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Edition

Australia
Practice report

Portimao WEC: LMP2s fastest again in FP2, di Resta quickest

LMP2 cars locked out the top three places in Saturday morning’s second practice session for this weekend’s Portimao FIA World Endurance Championship round, as United Autosports' Paul di Resta set the overall pace. 

Watch: Motorsport.tv presents 8 Hours of Portimao

Di Resta, standing in for the absent Filipe Albuquerque at the wheel of the #22 United Oreca 07-Gibson, lapped the Portuguese track in 1m31.984s to go just 0.020s clear of nearest rival Robin Frijns in the #31 WRT Oreca. 

That was an improvement of nearly 1.8s above Friday’s benchmark in opening practice, established by local hero Antonio Felix da Costa in the #38 JOTA Oreca. 

With Alex Brundle taking third spot in the Inter Europol Competition Oreca, it meant the best of the cars in the new top Hypercar class, the Signatech Alpine A480-Gibson, was relegated to fourth place, albeit just 0.090s off the pace. 

Nicolas Lapierre set the best time at the wheel of the rebranded Rebellion R-13 LMP1 of 1m32.074s, almost six tenths faster than the best of the two Toyota GR010 Hybrids. 

That was the #8 machine of Sebastien Buemi, who posted a 1m32.669s with just a few seconds prior to the chequered flag to go seventh overall, behind the #28 JOTA Oreca of Tom Blomqvist and the #21 DragonSpeed Oreca of fellow last-minute improver Ben Hanley.

Splitting the two Toyotas was the second of the JOTA Orecas, leaving the #7 car piloted by Mike Conway a lowly ninth overall. 

Conway set the initial pace overall at the wheel right at the start of the one-and-a-half hour session, a 1m33.084s. 

Despite this being nearly eight tenths better than the Japanese marque’s best times from Friday, it was eclipsed almost immediately by Brundle’s time of 1m32.051s, which stood as the benchmark until Di Resta set his best time 21 minutes into the session. 

Wayne Boyd also got his first mileage at the wheel of the United car having been confirmed as the replacement for Fabio Scherer, who withdrew after testing positive for COVID-19.

Conway returned to the wheel of the #7 later on to post the car’s best time of 1m32.721s. 

The fourth and final car in the Hypercar class, the solo Glickenhaus 007 LMH, was 13th overall and around 1.9s off the outright pace in the hands of Romain Dumas, only beating the slowest two of the LMP2 cars. 

However, the Pipo Motors-powered machine suffered problems not long after Dumas set his best time of 1m33.875s with a gear shifting issue, which caused the first of two full-course yellow periods at around the halfway mark of the session. 

The second came in the final 10 minutes as the Glickenhaus suffered more problems just after Ryan Briscoe had headed out in the car after a long stint in the garage.

In GTE Pro, Daniel Serra put Ferrari on top with a 1m38.901s lap at the wheel of the #52 AF Corse-run 488 GTE Evo, a major improvement on the Friday benchmark in class. 

Porsches were second and third, with Neel Jani putting the quicker of the works 911 RSR-19, the #92, ahead of the sister #91 car of Frederic Makowiecki, followed by the #51 Ferrari of James Calado in fourth. 

GTE Am was topped by the #56 Porsche, the only Project 1 car in action this weekend following the withdrawal of the sister machine.

Fresh from winning last weekend’s Nurburgring 24 Hours, Matteo Cairoli set the benchmark time of 1m39.266s early on, which was less than two tenths clear of late improver Antonio Fuoco in the Cetilar Ferrari.

FP2 results:

Cla # Drivers Car Class Time Gap
1 22 United Kingdom Philip Hanson
United Kingdom Wayne Boyd
United Kingdom Paul di Resta
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'31.984
2 31 Netherlands Robin Frijns
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
France Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'32.004 0.020
3 34 Poland Jakub Smiechowski
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
United Kingdom Alex Brundle
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'32.051 0.067
4 36 Brazil Andre Negrao
France Nicolas Lapierre
France Matthieu Vaxiviere
Alpine A480 HYPERCAR 1'32.074 0.090
5 28 Indonesia Sean Gelael
Belgium Stoffel Vandoorne
United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'32.175 0.191
6 21 Sweden Henrik Hedman
Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya
United Kingdom Ben Hanley
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'32.598 0.614
7 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
Japan Kazuki Nakajima
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'32.669 0.685
8 38 Mexico Roberto Gonzalez
Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Anthony Davidson
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'32.677 0.693
9 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'32.721 0.737
10 20 Denmark Jan Magnussen
Denmark Anders Fjordbach
Denmark Dennis Andersen
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'32.772 0.788
11 29 Netherlands Frits van Eerd
Netherlands Giedo van der Garde
Netherlands Job Van Uitert
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'33.187 1.203
12 70 Switzerland Esteban Garcia
Switzerland Mathias Beche
France Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'33.325 1.341
13 709 Australia Ryan Briscoe
France Romain Dumas
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 1'33.875 1.891
14 1 Colombia Tatiana Calderon
Germany Sophia Flörsch
Netherlands Beitske Visser
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'34.338 2.354
15 44 Slovakia Miro Konopka
United Kingdom Oliver Webb
United Kingdom Tom Jackson
Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 1'34.799 2.815
16 52 Brazil Daniel Serra
Spain Miguel Molina
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'38.901 6.917
17 92 France Kevin Estre
Switzerland Neel Jani
Denmark Michael Christensen
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'39.030 7.046
18 56 Norway Egidio Perfetti
Italy Matteo Cairoli
Italy Riccardo Pera
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'39.266 7.282
19 91 Italy Gianmaria Bruni
Austria Richard Lietz
France Frédéric Makowiecki
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'39.328 7.344
20 47 Italy Roberto Lacorte
Italy Giorgio Sernagiotto
Italy Antonio Fuoco
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'39.419 7.435
21 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
United Kingdom Tom Gamble
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'39.501 7.517
22 51 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'39.515 7.531
23 77 Germany Christian Ried
Australia Jaxon Evans
Australia Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'39.622 7.638
24 85 Switzerland Rahel Frey
Denmark Michelle Gatting
Italy Manuela Gostner
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'39.748 7.764
25 60 Italy Claudio Schiavoni
Italy Andrea Piccini
Italy Matteo Cressoni
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'39.998 8.014
26 33 United States Ben Keating
Dylan Pereira
Brazil Felipe Fraga
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'40.041 8.057
27 83 France François Perrodo
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Italy Alessio Rovera
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'40.102 8.118
28 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'40.123 8.139
29 88 United States Dominique Bastien
Germany Marco Seefried
France Julien Andlauer
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'40.182 8.198
30 57 Japan Takeshi Kimura
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
Australia Scott Andrews
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'40.229 8.245
31 777 Japan Satoshi Hoshino
Japan Tomonobu Fujii
United Kingdom Andrew Watson
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'40.398 8.414
32 98 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
Brazil Augusto Farfus
Brazil Marcos Gomes
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'40.534 8.550

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