WEC Prologue: Toyota heads Cadillac in opening Sebring session

Toyota blocked out the top two positions in the times by a second in the opening session of the World Endurance Championship Prologue at Sebring.

Jose Maria Lopez ended up quickest in the first of the four sessions over the two days of the official WEC pre-season test on Saturday, which precedes next Friday’s Sebring 1000 Miles series-opener.

The Argentinian posted a 1m48.208s in the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID to edge out team-mate Ryo Hirakawa, who ended up just under nine hundredths behind on 1m48.293s in the sister car.

Cadillac took third in the classification courtesy of a 1m49.253s from Richard Westbrook aboard the manufacturer’s solo entry in the Hypercar class run by Chip Ganassi Racing.

Porsche and Ferrari were evenly matched in fourth and fifth positions.

Frederic Makowiecki’s 1m49.650s in the best of the Penske-run Porsche 963s was less than a tenth up on Alessando Pier Guidi’s 1m49.724s in the #51 Ferrari 499P run by AF Corse.

Ferrari 499P LMH

Photo by: Ferrari

The second cars from Porsche and Ferrari filled out sixth and seventh positions, Andre Lotterer’s 1m49.869s edging out the 1m50.182s from Antonio Fuoco, who was the last of the Hypercar entries to get within two seconds of Lopez’s best.

The two Peugeot 9X8s took eighth and ninth positions on their first experience of the bumpy Sebring International Raceway.

Mikkel Jensen set the best time for Peugeot, a 1m50.700s, which was half a second up on the 1m51.261s Gustavo Menezes managed in the second 9X8.

Olivier Pla ended up 10th for Glickenhaus in the team’s first run in anger since last July’s Monza round of the 2022 WEC.

His 1m52.247s aboard the #708 Glickenhaus-Pipo 007 was less than two tenths up on Tom Dillmann’s 1m52.410s in the Vanwall-Gibson Vandervell 680.

Toyota also completed the most laps over the course of the session.

Its two GR010s registered 134 laps between them, which compared with 123 for Porsche, 121 for Peugeot and 109 for Ferrari. The lone Cadillac managed 44 laps over the three hours.

United tops LMP2

United Autosports just edged out WRT at the top of the LMP2 order. Phil Hanson was quickest on a 1m51.722s in the #22 ORECA-Gibson 07, just three hundredths up on Robert Kubica’s 1m51.752s for WRT.

Yifei Ye was less than half a second down for Jota on 1m52.188s in the additional P2 ORECA the British team is fielding in the first two rounds of the WEC while it awaits its Porsche 963.

Michelle Gatting ended up fastest in GTE Am as the Iron Lynx squad took the top two positions with its pair of new Porsche 911 RSRs.

A 1m59.913s from Gatting in the Iron Dames entry was two hundredths up on Alessio Picariello’s 1m59.935s in the sister car.

Third fastest was the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo driven by factory driver Davide Rigon, who was only two thousandths behind.

The second session of the opening day of the Prologue begins at 13:30 local time.

Pos	Nº	Drivers	Car / Engine	Time	Delay	Laps
1	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi José María López	Toyota	1'48.208		70
2	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota	1'48.293	0.085	64
3	2	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn R.Westbrook	Cadillac	1'49.253	1.045	44
4	5	Dane Cameron M.Christensen F.Makowiecki	Porsche	1'49.650	1.442	69
5	51	A.P.Guidi James Calado A.Giovinazzi	Ferrari	1'49.724	1.516	61
6	6	Kévin Estre André Lotterer Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche	1'49.869	1.661	54
7	50	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari	1'50.182	1.974	48
8	93	Paul Di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Éric Vergne	Peugeot	1'50.700	2.492	59
9	94	Loïc Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller	Peugeot	1'51.261	3.053	62
10	22	Frederick Lubin Phil Hanson F.Albuquerque	ORECA/Gibson	1'51.722	3.514	75
11	41	Rui Andrade Robert Kubica Louis Delétraz	ORECA/Gibson	1'51.752	3.544	78
12	48	David Beckmann Yifei Ye Will Stevens	ORECA/Gibson	1'52.188	3.980	58
13	708	Romain Dumas Ryan Briscoe Olivier Pla	Glickenhaus/Pipo	1'52.247	4.039	45
14	63	Doriane Pin Mirko Bortolotti Daniil Kvyat	ORECA/Gibson	1'52.260	4.052	69
15	31	Sean Gelael F.Habsburg Robin Frijns	ORECA/Gibson	1'52.283	4.075	77
16	9	Filip-Ioan Ugran Bent Viscaal A.Caldarelli	ORECA/Gibson	1'52.284	4.076	71
17	4	Tom Dillmann E.Guerrieri J.Villeneuve	Vanwall/Gibson	1'52.410	4.202	33
18	10	Ryan Cullen Matthias Kaiser Gabriel Aubry	ORECA/Gibson	1'52.478	4.270	67
19	23	Josh Pierson Tom Blomqvist Oliver Jarvis	ORECA/Gibson	1'52.740	4.532	55
20	28	David H.Hansson P.Fittipaldi Oliver Rasmussen	ORECA/Gibson	1'52.970	4.762	63
21	36	M.Vaxivière Julien Canal Charles Milesi	ORECA/Gibson	1'53.158	4.950	59
22	35	André Negrão Memo Rojas Olli Caldwell	ORECA/Gibson	1'53.209	5.001	33
23	34	J.Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Albert Costa	ORECA/Gibson	1'53.880	5.672	67
24	85	Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Rahel Frey	Porsche	1'59.913	11.705	63
25	60	C.Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni A.Picariello	Porsche	1'59.935	11.727	70
26	54	Thomas Flohr F.Castellacci Davide Rigon	Ferrari	1'59.937	11.729	47
27	33	Ben Keating Nicolás Varrone Nicky Catsburg	Chevrolet	2'00.162	11.954	64
28	77	Christian Ried M.O.Pedersen Julien Andlauer	Porsche	2'00.189	11.981	75
29	83	L.P.-Companc Lilou Wadoux Alessio Rovera	Ferrari	2'00.268	12.060	64
30	56	PJ Hyett Gunnar Jeannette Matteo Cairoli	Porsche	2'00.399	12.191	62
31	88	Ryan Hardwick Z.Robichon Harry Tincknell	Porsche	2'00.473	12.265	62
32	21	S.Costantini Simon Mann Ulysse De Pauw	Ferrari	2'00.663	12.455	54
33	57	Takeshi Kimura Scott Huffaker Daniel Serra	Ferrari	2'00.744	12.536	70
34	86	Mike Wainwright Riccardo Pera Ben Barker	Porsche	2'00.920	12.712	68
35	98	Paul Dalla Lana Axcil Jefferies Nicki Thiim Thomas Merrill	Aston Martin	2'01.126	12.918	61
36	25	Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charlie Eastwood	Aston Martin	2'01.513	13.305	48
37	777	Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson Tomonobu Fujii	Aston Martin	2'01.527	13.319	54