LMP2 champions WRT end Sebring WEC Prologue with 1-2

Ferdinand Habsburg shaded teammate Rene Rast by just under three tenths to end up fastest across the four sessions of the two-day test ahead of next weekend’s Sebring 1000 Miles opening round of the WEC.

Habsburg posted a 1m48.089s early in the morning session on Sunday in the Realteam by WRT Oreca 07 LMP2, he is sharing with Norman Nato and Rui Andrade in 2022.

That compared with Rast’s 1m48.372s best in the car he is co-driving with Robin Frijns and Sean Gelael in the same session.

The majority of the quick laps were set in the cool conditions early in the first of the two sessions on Sunday, but Filipe Albuquerque managed to improve on United Autosports teammate Will Owen’s fourth-place time of 1m48.572s late in the final period.

Albuquerque went a tenth faster with a 1m48.439s to knock the the Alpine A480 LMP1 off the top of the afternoon timesheets and demote it a place in the overall classification.

 

Nicolas Lapierre ended up fourth overall in Signatech-run team’s grandfathered LMP1 and fastest in the Hypercar class courtesy of a 1m48.497s during in the opening session on Sunday.

Andre Negrao, who is again sharing the Alpine with Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxiviere, was subsequently second fastest to Albuquerque in the afternoon session with a 1m48.617s.

The Alpine Oreca design, which formerly raced in the WEC as the Rebellion R-13, outpaced the trio of Le Mans Hypercars from Toyota and Glickenhaus, which ended up well down the combined times.

Fifth-fastest was the Team Penske Oreca which Dane Cameron posted a 1m48.751s on Sunday morning.

A 1m48.954s from Louis Deletraz gave sportscar debutant Prema’s Oreca sixth place in the overall times after Formula 1 race winner Robert Kubica had been fastest on day one of the test for the Italian squad.

Deletraz, who won last year’s European Le Mans Series with Kubica and Chinese driver Yifei Ye, set his lap approaching the end of the test. He knocked three hundredths of team-mate Lorenzo Colombo’s time from the morning, which would also have placed the Prema car sixth.

Reigning WEC LMP2 champion Charles Milesi, who has switched from WRT to the Signatech-run Richard Mille Racing squad for this year, took seventh.

Paul di Resta was eighth in the second United entry just ahead of the fastest Toyota GR010 Hybrids.

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

Photo by: Paul Foster

Brendon Hartley got down to a 1m49.101s, which was just five hundredths up on Olivier Pla’s best in the solo Glickenhaus 007 LMH.

The best time from the second Toyota was Kamui Kobayashi’s 1m49.465s on Sunday morning, which put the car 15th in the combined times from the weekend.

Porsche tops GTE Pro ahead of Corvette

Porsche ended up a second clear of the rest in GTE Pro courtesy of a 1m55.315s on Sunday morning from Michael Christensen.

The Dane also set a further three laps that would have given him the top spot in the class times aboard the Porsche 911 RSR-19 he shares with Kevin Estre.

Tommy Milner took second in the class order courtesy of a 1m56.409s in the morning on Sunday aboard the solo Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, a time that teammate Nick Tandy nearly matched with a 1m56.476s as he topped the GTE Pro order in the afternoon.

A 1m56.697s on Sunday morning from Gianmaria Bruni was good enough to put the second of the factory Porsches in third position, while Alessandro Pier Guidi set the fastest Ferrari lap of the weekend with a 1m56.871s to put the best of the AF Corse-run 488 GTE Evos fourth.

#92 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR - 19: Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

WEC newcomer Seb Priaulx, son of three-time World Touring Car Championship winner Andy, and Matteo Cairoli were tied at the top of the times in GTE Am in their respective Dempsey Proton and Project 1 Porsches.

Their 1m57.573s laps set on Sunday morning were just four hundredths quicker than Julien Andlauer’s 1m57.615s in the second of the Dempsey Proton entries from the same session.

Harry Tincknell subsequently topped the afternoon times in the car he shares with Priaulx and Proton team boss Christian Ried with a 1m57.787s.

Practice for the opening round of the 2022 WEC begins at Sebring on Wednesday.

The race starts at midday local time on Friday, 18 March, the day before the Sebring 12 Hours IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-opener.

Watch qualifying and the race live on Motorsport.tv here (geo-restrictions may apply).