It was the usual mixed weather conditions at Spa Francorchamps for the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship. All practice sessions had run to plan over the two days and both cars had completed the full programme going into qualifying.

The starting drivers for qualifying was Jean Eric Vergne in car 24 and Vitaly Petrov in car 25. Both headed out as the track went green. Unfortunately on the first timed lap car 25 crashed which resulted in a red flag and ended the qualifying for that car.

When the track returned to green Vergne headed back out and set the fastest lap in LMP2, before handing over to Tor who was immediately on the pace. It was a very close qualifying session with car 24 starting the race P4, only 0.031 seconds off pole position.

Graeme Lowdon, President and Sporting Director

“It was a mixed qualifying for us today. We are really pleased to have set the fastest lap time of the weekend and qualifying for car 24 went very well. Unfortunately things didn’t go quite so well on car 25 but I know all the drivers will be pushing very hard for the best result tomorrow.”

Jean-Eric Vergne, Driver Car 24

“Generally feeling really good. The team has made huge progress since Silverstone. The car in qualifying was perfect so a big thank you for the hard work. Starting P4 tomorrow I think anything is possible, we have a good car, my team mates are very strong here also so hopefully we can have a good race tomorrow.”

Tor Graves, Driver Car 24

“I am happy with today, it is very close between the top four. I made a small mistake which cost us time but things are looking good. We have made a big step forward since Silverstone and I am really looking forward to the race tomorrow.”

Vitaly Petrov, Driver Car 25

“The accident was my mistake, I tried to get maximum for that corner but then when I touched the kerb, I lost the rear. It is really disappointing as the car feels good as you can see with the other car starting P4. Tomorrow we will have a difficult job as we will have to start last so we have to focus on the strategy.”

Ends