The United Autosports Oreca-Gibson no22 was the fastest in the FP1 session of the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. The 7km Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps hosted the Round 5 of the 2022 European Le Mans Series with 40-car entry in the competition. The former ELMS Champion and the winner of the ELMS event at Spa three times, Phil Hanson, posted the fastest lap of the session. The no22 United Autosports Oreca-Gibson was ahead of the no28 IDEC Sport Oreca, with Patrick Pilet riding it.
Red Flag Interrupts the Session
The FP1 session was interrupted by a red flag when two cars went off into the barriers. Although the drivers were not injured, the recovery and repairs were conducted as soon as possible, and the session resumed. The no22 United Autosports Oreca-Gibson was the fastest with a lap time of 2m04.977, two tenths ahead of the no28 IDEC Sport Oreca. The top two cars had nearly a second advantage over the rest of the field. The no43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca of Fabio Scherer was the third fastest with a lap time of 2m06.093, followed by the no37 Cool Racing Oreca of reigning champion Yifei Ye, who was only 0.136s behind the Polish team and 1.252s behind the no22 United Autosports Oreca-Gibson.
The fastest LMP2 Pro-Am entries were the no24 Nielsen Racing Oreca, with Ben Hanley’s 2m07.088 good enough for 7th overall.
Cool Racing Leads the LMP3 Category
Cool Racing led the way in the LMP3 category, with Malthe Jakobsen’s 2m11.741 lap in the no17 Ligier giving the championship leaders a seven-tenths advantage over their rivals at the end of the 90-minute session. The Inter Europol Competition was second fastest, with Nico Pino lapping in 2m12.424, followed by the no15 RLR MSport Ligier of Valentino Catalano with a lap time of 2m12.597.
The no18 Absolute Racing Porsche was the fastest of the 11 LMGTE runners, with Belgian driver and former ELMS Champion Alessio Picariello setting the best class time of the session with a 2m16.946. The no93 Proton Competition 911 RSR-19 was second fastest after Richard Lietz lapped in 2m17.532, making it a Porsche 1-2. The no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Matthew Payne was third fastest, finishing the session with a 2m17.638 lap time. The Kiwi was 0.106s behind the no93 Porsche and 0.239s ahead of the no83 Iron Lynx Ferrari of Doriane Pin.
CLICK HERE for the result from Free Practice 1.
