of the sister No. 66 Ford GT.

The two Porsche 911 RSRs from the Porsche GT Team are next.

BMW and Aston Martin qualified the first of their new cars, the M8 GTE and new Vantage, in fifth and eighth – and squeeze the two AF Corse Ferraris.

Signatech Alpine Matmut (LMP2) and Dempsey-Proton Racing (GTE-Am) took the other two class poles.

FIA WEC coverage of the Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps airs Saturday on Velocity network, from 7 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. ET and 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. ET.

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