What has a faster lap time around Spa? A Formula 1 car or a money-no-object skunkworks Le Mans car built with the sole purpose of lapping as fast possible? The Spa Francorchamps lap record holder may well surprise you.
This article reveals the fastest lap times around the Belgian Grand Prix circuit for F1, WEC, GT3, motorbikes and many more race series, plus the fastest production road cars.
Contents
circuit layout
There are two different track layouts at Spa Francorchamps, the Grand Prix circuit and the Motorcycle circuit. Both tracks incorporate the incredible Eau Rouge and Raidillon sequence of corners.
The Grand Prix circuit is used for all car racing at Spa including F1, WEC and GT3 racing.
The Motorcycle circuit is used only for bike racing and the sole difference is at Turn 9 where the bikers take a slightly different route around Speed Corner. As a result the Motorcycle circuit is about 20 metres shorter than the Grand Prix circuit.
qualifying or race laps?
For a lap record to be official it must have been set during a race. Usually cars and bikes will go faster in qualifying when their vehicles are lighter and set up for one or two lap all-out attacks.
The list of lap records below will include official race lap records, plus any faster qualifying laps if they exist.
F1 lap record at Spa Francorchamps
The official Formula 1 lap record at Spa Francorchamps is 1:46.286 set by Valtteri Bottas driving for the Mercedes team during the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix.
The fastest ever F1 lap time at Spa Francorchamps is 1:42.252 set by Lewis Hamilton during qualifying for the 2018 Belgian Grand Prix. The Mercedes W11 he was driving was a rocket-ship of a car and set some of the fasest lap times ever at many of the F1 circuits that year. Lewis was able to make use of the Spa DRS zones during this qualifying lap to maximise speed down the Kemmel Straight.
See the video of Lewis’ lap record here.
“Mercedes W11 Lewis Hamilton” by Artes Max is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
Check out the Spa F1 timetable to keep up to date with the timings of the practice sessions, qualifying and race for this year’s Belgian Grand Prix.
Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo Spa Francorchamps Lap Record
The Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo was a one-off skunkworks edition of the Le Mans winning Porsche 919 LMP1. As a farewell tribute to the incredible race winning car, a small team of Porsche engineers unleashed it from any motorsport regulations. They turned up the hybrid boost and increased the downforce to see what the car was capable of. The results were outstanding.
So hello to the 919 Hybrid Evo.
— Mark Webber (@AussieGrit) April 9, 2018
The @Porsche_Team have a addiction with continuing to stop the stopwatch earlier!! What a beautiful balance between brutal race car and high end technology. Lap record in Belgium today. 💪😍🔥 #leaders #nosubstitute #pushingboundries pic.twitter.com/wMuhpcbejh
The Porsche 919 Hybrid Evo holds the overall Spa Francorchamps lap record with a time of 1:41.77 set in 2018 by Porsche factory driver Neel Jani.
That lap time is, incredibly, 0.5 seconds quicker than the fastest ever F1 lap around Spa. It’s also a huge 4.5 seconds quick than the official F1 race lap record at the Belgian Grand Prix circuit.
Porsche never released the onboard footage of the record-breaking lap, but the video below is of the same car doing a 1:43.5 second lap time around Spa.
WEC lap record at Spa Francorchamps
The World Endurance Championship (WEC) competes ever year at Spa Francorchamps in a 6 hour race. The WEC has a number of different car categories within it. The biggest of these are LMP1 and LMP2 (protoype cars) and the GTE class (GT3 cars on steroids). The lap records for each of these are below.
LMP1
The official LMP1 lap record at Spa Francorchamps is 1:57.394 set by Mike Conway driving the Toyota TS050 Hybrid in 2018.
The fastest ever LMP1 lap time at Spa Francorchamps is 1:53.658 set by Stephane Sarrazin driving the same Toyota in 2017.
Comparing Sarazzin’s lap time above to the Porsche 919 Evo’s time shows just how much quicker these cars can go if they’re not subjected to the WEC’s technical regulations. The 919 Hybrid Evo was over 10 seconds quicker than the fastest LMP1 lap time around Spa.
LMP2
The official LMP2 lap record at Spa Francorchamps is 2:04.155 set by Pastor Maldonado, the ex-F1 driver, in an Oreca 07 Gibson during the 2018 race at the Belgian circuit.
The fastest ever LMP2 Spa Francorchamps lap time was set by another ex-F1 driver, this time Jean-Eric Vergne. The lap time was 2:00.3 set during qualifying in 2018, driving an Aurus 01 Gibson.
LM GTE
The LM GTE lap record at Spa Francorchamps is 2:13.658 set by Kevin Estre in the Porsche 911 RSR during the 2021 race.
The fasest ever LM GTE lap at Spa is 2:11.219 also set by Kevin Estre in the same Porsche during qualifying for the 2021 event.
“Porsche GT Team 911 RSR” by David Merrett is licensed under CC BY 2.0
GT3 lap record at Spa Francorchamps
The 24 hours of Spa is the biggest and most prestigious GT3 race that takes place at the Belgian circuit each year, bringing the world’s best GT teams and drivers to the circuit.
The GT3 lap record is 2:17.480 set by the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GT3 team during the 2022 24 hour race.
The fastest ever GT3 lap time at Spa is 2:16.375 set by Raffaele Marciello driving a Mercedes AMG GT3 in the Super Pole qualifying session for the 2022 event. A Lamborghini Huracan GT3 actually went 0.15 seconds quicker in the same quialifying session but it subsequently had its lap time deleted due to a technical engine infringement, so it’s not counted.
The GT3 cars have slightly less power, less aero and less mechanical grip than their GTE equivalents that race in the WEC series. This means the GT3 cars are around 5 seconds a lap slower around Spa than the GTE racers.
Marciello’s lap time can be seen at 59:05 in the video below.
Motorbike lap record at Spa Francorchamps
Since the changes were made to the track and run-off areas at the start of 2022, motorbike racing has returned to Spa on the slightly shorter Motorcycle layout. The most prestigious bike race at Spa is the FIM Endurance World Championship 24 hour race.
The lap record for a motorbike at Spa Francorchamps is 2:21.056 set by Sylvain Guintoli on the Suzuki Yoshimura SERT Motul bike during the 24 hour race in 2022.
The fastest ever motorbike lap at Spa Francorchamps on the new layout is 2:18.845 set by Karel Hanika on the official Yamaha works bike during qualifying for the 2022 24 hour race.
Road car lap record at Spa Francorchamps
The lap record for the fastest production car around Spa has been hotly contested over the last few years:
- 2015: Koenigsegg One:1 – 2:32
- 2018: Manthey Porsche GT2 RS – 2:31
- 2019: McLaren Senna – 2:24
- 2020: Pagani Huayra BC Roadster – 2:23.081
The Senna’s lap time took a huge 7 seconds off the previous best set by the Manthey Porsche GT2 RS, the car that held the Nurburgring lap record for many years. It looked like the McLaren’s lap would also stand for a long time. That was until Horacio Pagani arrived on the scene.
The Pagani Huayra Roadster BC is the most track-focused version of the Huayra model. In 2020 as part of some pre-delivery testing the development team took it to Spa Francorchamps for a final sign-off. They quickly realized the car was in for a shot at the record.
On just their second flying lap the Pagani Huayra Roadster BC set a new production car lap record around Spa Francorchamps of 2:23.081.
VW Fun Cup Spa Francorchamps lap record
The VW Fun Cup is a motorsport series that sees classic VW Beetles (based on a modern spaceframe chassis) compete in endurance races all over Europe.
Every year the series holds a 25 hour race at Spa Francorchamps and often sees grids of over 100 cars take part. For the 2023 race there’s 117 VW Fun Cups entered in to the hugely competitive race.
The official lap record for the VW Fun Cup at Spa Francorchamps is 2:54.466 set by Lorenzo Donniacuo.
“2011-25hrVWFunCup” by Volkswagen Belgium is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0
