Free practice on a Thursday? Well, yes, because the Spa 6 Hours takes place on Saturday. It’s the opening round of the WEC season and of course we’re all keen to see how Alonso is going to get on as his 2018 steps up a gear in terms of intensity. And how he’s getting on initially is pretty well, setting the fastest overall time, almost a quarter-of-a-second ahead of Mike Conway in the sister Toyota.
Rebellion was third quickest, but only four-tenths off of Alonso’s pace, suggesting that there really could be some competition at the head of LMP1 this season.
Perhaps better than that, however, was the guy who topped LMP2. Despite being out of racing for pretty much two years, Lord Pastor Maldonado laid down a time in the No.31 DragonSpeed Oreca that was seven-tenths ahead of anyone else in his class. On top of that, he was also quicker than the BR Engineering LMP1 car! Pastor was also the quickest LMP2 driver in testing last month so he certainly hasn’t lost it – although there’s still plenty of time left this season…
