Toyota’s Lopez leads WEC Prologue Session 1 at Sebring
Jose Maria Lopez put the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid on top of the times in the opening three-hour FIA World Endurance Championship Prologue session at Sebring, but the session was red-flagged at the two-hour mark due to a torrential rainstorm.
Photo by: Paul Foster
Lopez’s time of 1min51.223sec was set on the 32nd of 42 laps by the #7 car, which left him 0.4sec faster than the WRT Oreca LMP2 car of Ferdinand Habsburg.
He in turn was five-hundredths faster than the Alpine A480 Hypercar whose best time was set by Nicolas Lapierre, while Robin Frijns in the second WRT Oreca LMP2 car was fourth ahead of the Prema Orlen Team’s Oreca, driven by ex-Formula 1 ace Robert Kubica.
JOTA clocked sixth and 10th fastest, sandwiching the two United Autosports entries and the Richard Mille Racing Team which will be raced by World Rally Championship legend Sebastien Ogier, Charles Milesi and Lilou Wadoux.
All were ahead of the second Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, which finished the session 1.3sec off its sister car, but ahead of the fourth Hypercar in action, the Glickenhaus 007 of Olivier Pla, Romain Dumas and Ryan Briscoe.
In GTE Pro, the works Porsche 911 RSR-19s were 1-2 thanks to Michael Christensen – despite the #92 car grinding to a halt on-track halfway through the session – and Richard Lietz.
Corvette Racing’s Nick Tandy was third, 0.6sec off the class top spot, and 0.45sec ahead of the fastest GTE Am entry, the Team Project 1 Porsche of Matteo Cairoli. Next up among the Ams, and sixth in GT overall was Nicki Thiim’s Northwest AMR Aston Martin Vantage.
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