The no22 United Autosports Oreca-Gibson was the quickest of the 40-car entry for the 4 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, Round 5 of the 2022 European Le Mans Series. Former ELMS Champion, and three-time winner of the ELMS event at Spa, Phil Hanson posted the fastest lap of the 7km Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps with a 2m04.977, two tenths ahead of the no28 IDEC Sport Oreca, with Patrick Pilet crossing the line in 2m05.216.
The session as interrupted by a red flag halfway through the session when two cars went off into the barriers.While the drivers were OK, the recovery and repairs were conducted as soon as possible, and the session resumed.
At the top of the timing screens the top two cars were nearly one second ahead of the rest of the field, with the no43 Inter Europol Competition Oreca of Fabio Scherer third quickest with a 2m06.093, with the no37 Cool Racing Oreca of reigning champion Yifei Ye 4th quickest, just 0.136s behind the Polish team and 1.252s behind the leading no22 Oreca.
The no24 Nielsen Racing Oreca was the fastest of the LMP2 Pro-Am entries, with Ben Hanley’s 2m07.088 good enough for 7th overall.
Cool Racing led the way in LMP3, with Malthe Jakobsen’s 2m11.741 lap in the no17 Ligier gave the championship leaders a seven tenths advantage over their rivals at the end of the 90-minute session. Double race winners Inter Europol Competition were second fastest with Nico Pino lapping in 2m12.424, 0.173 ahead of the no15 RLR MSport Ligier of Valentino Catalano.
The no18 Absolute Racing Porsche was the quickest 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.It was a Porsche 1-2 as the no93 Proton Competition 911 RSR-19 was second fastest after Richard Lietz lapped in 2m17.532.
The no66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari of Matthew Payne was third fastest with a 2m17.638, the Kiwi finishing the session 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.
