A repeat of Sebring as TF Sport and Northwest AMR lock out the WEC GTE Am front row
Friday, May 06, 2022
With the day starting bright but still a little fresh, it wasn’t long before the ambient and track temperatures built up for some fast running during today’s two Free Practice sessions but still with the Porsche’s being the dominant marque within the GTE Am Class.
A 1.2 second gap between the Porsches and the closest AMR after Free practice 2 was reduced to less than 0.8 of a second gap by the end of Free Practice 3 but those deficits were simply overcome and extended in their favour as both Keating and Paul Dalla Lana (aboard his #98 Northwest AMR car) traded places with one another at the top of the timing screen for both to have their name at the top before Keating eventually came through with an incredible lap to seal the Pole position for GTE Am.
In very similar events to the first round of the season at Sebring back in March, Keating again beat Dalla Lana to the front row position, this time by 1.5 seconds as opposed to the 1.3 seconds then but then, the #98 car did go on to win the 1000 miles of Sebring opener ahead of the #33 TF Sport car.
During Qualifying, it also looked as if the #777 D’Station Racing AMR GTE of Satoshi Hoshino would be joining his stablemates towards the front of the grid but again track limits caught up with the Japanese driver to have his fastest lap times removed as a consequence for that car to finally qualify in P7.
Tomorrow looks like another chilly start to the day but this time with an 85% chance of rain at some point during the day, but with this being Spa, anything could happen so long as it isn’t snow like the time of our last visit to the circuit!!
With race pace different to Qualifying, it will be interesting to see just how the tyres are managed by the two teams given their increased weight penalties after their results from Sebring - so rain might even be a good thing for them?
The start of the race is at 13:00hrs local
