Malthe Jakobsen claimed Peugeot’s first-ever World Endurance Championship pole position after topping Friday’s qualifying session for the Spa 6 Hours.
Despite spinning at Raidillon on his out-lap at the start of Q1 and flat-spotting his tyres, Jakobsen rebounded strongly in the #94 Peugeot 9X8 to edge out the #12 Jota Cadillac V-Series.R by just 0.043s.
Alpine had led much of the two-part qualifying at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, with Charles Milesi setting the fastest time in Q1 before setting a new benchmark of 2m00.731s in the pole-deciding session.
However, Peugeot driver Jakobsen eclipsed Milesi’s time in the final minutes and managed to remain in front of Stevens, who set a purple time in sector 1 but was unable to maintain that pace through the rest of the lap on worn tyres.
It was a landmark result for the French manufacturer, which had previously secured just one front-row start since the start of the 9X8 programme in mid-2022.
Stevens held on to second in the best of the Cadillac LMDh prototypes, three spots ahead of Jack Aitken in the sister #38 car.
#12 Cadillac Hertz Team Jota Cadillac V-Series.R: Norman Nato, Will Stevens, Louis Deletraz
Photo by: Jakob Ebrey / LAT Images via Getty Images
Alpine locked out the second row of the grid after Jules Gounon put the #36 A424 in fourth, behind the sister #35 car driven by Milesi.
The two Heart of Racing Aston Martin Valkyrie LMHs ending up sixth and seventh, behind the #38 Cadillac. Marco Sorensen, who knocked out the #20 BMW M Hybrid V8 of Sheldon van der Linde with a last-gasp effort in Q1, was the faster of the two in the #009 Aston.
Only a single Ferrari made it to Q2, with Antonio Fuoco ending up a distant eighth in the #50 Ferrari 499P. He was followed by the #93 Peugeot 9X8 of Stoffel Vandoorne and the #15 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 of Dries Vanthoor.
Toyota endured a tough qualifying session at Spa after winning last month’s Imola season-opener. Team principal/driver Kamui Kobayashi finished 12th fastest in the #07 GR010 Hybrid, three hundredths off the Q2 cut-off time, while Brendon Hartley ended up second-last in the #8 car, only ahead of the #17 Genesis GMR-001.
Two of the three Ferrari LMHs were also knocked out in the opening leg of qualifying. Robert Kubica pulled into the pits with two minutes remaining, ending up 13th in the AF Corse-run #83 499P, while Antonio Giovinazzi finished further back in 15th after suffering a major slide on his final flying lap.
The two Ferraris were separated by Mathieu Jaminet in the best of the two Genesis LMDh cars.
Lexus tops LMGT3 qualifying
#78 Akkodis Asp Team Lexus RC F LMGT3: Tom Van Rompuy, Hadrien David, Esteban Masson
Photo by: Paul Foster
Lexus beat Aston Martin to pole position in the LMGT3 qualifying, with 22-year-old Hadrien David setting the fastest time in Hyperpole.
After Razvan Umbrarescu topped the opening qualifying for bronze drivers in the #87 ASP Lexus RC F GT3, David put the sister #78 entry on top in the pole-deciding session.
The Frenchman set a best time of 2m16.612s with just minutes to go in qualifying, beating the #27 Heart of Heart Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of Zacharie Robichon by just under two tenths of a second.
Ben Tuck put the #77 Proton Ford Mustang GT3 in third place, ahead of the other Lexus qualified by Clemens Schmid.
Giammarco Levorato rounded off a strong day for Ford with the fifth-fastest time in the #88 Mustang, while Simon Mann qualified sixth in the best of the AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3s.
BMW, Mercedes, Porsche and Corvette all managed to get one car into the second leg of qualifying and completed the top 10.
Neither of the two Garage 59 McLaren 720S GT3s progressed into Q2, while the Imola class-winning #69 WRT BMW M4 GT3 also ended up off the pace, leaving it on the final row of the grid.
The Spa 6 Hours, which serves as the unofficial dress rehearsal for the Le Mans 24 Hours, starts at 14:00 local time on Saturday.
WEC Spa 6 Hours – Qualifying results
Hypercar (Top 10 only)
LMGT3 (Top 10 only)
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– The Autosport.com Team
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