WEC Sebring 1000 Miles: Alpine beats Glickenhaus to pole

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It was Nicolas Lapierre that set the benchmark time aboard the #36 Alpine A480-Gibson grandfathered LMP1 car, the Frenchman setting a 1m47.407s to take the French marque's first pole since last year's Portimao round.

"It was a clean lap, no traffic, the car was fantastic tonight," said Lapierre. "We did a good adjustment on the setup and the car was really nice to drive."

Lapierre's time was 1.3 seconds faster than compatriot Olivier Pla's best effort of 1m48.741s aboard the #708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH in second.

Third-quickest was best of the LMP2 runners, with Nicklas Nielsen posting a sensational time of 1m49.014s aboard the Pro/Am-entered AF Corse Oreca 07-Gibson to grab class pole and third overall.

That was enough to shade the quicker of the two Toyota GR010 Hybrids, the #8 car of Brendon Hartley, by a little under two tenths.

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

The sister #7 Toyota languished down in seventh overall behind two more LMP2 runners, the two United Autosports cars.

Jose Maria Lopez's best effort aboard the #7 was a 1m49.581s, putting him behind both the #22 United car of Filipe Albuquerque and the #23 machine of Paul di Resta.

Fourth in LMP2 and eighth overall was the best of the WRT machines driven by Rene Rast, followed by the sister Realteam by WRT car of Ferdinand Habsburg and Robert Kubica in the Prema Oreca.

Dane Cameron set the ninth-fastest time in class aboard the Penske Oreca to put the American squad 13th on the grid for its WEC debut.

The 10-minute Hypercar/LMP2 session came to an early end following a shunt for Fabio Scherer, who is standing in for a COVID-positive Alex Brundle at the Inter Europol Competition LMP2 squad.

GTE: Porsche locks out front row

In the GTE Pro class, Porsche's pair of factory 911 RSR-19s swept the top two positions, with the #92 car of Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre securing pole.

 

Christensen left it until the very end of the 10-minute GTE session to post his best time of 1m57.233s to usurp his opposite number in the #91 Porsche, Gianmaria Bruni, by 0.150s.

Best of the rest was the solo Corvette C8.R driven by Nick Tandy, 0.463s off the pace.

The AF Corse-run works Ferrari 488 GTE Evos propped up the class order, with both James Calado (#51) and team newcomer Antonio Fuoco (#52) setting times slower than the GTE Am pole-sitting TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage.

Ben Keating set a best time of 1m59.204s to grab Am pole, well over a second ahead of Paul Dalla Lana in the NorthWest AMR car. Third-fastest was Brendan Iribe in the #56 Project 1 Porsche.

The sister #46 Project 1 car caused a brief red flag period courtesy of an off for Nicolas Leutwiler.

Hypercar/LMP2 qualifying times:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Avg Time	Gap
1	36	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	1'47.407
2	708	Olivier Pla Romain Dumas Ryan Briscoe	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	1'48.741	1.334
3	83	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'49.014	1.607
4	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'49.217	1.810
5	22	Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Will Owen	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'49.388	1.981
6	23	Paul di Resta Oliver Jarvis Josh Pierson	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'49.510	2.103
7	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'49.581	2.174
8	31	Sean Gelael Robin Frijns René Rast	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'49.670	2.263
9	41	Rui Andrade Ferdinand Habsburg Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'49.688	2.281
10	9	Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz Lorenzo Colombo	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.057	2.650
11	28	Oliver Rasmussen Ed Jones Jonathan Aberdein	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.178	2.771
12	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.596	3.189
13	5	Dane Cameron Emmanuel Collard Felipe Nasr	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.629	3.222
14	1	Lilou Wadoux Sébastien Ogier Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.916	3.509
15	35	Jean Baptiste Lahaye Matthieu Lahaye François Heriau	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.954	3.547
16	10	Nico Müller Ryan Cullen Mike Rockenfeller	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.955	3.548
17	44	Miro Konopka Mathias Beche Tijmen van der Helm	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.182	3.775
18	45	Steven Thomas James Allen Rene Binder	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.332	3.925
19	34	Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Esteban Gutierrez	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.872	4.465
View full results

GTE qualifying times:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Avg Time	Gap
1	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'57.233
2	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'57.383	0.150
3	64	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE PRO	1'57.696	0.463
4	33	Ben Keating Florian Latorre Marco Sorensen	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'59.204	1.971
5	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'59.299	2.066
6	52	Miguel Molina Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'59.388	2.155
7	98	Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'00.570	3.337
8	56	Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'00.649	3.416
9	85	Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Sarah Bovy	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'01.140	3.907
10	777	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Charlie Fagg	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'01.379	4.146
11	77	Christian Ried Sebastian Priaulx Harry Tincknell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'02.079	4.846
12	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Nick Cassidy	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'02.264	5.031
13	71	Franck Dezoteux Pierre Ragues Gabriel Aubry	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'02.800	5.567
14	21	Simon Mann Christoph Ulrich Toni Vilander	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'03.116	5.883
15	88	Fred Poordad Patrick Lindsey Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'03.560	6.327
16	60	Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'03.726	6.493
17	46	Matteo Cairoli Mikkel Pedersen Nicolas Leutwiler	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM
View full results