Practice report
WEC Portimao
WEC Portimao: Buemi leads Toyota 1-2 in opening practice
Toyota blocked out the top two positions in opening free practice for this weekend’s Portimao round of the World Endurance Championship.
Gary Watkins
Edited: Apr 14, 2023, 6:46 PM
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The Japanese manufacturer continued its domination of the 2023 WEC season after finishing 1-2 in the opening round at Sebring last month, with Sebastien Buemi edging out Mike Conway by nearly four tenths.
Buemi got down to a 1m32.792s aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar early in the 90-minute FP1 session on Friday morning, which Conway followed up on with a 1m33.176s.
The fastest Toyota time was just under a second quicker than the marque’s best time at this stage of the meeting on the WEC’s previous visit to the Automdromo Internacional do Algarve in 2021.
Buemi’s mark gave Toyota a margin of nearly seven tenths over the next best manufacturer in Ferrari.
Alessandro Pier Guidi took third position in the Hypercar class aboard the best of the AF Corse-run Ferrari 499P LMHs.
The Italian driver’s 1m33.453s shaded the 1m33.569s from team-mate Nicklas Nielsen in the sister car by just over a tenth.
The two factory Porsche 963 LMDhs filled out positions five and six in the Hypercar class, with Frederic Makowiecki and Laurens Vanthoor closely matched in the two Penske-run cars. Makowiecki posted a 1m33.688s to end up a tenth ahead of Vanthoor’s 1m33.792s.
Earl Bamber took seventh position in the Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh on the European competition debut for the American car courtesy of a 1m34.107s.
The two Peugeot 9X8 LMDhs took eighth and ninth positions, a 1m34.523s from Gustavo Menezes leaving the French manufacturer 1.7s off the pace. Mikkel Jensen was half a second in arrears in the sister car on a 1m35.033s.
Glickenhaus and Vanwall LMHs finished at the back of the Hypercar field. Tom Dillmann’s 1m35.309s in the Vanwall-Gibson Vandervell 680 just shaded the 1m35.496s from Olivier Pla in the Glickenhaus-Pipo 007.
Prema Racing ORECA-Gibson 07: Mirko Bortolotti
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
The Prema team ended up 1-2 in LMP2 with its pair of ORECA-Gibson 07s, Mirko Bortolotti ending up with a three-tenth margin in the secondary prototype class. Bortolotti’s 1m34.542s compared with Bent Viscaal’s 1m34.884s.
Inter Europol took third in class with a 1m32.920s from Fabio Scherer. Oliver Jarvis took fourth in the best of the two United Autosports ORECAs.
Ferrari factory driver Daniel Serra led the way in GTE Am for the Kessel Ferrari squad. His 1m41.341s aboard the Swiss team’s 488 GTE Evo was half a second up on second-placed Nicki Thiim’s 1m41.858s in the Northwest AMR Aston Martin Vantage GTE.
The session ended a couple of minutes early with a second red flag after Rui Andrade went off and hit the barriers at Turn 11 in his WRT LMP2 ORECA.
WEC Portimao FP1 results
Cla # Drivers Car Time Gap 1 8 Sébastien Buemi
Brendon Hartley
Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 1'32.792 2 7 Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 1'33.176 0.384 3 51 Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado
Antonio Giovinazzi
Ferrari 499P 1'33.453 0.661 4 50 Antonio Fuoco
Miguel Molina
Nicklas Nielsen
Ferrari 499P 1'33.569 0.777 5 5 Dane Cameron
Michael Christensen
Frédéric Makowiecki
Porsche 963 1'33.688 0.896 6 6 Kevin Estre
Andre Lotterer
Laurens Vanthoor
Porsche 963 1'33.792 1.000 7 2 Earl Bamber
Alex Lynn
Richard Westbrook
Cadillac V-Series.R 1'34.107 1.315 8 94 Loic Duval
Gustavo Menezes
Nico Müller
Peugeot 9X8 1'34.523 1.731 9 63 Doriane Pin
Mirko Bortolotti
Daniil Kvyat
Oreca 07 1'34.542 1.750 10 9 Filip Ugran
Juan Manuel Correa
Bent Viscaal
Oreca 07 1'34.884 2.092 11 34 Jakub Smiechowski
Fabio Scherer
Albert Costa
Oreca 07 1'34.920 2.128 12 93 Paul di Resta
Mikkel Jensen
Jean-Eric Vergne
Peugeot 9X8 1'35.033 2.241 13 23 Josh Pierson
Giedo van der Garde
Oliver Jarvis
Oreca 07 1'35.035 2.243 14 41 Rui Andrade
Robert Kubica
Louis Deletraz
Oreca 07 1'35.042 2.250 15 22 Frederick Lubin
Philip Hanson
Ben Hanley
Oreca 07 1'35.129 2.337 16 28 David Heinemeier Hansson
Pietro Fittipaldi
Oliver Rasmussen
Oreca 07 1'35.212 2.420 17 48 David Beckmann
Ye Yifei
Antonio Felix da Costa
Oreca 07 1'35.244 2.452 18 31 Sean Gelael
Ferdinand Habsburg
Robin Frijns
Oreca 07 1'35.260 2.468 19 35 Andre Negrao
Memo Rojas
Olli Caldwell
Oreca 07 1'35.293 2.501 20 4 Tom Dillmann
Esteban Guerrieri
Jacques Villeneuve
Vanwall Vandervell 680 1'35.309 2.517 21 36 Matthieu Vaxiviere
Julien Canal
Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 1'35.442 2.650 22 708 Romain Dumas
Ryan Briscoe
Olivier Pla
Glickenhaus 007 1'35.496 2.704 23 10 Ryan Cullen
Matthias Kaiser
Gabriel Aubry
Oreca 07 1'36.119 3.327 24 57 Takeshi Kimura
Scott Huffaker
Daniel Serra
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 1'41.341 8.549 25 98 Paul Dalla Lana
Axcil Jefferies
Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR 1'41.858 9.066 26 88 Ryan Hardwick
Zacharie Robichon
Harry Tincknell
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 1'41.862 9.070 27 83 Luis Perez Companc
Lilou Wadoux
Alessio Rovera
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 1'41.885 9.093 28 33 Ben Keating
Nicolas Varrone
Nick Catsburg
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R 1'41.896 9.104 29 56 Miguel Pedro
Guilherme Moura
Matteo Cairoli
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 1'41.940 9.148 30 85 Sarah Bovy
Michelle Gatting
Rahel Frey
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 1'41.944 9.152 31 60 Claudio Schiavoni
Matteo Cressoni
Alessio Picariello
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 1'42.071 9.279 32 86 Michael Wainwright
Riccardo Pera
Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 1'42.176 9.384 33 54 Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Davide Rigon
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 1'42.287 9.495 34 21 Diego Alessi
Simon Mann
Ulysse De
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 1'42.296 9.504 35 777 Satoshi Hoshino
Casper Stevenson
Tomonobu Fujii
Aston Martin Vantage AMR 1'42.648 9.856 36 25 Ahmad Al Harthy
Michael Dinan
Charles Eastwood
Aston Martin Vantage AMR 1'42.871 10.079 37 77 Christian Ried
Mikkel Pedersen
Julien Andlauer
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 1'42.931 10.139 View full results
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