WEC Portimao: Buemi leads Toyota 1-2 in opening practice

The Japanese manufacturer continued its domination of the 2023 WEC season after finishing 1-2 in the opening round at Sebring last month, with Sebastien Buemi edging out Mike Conway by nearly four tenths.

Buemi got down to a 1m32.792s aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar early in the 90-minute FP1 session on Friday morning, which Conway followed up on with a 1m33.176s.

The fastest Toyota time was just under a second quicker than the marque’s best time at this stage of the meeting on the WEC’s previous visit to the Automdromo Internacional do Algarve in 2021.

Buemi’s mark gave Toyota a margin of nearly seven tenths over the next best manufacturer in Ferrari.
Alessandro Pier Guidi took third position in the Hypercar class aboard the best of the AF Corse-run Ferrari 499P LMHs.

The Italian driver’s 1m33.453s shaded the 1m33.569s from team-mate Nicklas Nielsen in the sister car by just over a tenth.

The two factory Porsche 963 LMDhs filled out positions five and six in the Hypercar class, with Frederic Makowiecki and Laurens Vanthoor closely matched in the two Penske-run cars. Makowiecki posted a 1m33.688s to end up a tenth ahead of Vanthoor’s 1m33.792s.

Earl Bamber took seventh position in the Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh on the European competition debut for the American car courtesy of a 1m34.107s.

The two Peugeot 9X8 LMDhs took eighth and ninth positions, a 1m34.523s from Gustavo Menezes leaving the French manufacturer 1.7s off the pace. Mikkel Jensen was half a second in arrears in the sister car on a 1m35.033s.

Glickenhaus and Vanwall LMHs finished at the back of the Hypercar field. Tom Dillmann’s 1m35.309s in the Vanwall-Gibson Vandervell 680 just shaded the 1m35.496s from Olivier Pla in the Glickenhaus-Pipo 007.

Prema Racing ORECA-Gibson 07: Mirko Bortolotti

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

The Prema team ended up 1-2 in LMP2 with its pair of ORECA-Gibson 07s, Mirko Bortolotti ending up with a three-tenth margin in the secondary prototype class. Bortolotti’s 1m34.542s compared with Bent Viscaal’s 1m34.884s.

Inter Europol took third in class with a 1m32.920s from Fabio Scherer. Oliver Jarvis took fourth in the best of the two United Autosports ORECAs.

Ferrari factory driver Daniel Serra led the way in GTE Am for the Kessel Ferrari squad. His 1m41.341s aboard the Swiss team’s 488 GTE Evo was half a second up on second-placed Nicki Thiim’s 1m41.858s in the Northwest AMR Aston Martin Vantage GTE.

The session ended a couple of minutes early with a second red flag after Rui Andrade went off and hit the barriers at Turn 11 in his WRT LMP2 ORECA.

WEC Portimao FP1 results

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Time	Gap
1	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	1'32.792
2	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	1'33.176	0.384
3	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi	Ferrari 499P	1'33.453	0.661
4	50	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari 499P	1'33.569	0.777
5	5	Dane Cameron Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 963	1'33.688	0.896
6	6	Kevin Estre Andre Lotterer Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 963	1'33.792	1.000
7	2	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook	Cadillac V-Series.R	1'34.107	1.315
8	94	Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller	Peugeot 9X8	1'34.523	1.731
9	63	Doriane Pin Mirko Bortolotti Daniil Kvyat	Oreca 07	1'34.542	1.750
10	9	Filip Ugran Juan Manuel Correa Bent Viscaal	Oreca 07	1'34.884	2.092
11	34	Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Albert Costa	Oreca 07	1'34.920	2.128
12	93	Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne	Peugeot 9X8	1'35.033	2.241
13	23	Josh Pierson Giedo van der Garde Oliver Jarvis	Oreca 07	1'35.035	2.243
14	41	Rui Andrade Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz	Oreca 07	1'35.042	2.250
15	22	Frederick Lubin Philip Hanson Ben Hanley	Oreca 07	1'35.129	2.337
16	28	David Heinemeier Hansson Pietro Fittipaldi Oliver Rasmussen	Oreca 07	1'35.212	2.420
17	48	David Beckmann Ye Yifei Antonio Felix da Costa	Oreca 07	1'35.244	2.452
18	31	Sean Gelael Ferdinand Habsburg Robin Frijns	Oreca 07	1'35.260	2.468
19	35	Andre Negrao Memo Rojas Olli Caldwell	Oreca 07	1'35.293	2.501
20	4	Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri Jacques Villeneuve	Vanwall Vandervell 680	1'35.309	2.517
21	36	Matthieu Vaxiviere Julien Canal Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	1'35.442	2.650
22	708	Romain Dumas Ryan Briscoe Olivier Pla	Glickenhaus 007	1'35.496	2.704
23	10	Ryan Cullen Matthias Kaiser Gabriel Aubry	Oreca 07	1'36.119	3.327
24	57	Takeshi Kimura Scott Huffaker Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	1'41.341	8.549
25	98	Paul Dalla Lana Axcil Jefferies Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	1'41.858	9.066
26	88	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Harry Tincknell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	1'41.862	9.070
27	83	Luis Perez Companc Lilou Wadoux Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	1'41.885	9.093
28	33	Ben Keating Nicolas Varrone Nick Catsburg	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	1'41.896	9.104
29	56	Miguel Pedro Guilherme Moura Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	1'41.940	9.148
30	85	Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Rahel Frey	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	1'41.944	9.152
31	60	Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Alessio Picariello	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	1'42.071	9.279
32	86	Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	1'42.176	9.384
33	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	1'42.287	9.495
34	21	Diego Alessi Simon Mann Ulysse De	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	1'42.296	9.504
35	777	Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson Tomonobu Fujii	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	1'42.648	9.856
36	25	Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	1'42.871	10.079
37	77	Christian Ried Mikkel Pedersen Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	1'42.931	10.139
View full results