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Practice report
WEC Sebring

WEC Sebring: Toyotas lead Ferrari, Cadillac in interrupted FP2

Toyota continued to show its strength by topping the second free practice session for the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship season-opener at Sebring.

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez

Brendon Hartley set the benchmark time of 1m47.272s early in the one-hour session aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID, before Kamui Kobayashi lapped three tenths quicker soon after to record 1m46.954s in the sister #7 car.

That lap time proved to be the fastest of the entire week so far, ahead of Friday’s Sebring 1000 Miles.

Antonio Fuoco’s #50 Ferrari was best of the rest in third, setting 1m48.121s in the closing stages to pip Richard Westbrook in the sole Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh, whose 1m48.265s was over a second off the pace of the Toyota duo.

The session was red flagged after 10 minutes, following a clash between Westbrook and Ryan Hardwick’s GTE Am Proton Porsche at Turn 7, which sent the 911 into the tyrewall. That removed 12 minutes from the available running time while the incident was cleared up and was under investigation by the stewards.

James Calado was fifth quickest in the sister Ferrari 499P, which is making its debut in Sebring, ahead of Olivier Pla’s Glickenhaus 007, which was 2.7s off the pace.

The best Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 LMDh was Fred Makowiecki’s #5 car, but it was almost 3s off the pace. The fastest Peugeot 9X8, meanwhile, was slower than the quickest LMP2 car in ninth overall.

A second, much shorter, red flag period was required for Takeshi Kimura's Ferrari spinning to a halt at Turn 3.

#28 Jota Oreca 07 - Gibson: David Heinemeier Hansson, Pietro Fittipaldi, Oliver Rasmussen

#28 Jota Oreca 07 - Gibson: David Heinemeier Hansson, Pietro Fittipaldi, Oliver Rasmussen

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

In LMP2, Pietro Fittipaldi led the way by setting 1m50.806s in the opening minutes in his #28 JOTA ORECA-Gibson 07, and then extended his advantage with 1m50.326s.

That was almost four tenths clear of the closely matched United Autosports cars, which were just 0.007s apart.

GTE Am proved to be highly competitive with Alessio Picariello (Iron Lynx Porsche 911) leading in the early stages on 1m59.160s, beaten first by Casper Stevenson (D’Station Aston Martin) and then Nicky Catsburg (Corvette) and, eventually, Daniel Serra (Kessel Racing Ferrari 488) who set 1m58.845s.

Third free practice begins at 11:55 local time at Sebring on Thursday. 

Sebring 1000 Miles FP2 results:

Pos  Driver   Car / Engine   Time   Delay   Laps 
7 Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
José María López
Toyota 1'46.954   25
8 Sébastien Buemi
Brendon Hartley
Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota 1'47.272 0.318 24
50 Antonio Fuoco
Miguel Molina
Nicklas Nielsen
Ferrari 1'48.121 1.167 22
2 Earl Bamber
Alex Lynn
R.Westbrook
Cadillac 1'48.265 1.311 22
51 A.P.Guidi
James Calado
A.Giovinazzi
Ferrari 1'48.606 1.652 23
708 Romain Dumas
Ryan Briscoe
Olivier Pla
Glickenhaus/Pipo 1'49.700 2.746 21
5 Dane Cameron
M.Christensen
F.Makowiecki
Porsche 1'49.782 2.828 23
28 David H.Hansson
P.Fittipaldi
Oliver Rasmussen
ORECA/Gibson 1'50.326 3.372 23
94 Loïc Duval
Gustavo Menezes
Nico Müller
Peugeot 1'50.378 3.424 23
10  22 Frederick Lubin
Phil Hanson
F.Albuquerque
ORECA/Gibson 1'50.701 3.747 23
11  23 Josh Pierson
Tom Blomqvist
Oliver Jarvis
ORECA/Gibson 1'50.708 3.754 22
12  48 David Beckmann
Yifei Ye
Will Stevens
ORECA/Gibson 1'50.827 3.873 24
13  10 Ryan Cullen
Matthias Kaiser
Gabriel Aubry
ORECA/Gibson 1'50.902 3.948 21
14  93 Paul Di Resta
Mikkel Jensen
Jean-Éric Vergne
Peugeot 1'50.914 3.960 23
15  41 Rui Andrade
Robert Kubica
Louis Delétraz
ORECA/Gibson 1'50.918 3.964 23
16  6 Kévin Estre
André Lotterer
Laurens Vanthoor
Porsche 1'51.060 4.106 19
17  36 M.Vaxivière
Julien Canal
Charles Milesi
ORECA/Gibson 1'51.229 4.275 24
18  35 André Negrão
Memo Rojas
Olli Caldwell
ORECA/Gibson 1'51.415 4.461 22
19  4 Tom Dillmann
E.Guerrieri
J.Villeneuve
Vanwall/Gibson 1'51.524 4.570 17
20  9 Filip-Ioan Ugran
Bent Viscaal
A.Caldarelli
ORECA/Gibson 1'51.722 4.768 23
21  34 J.Smiechowski
Fabio Scherer
Albert Costa
ORECA/Gibson 1'52.144 5.190 20
22  63 Doriane Pin
Mirko Bortolotti
Daniil Kvyat
ORECA/Gibson 1'52.457 5.503 21
23  31 Sean Gelael
F.Habsburg
Robin Frijns
ORECA/Gibson 1'52.819 5.865 12
24  57 Takeshi Kimura
Scott Huffaker
Daniel Serra
Ferrari 1'58.845 11.891 20
25  33 Ben Keating
Nicolás Varrone
Nicky Catsburg
Chevrolet 1'59.122 12.168 20
26  777 Satoshi Hoshino
Casper Stevenson
Tomonobu Fujii
Aston Martin 1'59.156 12.202 22
27  60 C.Schiavoni
Matteo Cressoni
A.Picariello
Porsche 1'59.160 12.206 21
28  54 Thomas Flohr
F.Castellacci
Davide Rigon
Ferrari 1'59.191 12.237 20
29  86 Mike Wainwright
Riccardo Pera
Ben Barker
Porsche 1'59.331 12.377 21
30  21 S.Costantini
Simon Mann
Ulysse De Pauw
Ferrari 1'59.496 12.542 21
31  77 Christian Ried
M.O.Pedersen
Julien Andlauer
Porsche 1'59.506 12.552 19
32  98 Paul Dalla Lana
Axcil Jefferies
Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin 1'59.689 12.735 20
33  83 L.P.-Companc
Lilou Wadoux
Alessio Rovera
Ferrari 2'00.011 13.057 22
34  25 Ahmad Al Harthy
Michael Dinan
Charlie Eastwood
Aston Martin 2'00.041 13.087 21
35  56 PJ Hyett
Gunnar Jeannette
Matteo Cairoli
Porsche 2'00.080 13.126 20
36  85 Sarah Bovy
Michelle Gatting
Rahel Frey
Porsche 2'00.186 13.232 19
37  88 Ryan Hardwick
Z.Robichon
Harry Tincknell
Porsche 2'01.261 14.307 4

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