Conway leads Toyota clear in second Spa WEC practice

Toyota Gazoo Racing pulled over two seconds clear of its privateer LMP1 rivals in second practice for the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps on Thursday ahead of this weekend's FIA World Endurance Championship season-opener.

Led by Mike Conway in the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, Toyota managed to improve its fastest time by more than two seconds from the morning session to finish the day with a best lap of 1:56.172.

Set in the early part of the session, Conway's benchmark went unbeaten, with the sister #8 Toyota taking second place in the final timesheets as two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso enjoyed some more time behind the wheel of the car ahead of his WEC debut.

Kazuki Nakajima set the fastest time in the #8 Toyota, finishing six-tenths of a second off Conway's time, with Alonso's fastest lap being a further three-tenths slower.

DragonSpeed finished as the top LMP1 privateer, finishing 2.6 seconds off the pace in third, with the two Rebellion Racing entries taking fourth and ffith respectively.

SMP Racing continued to turn in the laps ahead of its LMP1 debut as its cars finished sixth and seventh respectively, while the ByKolles car hit trouble midway through the session, causing one of two red flag periods.

LMP2 saw DragonSpeed lead the way once again with Pastor Maldonado, who also topped FP1 this morning, with the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing entry finishing four-tenths of a second behind in P2 via Nabil Jeffri.

In GTE-Pro, Ford Chip Ganassi Racing once again enjoyed a comfortable lead over the chasing pack as the #66 Ford GT finished almost one second clear of the pack following a quick lap from Olivier Pla. Porsche took P2 with its #91 Porsche 911 RSR via Gianmaria Bruni, with the second Ford rounding out the top three.

Ben Barker laid down the benchmark pace for Gulf Racing in GTE-Am, pulling three-tenths clear of the class field in the closing stages of the session with a new fastest lap time. The #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche took P2 in class, with the title-holding #98 Aston Martin Racing entry taking third in class.

Running resumes at 11am on Friday at Spa with final practice before qualifying at 3pm.