Fuoco’s Ferrari On Pole For Second Consecutive Race

Ferrari AF Corse are back on pole in the Hypercar class of the 2024 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). Antonio Fuoco repeated his success from the 6 Hours of Imola to put the #50 Ferrari 499P at the front of the grid for the TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa. In LMGT3, local hero Sarah Bovy topped the tables in the Iron Dames Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3.

Iron Dames en route to LMGT3 pole. Credit: Javier Jimenez / DPPI

“Given the rubber compounds available here at Spa,” Fuoco explained, “we knew qualifying wouldn’t be easy, but we focused during free practice on understanding how best to manage the tyres. I think this work is visible in qualifying and the Hyperpole. The result is the fruit of the hard work carried out by the entire team over recent weeks and here on track since the first practice session.“ When asked about the race, he said “we know it will be tough, and we recognise the considerable strength of our opponents, but as always, we aim to do our best and achieve a great result.“

Hypercar

The #50 Ferrari on the run down to Eau Rouge. Credit: Julien Delfosse / DPPI

So far, Ferrari are repeating their success from the 6 Hours of Imola, where they were fastest in all three practise sessions and qualifying. Once again, Italian Fuoco was the fastest on track, posting a scintillating 2:02.600 in the HyperPole session, a full 0.507 seconds faster than Matt Campbell in the #5 Porsche 963 entered by Porsche Penske Motorsport. The two-man driver team Cadillac Racing start 3rd, with Alex Lynn putting in a great lap to secure Cadillac’s best ever WEC start position.

The #2 Cadillac starts in a best ever 3rd. Credit: Javier Jimenez / DPPI

Julien Andlauer qualified 4th in the Proton Competition Porsche, the first privateer Porsche team, followed by Callum Ilott for Hertz Team JOTA. Championship leaders, the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport team, qualified in 6th, meaning that four out of the top six cars for Saturday’s race are Porsches.

A great shot of the #5 Porsche on the run down to Eau Rouge. Credit: Julien Delfosse / DPPI

The #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing car was 7th fastest. Toyota are unbeaten at Spa since 2017, but have their work cut out for this year’s race, with Imola race winners the #8 car starting 15th. Alpine Endurance Team scored their best qualifying of the season, with Charles Milesi putting the car 8th on the grid, followed by the privateer Ferrari #83 car in 9th and the #20 BMW M Team WRT in 10th after their fastest lap was disqualified due to track limits.

The #51 Ferrari failed to make it to the HyperPole session and qualified 11th. In an example of how close the competition is, they were only 0.5 seconds off the pace around the 7km Spa-Francorchamps circuit, but that was enough to see them knocked out and sharing a row on the grid with the other Alpine. The #15 BMW shares the 7th row of the grid with the #94 Peugeot TotalEnergies car, with the #93 Peugeot just behind in 16th. The final three positions are filled by the #63 Lamborghini Iron Lynx, #38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche, and the #11 Isotta Fraschini.

LMGT3

It was an emotional pole position for Belgian Sarah Bovy. She posted a fantastic time of 2:20.775 to take Iron Dames’ first pole since the 8 Hours of Bahrain in 2023, and the team’s first pole with Lamborghini.

Belgian Sarah Bovy celebrates a pole position at home. Credit: Iron Dames

“I am super emotional, it’s incredible” Sarah Bovy reacted. “The feeling is that I have no word. Thank you to everybody for the hard work. It feels like a victory but the hardest part of the weekend is tomorrow. I want to do it with Michelle and Rachel. I want to go out there and give it everything. We have to keep this position and I want to win this race, so let’s go for it tomorrow.“

The Iron Dames share the front row with the #95 United Autosports McLaren 720S LMGT3 Evo, with Joshua Caygill delivering the British team’s best qualifying in the LMGT3 era. The #46 Team WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 qualified 3rd, just 0.046 seconds behind the McLaren, with the Manthey EMA Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 in 4th. The winners of Imola, the #31 BMW could only manage 13th in class.

McLaren achieved their best qualifying of 2024 so far. Credit: Joao Filipe / DPPI

The sister McLaren starts in 5th ahead of the Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGT3 in 6th. The 4th row consists of the #54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 and the first of the previously all-conquering TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3.R.

The final two cars in the top 10 failed to complete a HyperPole lap time. The winners at the Qatar 1812km and pole-sitters in Imola, Manthey PureRxing suffered a huge crash as Aliaksandr Malykhin lost control on the run up to Raidillon out of Eau Rouge and crashed heavily into the barriers, bringing out the red flag.

The Race

The 2024 TotalEnergies 6 Hours of Spa kicks off at 12:00 (GMT) on Saturday 11 May. The stage is set for another thrilling round of the 2024 FIA WEC.

Credit: Julien Delfosse / DPPI