WEC Sebring: Toyota leads Ferrari in first practice of 2023

Toyota maintained its stranglehold on the top of the times at Sebring in opening free practice for this week’s first round of the World Endurance Championship.

Ryo Hirakawa knocked Ferrari driver James Calado off the top spot in the dying minutes of the one-hour Free Practice 1 session with a time more than half a second quicker than the Toyota Le Mans Hypercar managed in last weekend’s official pre-season Prologue test.

The Japanese driver’s 1m47.649s aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID compared to the 1m48.208s with which Jose Maria Lopez headed the times from the two-day official test that led into race week for Friday’s Sebring 1000 Miles.

Ferrari driver Calado bounced back from an accident during the Prologue when he went quickest in the #51 Ferrari 499P 15 minutes into FP1.

Calado posted a 1m47.935s, which represented an improvement of 1.3s for the Ferrari LMH making its race debut in Sebring.

Miguel Molina put the #50 Ferrari third right at the end of the session when he got down to a 1m48.039s.

Earl Bamber found over three tenths on his Prologue best in the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh, getting down to a 1m49.090s to take fourth position.

The second Toyota ended up fifth when Lopez improved on Mike Conway’s previous best in the car by three tenths.

The Argentinian driver’s 1m48.613s gave him a one-tenth margin over the best of the Porsche 963 LMDhs in sixth place.

Laurens Vanthoor’s 1m48.745s in the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry was just a couple of tenths up on the 1m48.043s posted by Frederic Makowiecki in #5.

Peugeot took eighth and ninth position in the Hypercar class with its 9X8.

Loic Duval was quickest of the drivers in the Peugeot LMH with a 1m49.315s, which was on a par with team-mate Nico Muller’s best for the marque at the Prologue.

Jean-Eric Vergne was less than a tenth behind in the second Peugeot.

Olivier Pla took 10th position for Glickenhaus with a time four tenths up on the Pipo-engined 007 LMH’s Prologue best.

Esteban Guerrieri brought up the rear in the Vanwall-Gibson Vandervell 680 LMH.

Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve started the session in the car and improved by more than four seconds during his first long run in the Vanwall.

#63 Prema Racing Oreca 07 - Gibson: Doriane Pin, Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kvyat

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Prema led the way in LMP2, Mirko Bortolotti taking class honours in the #63 ORECA-Gibson 07.

The Italian’s 1m53.074s gave him a margin of more than two tenths over Robin Frijns in the best of the WRT ORECAs.

The Dutch driver’s 1m50.317s was just a hundredth up on the fastest lap from Andrea Caldarelli in the second Prema entry.

The United Autosport squad that headed the class order at the Prologue was sixth and seventh in the times with its pair of ORECAs, Oliver Jarvis ending up three tenths ahead of Phil Hanson.

Michelle Gatting was quickest in GTE Am in the Iron Dames Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.

Her 1m59.028s knocked Francesco Castellacci off the top of the times by a couple of hundredths.

Second free practice begins at 16:45 local time at Sebring.

WEC Sebring - FP1 results:

Cla	Nº	Driver	Car / Engine	Time	Gap	Laps
1	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota	1'47.649		30
2	51	A.P.Guidi James Calado A.Giovinazzi	Ferrari	1'47.935	0.286	28
3	50	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari	1'48.039	0.390	30
4	2	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn R.Westbrook	Cadillac	1'48.090	0.441	24
5	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi José María López	Toyota	1'48.613	0.964	28
6	6	Kévin Estre André Lotterer Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche	1'48.745	1.096	28
7	5	Dane Cameron M.Christensen F.Makowiecki	Porsche	1'49.043	1.394	25
8	94	Loïc Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller	Peugeot	1'49.315	1.666	19
9	93	Paul Di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Éric Vergne	Peugeot	1'49.407	1.758	26
10	63	Doriane Pin Mirko Bortolotti Daniil Kvyat	ORECA/Gibson	1'50.074	2.425	27
11	31	Sean Gelael F.Habsburg Robin Frijns	ORECA/Gibson	1'50.317	2.668	26
12	9	Filip-Ioan Ugran Bent Viscaal A.Caldarelli	ORECA/Gibson	1'50.338	2.689	27
13	28	David H.Hansson P.Fittipaldi Oliver Rasmussen	ORECA/Gibson	1'50.349	2.700	27
14	41	Rui Andrade Robert Kubica Louis Delétraz	ORECA/Gibson	1'50.382	2.733	29
15	23	Josh Pierson Tom Blomqvist Oliver Jarvis	ORECA/Gibson	1'50.459	2.810	27
16	708	Romain Dumas Ryan Briscoe Olivier Pla	Glickenhaus/Pipo	1'50.663	3.014	27
17	22	Frederick Lubin Phil Hanson F.Albuquerque	ORECA/Gibson	1'50.765	3.116	27
18	35	André Negrão Memo Rojas Olli Caldwell	ORECA/Gibson	1'50.903	3.254	26
19	36	M.Vaxivière Julien Canal Charles Milesi	ORECA/Gibson	1'51.013	3.364	25
20	4	Tom Dillmann E.Guerrieri J.Villeneuve	Vanwall/Gibson	1'51.014	3.365	25
21	34	J.Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Albert Costa	ORECA/Gibson	1'51.095	3.446	27
22	48	David Beckmann Yifei Ye Will Stevens	ORECA/Gibson	1'51.524	3.875	25
23	10	Ryan Cullen Matthias Kaiser Gabriel Aubry	ORECA/Gibson	1'52.100	4.451	29
24	85	Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Rahel Frey	Porsche	1'59.028	11.379	24
25	54	Thomas Flohr F.Castellacci Davide Rigon	Ferrari	1'59.053	11.404	26
26	33	Ben Keating Nicolás Varrone Nicky Catsburg	Chevrolet	1'59.101	11.452	27
27	57	Takeshi Kimura Scott Huffaker Daniel Serra	Ferrari	1'59.123	11.474	27
28	88	Ryan Hardwick Z.Robichon Harry Tincknell	Porsche	1'59.128	11.479	24
29	77	Christian Ried M.O.Pedersen Julien Andlauer	Porsche	1'59.274	11.625	24
30	86	Mike Wainwright Riccardo Pera Ben Barker	Porsche	1'59.295	11.646	27
31	60	C.Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni A.Picariello	Porsche	1'59.334	11.685	26
32	21	S.Costantini Simon Mann Ulysse De Pauw	Ferrari	1'59.393	11.744	26
33	83	L.P.-Companc Lilou Wadoux Alessio Rovera	Ferrari	1'59.500	11.851	27
34	777	Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson Tomonobu Fujii	Aston Martin	1'59.603	11.954	26
35	56	PJ Hyett Gunnar Jeannette Matteo Cairoli	Porsche	1'59.632	11.983	25
36	25	Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charlie Eastwood	Aston Martin	2'00.053	12.404	26
37	98	Paul Dalla Lana Axcil Jefferies Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin	2'00.458	12.809	18