Ludo van Denderen is a motorsport journalist at GPblog, specializing in Formula 1 and international racing series.
Malthe Jakobsen delivered a thunderous surprise by giving Peugeot its first pole in the World Endurance Championship. World champion Ferrari completely fell through the ice in qualifying for the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.
Jakobsen had a remarkable qualifying. The Dane spun on his out lap at Raidillon, but still set the fastest time on the clocks. In Hyperpole for the 6 Hours in Belgium, the #94 recorded a lap of 2:00.653, making him a fraction quicker than the Cadillac of former F1 driver Will Stevens (0.043 seconds). On the lap after his eventual pole, the Peugeot driver had his time deleted for exceeding track limits.
Jakobsen will share his car on Saturday with Theo Pourchaire and Loic Duval. They will face, among others, the Cadillac that qualified second and the #35 Alpine of Charles Milesi. The other Alpine, with Verstappen Racing driver Jules Gounon at the wheel, will start fourth. Jack Aitken was fifth in the second Cadillac.
Ferrari completely lost
ADVERTISEMENT
The biggest disappointment was for Ferrari, which managed only eighth with Antonio Fuoco. The Ferrari of customer team AF Corse didn’t even make it to Hyperpole. Neither did the two Toyotas (for which Nyck de Vries competes).
Perhaps the most remarkable performance came from newcomer Genesis. The team, led by Cyril Abiteboul, took fourteenth place, ahead of world champion Antonio Giovinazzi and the Toyota of Brendon Hartley.
The 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps starts on Saturday at 14:00.
Don’t miss GPblog in Google
Mark us as a preferred source and our articles will appear more often at the top of Top Stories.
Add as a preferred / source on Google
