Race report
WEC Sebring
WEC Sebring 1000 Miles: Alpine wins after multiple red flags
Alpine won the 1000 Miles of Sebring, the opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, that was thrice red flagged due to a huge Toyota Hypercar crash and thunderstorms in the area.
Charles Bradley
Edited: Mar 19, 2022, 4:11 PM
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The planned eight-hour race ended in an anticlimax when severe weather moved into the area in the final hour.
The #36 Alpine A480-Gibson grandfathered LMP1 car – driven by Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Andre Negrao – dominated the event, constantly outpacing the Hypercar class opposition from Toyota and Glickenhaus as well as the LMP2s.
Following the first red flag and 30-minute delay, while the barriers were repaired following Jose Maria Lopez’s huge crash in the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid at Turn 15, the race went green with just over 3hr40mins remaining.
The #8 Toyota led at that point but had to take emergency service, to avoid running out of fuel, and pitted on the following lap for another stop.
At the resumption, Alpine led the solo Glickenhaus 007 LMH by a lap with the remaining Toyota dropping back to third. However, as the green flag flew, Briscoe in the Glickenhaus passed the Corvette GTE Pro car before the restart, earning a penalty.
After a second red flag for electrical storms in the area, although no rain fell, the race was scheduled to restart with a 36-minute dash to the finish – but with more rain threatening. After further electrical activity, the field was getting ready to restart when more lightning was detected nearby.
The chequered flag was waved with 14 minutes still on the clock as the heavens finally opened.
Alpine claimed its first overall WEC win from the surviving #8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, and the Glickenhaus of Olivier Pla, Romain Dumas and Ryan Briscoe.
In LMP2, the #23 of United Autosports Oreca entry of Paul di Resta, Oliver Jarvis and Josh Pierson won the class in fourth overall ahead of the lead WRT car of Robin Frijns, Sean Gelael and Rene Rast.
The Realteam by WRT car shared by Ferdinand Habsburg, Norman Nato and Rui Andrade initially dropped out of third place after taking an emergency pitstop behind the safety car following the second red flag, but was ultimately handed the final podium spot in an adjustment to the results.
That demoted Prema to fourth on the team's LMP2 debut with Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Lorenzo Colombo at the wheel, ahead of the two JOTA entries in fifth and sixth.
#92 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR - 19: Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre
Photo by: Paul Foster
Porsche overcomes Corvette in GTE Pro
The #92 factory Porsche squad of Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen, which dominated the weekend, won the GTE Pro class by 1.4s from the belligerent Chevrolet Corvette team.
After an entertaining battle between Porsche and Corvette over the opening hours, during which both 911 RSR-19s were penalized for a startline infringement, Estre’s car passed the sole Corvette C8.R soon after the restart following the first red flag on the run to the final corner.
The sister #91 Porsche of Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz looked set to make it a one-two but a jammed left-rear wheelnut hampered its cause as it finished third, over 9secs in arrears of the Corvette of Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner.
Ferrari's pair of 488 GTE Evos trailed home in fourth and fifth, with the #51 car of Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado leading home the #52 machine of Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco.
In GTE Am, Aston Martin locked out the top two places, with the NorthWest AMR squad of David Pittard, Nicki Thiim and Paul Dalla Lana winning out ahead of the TF Sport car of Marco Sorensen, Ben Keating and Florian Latorre and the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche.
Race results:
Cla # Drivers Car Class Laps Time 1 36 Andre Negrao
Nicolas Lapierre
Matthieu Vaxiviere
Alpine A480 HYPERCAR 194 7:15'37.293 2 8 Sébastien Buemi
Brendon Hartley
Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 194 7:16'14.759 3 708 Olivier Pla
Romain Dumas
Ryan Briscoe
Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 193 7:15'47.801 4 23 Paul di Resta
Oliver Jarvis
Josh Pierson
Oreca 07 LMP2 192 7:16'19.526 5 31 Sean Gelael
Robin Frijns
René Rast
Oreca 07 LMP2 192 7:16'23.236 6 41 Rui Andrade
Ferdinand Habsburg
Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 192 7:19'34.747 7 9 Robert Kubica
Louis Deletraz
Lorenzo Colombo
Oreca 07 LMP2 192 7:19'38.729 8 28 Oliver Rasmussen
Ed Jones
Jonathan Aberdein
Oreca 07 LMP2 192 7:19'41.209 9 38 Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa
Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 192 7:19'43.496 10 22 Philip Hanson
Filipe Albuquerque
Will Owen
Oreca 07 LMP2 192 7:19'48.518 11 5 Dane Cameron
Emmanuel Collard
Felipe Nasr
Oreca 07 LMP2 192 7:19'56.740 12 83 François Perrodo
Nicklas Nielsen
Alessio Rovera
Oreca 07 LMP2 191 7:19'48.196 13 35 Jean Baptiste Lahaye
Matthieu Lahaye
François Heriau
Oreca 07 LMP2 190 7:19'44.933 14 45 Steven Thomas
James Allen
Rene Binder
Oreca 07 LMP2 190 7:19'47.614 15 1 Lilou Wadoux
Sébastien Ogier
Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 189 7:19'42.093 16 44 Miro Konopka
Mathias Beche
Tijmen van der Helm
Oreca 07 LMP2 188 7:16'12.445 17 92 Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 183 7:15'49.273 18 64 Tommy Milner
Nick Tandy
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE PRO 183 7:15'58.580 19 91 Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 183 7:16'00.835 20 51 Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 183 7:19'35.390 21 98 Paul Dalla Lana
David Pittard
Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 180 7:15'59.556 22 52 Miguel Molina
Antonio Fuoco
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 180 7:16'13.723 23 33 Ben Keating
Florian Latorre
Marco Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 180 7:19'23.417 24 56 Brendan Iribe
Ollie Millroy
Ben Barnicoat
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 180 7:19'24.692 25 77 Christian Ried
Sebastian Priaulx
Harry Tincknell
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 180 7:19'29.308 26 85 Rahel Frey
Michelle Gatting
Sarah Bovy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 179 7:19'25.945 27 777 Satoshi Hoshino
Tomonobu Fujii
Charlie Fagg
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 179 7:19'39.474 28 21 Simon Mann
Christoph Ulrich
Toni Vilander
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 178 7:19'36.073 29 60 Claudio Schiavoni
Matteo Cressoni
Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 178 7:19'44.214 30 54 Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Nick Cassidy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 178 7:19'45.251 31 34 Jakub Smiechowski
Fabio Scherer
Esteban Gutierrez
Oreca 07 LMP2 174 6:37'50.629 32 88 Fred Poordad
Patrick Lindsey
Julien Andlauer
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 169 7:19'35.028 33 10 Nico Müller
Ryan Cullen
Mike Rockenfeller
Oreca 07 LMP2 157 5:53'41.658 71 Franck Dezoteux
Pierre Ragues
Gabriel Aubry
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 122 5:26'06.852 46 Matteo Cairoli
Mikkel Pedersen
Nicolas Leutwiler
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 86 2:59'57.081 7 Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 110 3:28'51.927 View full results
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