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Practice report

Portimao WEC: Da Costa's JOTA LMP2 fastest in FP1

JOTA LMP2 driver Antonio Felix da Costa jumped to the top of the times in the dying minutes of first practice for this weekend's FIA World Endurance Championship round at Portimao.

Watch: WEC: Onboard Lap - Portimao

Da Costa posted a 1m33.752s aboard his Oreca 07 to move ahead of three cars running in the Hypercar class with 10 minutes left on the clock of the hour-and-a-half free practice session.

His time around the Algarve circuit put him just 0.029s ahead of the Alpine A480-Gibson LMP1 in which Nicolas Lapierre had earlier set a 1m33.781s.

The two Toyota Le Mans Hypercars were right behind the Alpine Oreca design as the top four cars were separated by just 0.055s.

Sebastien Buemi took third spot in the #8 GR010 Hybrid with a 1m33.800s, while Kamui Kobayashi was fractionally behind on a 1m33.807s

The new Glickenhaus 007 LMH ended up 12th with a 1m34.789s set by Richard Westbrook, which left the new Le Mans Hypercar just over a second off the pace.

Fifth fastest and second in LMP2 was Alex Brundle in the Inter Europol Oreca with a 1m33.979s lap, while Ben Hanley took sixth for DragonSpeed on 1m34.268s.

Paul di Resta and Giedo van der Garde were seventh and eighth in their respective United Autosports and Racing Team Nederland Orecas.

The second JOTA Oreca with Tom Blomqvist driving and the RealTeam Racing entry with Norman Nato at the wheel rounded out the top 10 overall.

Kevin Estre leapfrogged Porsche teammate Gianmaria Bruni at the end of the session to lead the way in GTE Pro.

The Frenchman's 1m40.227s in the best of the factory Porsche 911 RSRs put him just over a tenth up on Bruni's 1m40.389s.

Daniel Serra was three tenths back in the fastest of the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evos. The Brazilian's 1m40.682s compared with 1m40.738s set by teammate James Calado in the sister car.

Matt Campbell led the way in GTE Am for the Dempsey-Proton Porsche squad. The Australian's 1m41.202s put him just over two tenths up on Iron Lynx team boss Andrea Piccini.

Two further sessions of free practice on Saturday are followed by qualifying for Sunday's second round of the 2021 WEC, the Portimao 8 Hours, at 6pm local time.

Practice results:

Cla # Drivers Car Class Time Gap
1 38 Mexico Roberto Gonzalez
Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Anthony Davidson
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'33.752
2 36 Brazil Andre Negrao
France Nicolas Lapierre
France Matthieu Vaxiviere
Alpine A480 HYPERCAR 1'33.781 0.029
3 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
Japan Kazuki Nakajima
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'33.800 0.048
4 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'33.807 0.055
5 34 Poland Jakub Smiechowski
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
United Kingdom Alex Brundle
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'33.979 0.227
6 21 Sweden Henrik Hedman
Colombia Juan Pablo Montoya
Ben Hayley
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'34.268 0.516
7 22 United Kingdom Philip Hanson
Switzerland Fabio Scherer
United Kingdom Paul di Resta
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'34.294 0.542
8 29 Netherlands Frits van Eerd
Netherlands Giedo van der Garde
Netherlands Job Van Uitert
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'34.299 0.547
9 28 Indonesia Sean Gelael
Belgium Stoffel Vandoorne
United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'34.627 0.875
10 70 Switzerland Esteban Garcia
Switzerland Mathias Beche
France Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'34.668 0.916
11 31 Netherlands Robin Frijns
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
France Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'34.742 0.990
12 709 Australia Ryan Briscoe
France Romain Dumas
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 1'34.789 1.037
13 20 Denmark Jan Magnussen
Denmark Anders Fjordbach
Denmark Dennis Andersen
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'35.019 1.267
14 1 Colombia Tatiana Calderon
Germany Sophia Flörsch
Netherlands Beitske Visser
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'36.074 2.322
15 44 Slovakia Miro Konopka
United Kingdom Oliver Webb
United Kingdom Tom Jackson
Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 1'36.453 2.701
16 92 France Kevin Estre
Switzerland Neel Jani
Denmark Michael Christensen
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'40.227 6.475
17 91 Italy Gianmaria Bruni
Austria Richard Lietz
France Frédéric Makowiecki
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'40.389 6.637
18 52 Brazil Daniel Serra
Spain Miguel Molina
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'40.682 6.930
19 51 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'40.738 6.986
20 77 Germany Christian Ried
Australia Jaxon Evans
Australia Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'41.202 7.450
21 60 Italy Claudio Schiavoni
Italy Andrea Piccini
Italy Matteo Cressoni
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'41.426 7.674
22 56 Norway Egidio Perfetti
Italy Matteo Cairoli
Italy Riccardo Pera
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'41.484 7.732
23 98 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
Brazil Augusto Farfus
Brazil Marcos Gomes
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'41.495 7.743
24 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'41.575 7.823
25 33 United States Ben Keating
Dylan Pereira
Brazil Felipe Fraga
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'41.667 7.915
26 83 France François Perrodo
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Italy Alessio Rovera
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'41.728 7.976
27 85 Switzerland Rahel Frey
Denmark Michelle Gatting
Italy Manuela Gostner
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'41.768 8.016
28 88 United States Dominique Bastien
Germany Marco Seefried
France Julien Andlauer
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'41.787 8.035
29 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
United Kingdom Tom Gamble
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'41.791 8.039
30 47 Italy Roberto Lacorte
Italy Giorgio Sernagiotto
Italy Antonio Fuoco
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'41.815 8.063
31 57 Japan Takeshi Kimura
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
Australia Scott Andrews
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'41.970 8.218
32 777 Japan Satoshi Hoshino
Japan Tomonobu Fujii
United Kingdom Andrew Watson
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'41.977 8.225

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