Two days of race preparation are now on the bag for the thirty-five FIA World Endurance Championship squads ahead of tomorrow’s six hours of Spa Francorchamps with the Aston Martin powered crews also showing some of their best performances to date.
Thursdays two Free Practice sessions were ran upon what was then a very green track after persistent rain through the early part of the week but whilst both the #23 and #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 crews did struggle for pace in the morning session, the season debuting crew of Gray Newell, Jonny Adam and Eduardo Barrichello surprised all by being quickest in class at the end of the day.
There were also very encouraging performances from both Aston Martin Valkyrie Hypercar crews of Harry Tinknell/Tom Gamble aboard the #007 and Alex Riberas/Marco Sorenson aboard the #009 after the #009 finished P2 overall in the more challenging conditions of Thursday morning and then fifth quickest in the afternoon whilst the #007 was also within the top ten in both.
Fridays final Free Practice 3 session was ran in the best track conditions yet as warming air and clearer skies finally moved above the Spa circuit which this time allowed the #007 Valkyrie to show its pace with a third fastest time in class (#009 strangely at its lowest position this weekend in twelfth) whilst the two Vantage GT3 crews finished the session 6thand 15th in favour of the more experienced crew of Ian James, Mattia Drudi and Zacharie Robichon after a multiple Full Course Yellow interrupted session.
That left just Qualifying and possibly Hyperpole left for all to do and it was the LMGT3 class out again first for their fifteen minute session and whilst Newell would closely follow James around for the first couple of laps, the experience gap between them soon became evident as James secured the #27 car a position within the next Hyperpole session but Newell had to make do with (a still mightily impressive) P13.
A further twelve-minute session for (this time around) the #27 cars silver graded driver in Robichon saw the Canadian push to the end to split the two Lexus cars to grab a front row start in P2 for his efforts.
The Hypercar class cars were out next with both Tincknell and Sorenson continuing their cars fine run of form in Belgium to get both cars through to Hyperpole for the first time ever albeit from a last lap dash for the #009. Despite pushing the performance envelope in the final session were the #009 car was near the fastest car on track at the time, both crews were eventually pushed back down the order (mainly thanks to the compulsory use of the Michelin medium tyre in Hyperpole)to still claim a project best performance in the series in P6 and P7 for the #009 and #007 respectively.
Saturday’s six-hour race will still be another challenge altogether for all four Heart of Racing crews as it will of course be race pace which will ultimately dictate just where each car will be in class as the chequered flag falls at 20:00hrs local.