Toyota maintained its edge over Porsche in second practice for the Spa World Endurance Championship round, as Kamui Kobayashi ensured the #7 car remained on top of the timesheets.
Porsche led the way during the first half of the 90-minute session, thanks to an early effort of 1m56.874s from Timo Bernhard in the #2 919 Hybrid – quickly demolishing the benchmark set by Toyota in FP1.
Bernhard’s time went unchallenged until a red flag was shown with 54 minutes remaining for Kevin Estre going off track at Les Combes in the #92 Porsche 911 RSR, which delayed the session by some 10 minutes.
Once the action resumed, Kobayashi immediately logged a 1m56.369s in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid to grab the spot from Porsche, beating Bernhard’s earlier time by 0.505s.
Andre Lotterer put the #1 Porsche in third with a best time of 1m57.045s, while the #8 Toyota just over a second and a half off the pace in Kazuki Nakajima’s hands.
Manor set the pace in LMP2, with Jean-Eric Vergne recording a 2m02.662s in the team’s #24 Oreca-Gibson.
Vitaly Petrov made it a one-two for the British team with a 2m03.083s, ahead of Gustavo Menezes in the #36 Signatech Alpine.
The LMP1 privateer ByKolles squad was 10th overall, slower than four LMP2 cars and nearly eight seconds off the pace of the hybrid cars with Oliver Webb at the wheel.
A second red flag was caused with 12 minutes to go when the #13 Rebellion Oreca stopped on track.
In GTE Pro, it was Aston Martin that led the way thanks to a late effort of 2m16.458s set by Marco Sorensen, which knocked Kevin Estre off the top of the times.
The Frenchman had set the pace with a 2m16.720s before an off at Les Combes but still ended up second-fastest, four tenths ahead of the#67 Ford GT of Harry Tincknell.
James Calado was the best of the AF Corse Ferrari drivers in fifth behind the #66 Ford.
Ferrari headed the timesheets in GTE-Am as ex-DTM man Miguel Molina set a 2m17.806s in the Spirit of Race entry.
