Practice sessions for the 2025 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps – focus on setup work, assessing the situation in the Belgian Ardennes
The World Endurance Championship (WEC) is holding its dress rehearsal for the 24 Hours of Le Mans at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps this weekend. The practice sessions will focus on final setup work – as always, the aim is to find a stable and efficient setup for the race distance. Qualifying simulations are also expected in the third free practice session.
3rd free practice: After a chaotic second practice session, the 60 minutes on Friday afternoon went smoothly. Long runs were completed in a session without interruptions. Individual qualifying simulations were also on the program, but not by all manufacturers. (Results)
2:00.596 minutes is the new best time of the weekend, set by Antonio Fuoco in the Ferrari 50 (Fuoco/Molina/Nielsen). The two Cadillac V-Series.R cars from Team Jota were right behind him. However, the situation is unclear due to the different approaches taken by the teams. BMW, for example, did not do any qualifying simulations at all.
Confusion between 51 with the Ferrari approaching Eau Rouge, contact between the two cars with the BMW coming off worse.
Fp3WEC 6hSpa pic.twitter.com/gSYjJemWHp— Sala Stampa Racing (@SalaStampRacing) May 9, 2025
In the LMGT3, Simon Mann set the fastest time in 2:17.831 minutes in the AF Corse Ferrari 50 and spectacularly bounced through the Eau Rouge/Raidillon section.
Second free practice: The second free practice session of the WEC dress rehearsal at Spa-Francorchamps was overshadowed by three accidents, each of which resulted in a red flag. The result: severely disrupted long-run programs and little meaningful information from the timesheets. (Results 6h Spa 2025)
First to be hit was Ferrari 51 (Pier Guidi/Calado/Giovinazzi): Antonio Giovinazzi lost control of the car in the Raidillon passage and crashed heavily into the tire barriers. According to the team, the former Formula 1 driver was uninjured.
WEC – 6hSpa – That was ugly! A Ferrari tem uma longa noite de trabalho pela frentepic.twitter.com/IswUNelGYs
— SportMotores.com (@sportmotores) May 8, 2025
Just a few minutes later, there was another crash at the same spot: WEC rookie Stephen Grove crashed the Iron Lynx Mercedes 007 (Tincknell/Gamble) backwards into the track barrier in the fast double left-handers at Pouhon.
In the meantime, a collision between the two Alpine prototypes caused a full-course yellow phase, which immediately turned into the second interruption – adding to the chaotic practice session.
Front end hanging on by a thread WEC pic.twitter.com/NCpMpDAZ9w
— Tom Divinuss (@Divinuss) May 8, 2025
Given the numerous red flag periods, hardly any team had the opportunity to complete their planned long runs. Many fast laps had to be abandoned, which means that the standings are only of limited significance.
The best time in the Hypercars went to Kevin Estre in the Porsche 27 (James/Robichon/Drudi) prevailed in 2:18.326 minutes.
While the Aston Martin got off relatively lightly, the damage to the Ferrari 499P and the Mercedes-AMG GT3 is much more serious. It is likely to be a long night in the pits for both crews.
Front end hanging on by a thread WEC pic.twitter.com/NCpMpDAZ9w
— Tom Divinuss (@Divinuss) May 8, 2025
Overall, it can be said that there was a high turnout of spectators on the first day.
1st free practice: On the track, which was largely resurfaced last summer, the increased grip level was already evident in the first free practice session: The fastest lap was significantly faster than last year. Antonio Fuoco set the fastest time in the Ferrari 87 (Umbrarescu/Schmid/Lopez).
