WEC Sebring 1000 Miles: Alpine fastest in FP2, Toyota hit by penalty

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The Alpine A480-Gibson grandfathered LMP1 sat at the head of the classification for the majority of the session on Wednesday afternoon.

Andre Negrao went quickest with a 1m50.845s early on in the one-hour practice period, before Matthieu Vaxiviere improved by three tenths in the closing minutes.

The Frenchman got down to a 1m50.512s, which was still some way short of the 1m49.738s with which he had topped the Hypercar class classification in the opening session.

Vaxiviere’s afternoon mark gave the Alpine a half second margin over the two United Autosports LMP2 Orecas, which ended up second and third overall in the hands of Paul di Resta and Filipe Albuquerque.

Albuquerque sat second in the times with a 1m51.058s until right at the end when di Resta got down to a 1m51.040s in his Oreca to take the top spot in P2.

The #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid had been second until a 1m51.015s set by Brendon Hartley early on was wiped out for a pitlane speeding infringement. That demoted to car to fifth position with a 1m51.380s, also set by Hartley, behind the Realteam by WRT Oreca of Ferdinand Habsburg on a 1m51.244s.

Sixth place went to Prema Powerteam’s Oreca courtesy of a 1m51.395s from Robert Kubica.

The second WRT P2 entry ended up seventh with a 1m51.446s from Rene Rast, while Jose Maria Lopez was eighth in the second Toyota with a 1m53.503s.

The Glickenhaus 007 LMH, which had been fastest in FP1 in Romain Dumas’s hands, ended up down in 14th position more than a second and a half off the pace with a 1m52.479s from Ryan Briscoe.

Porsche heads GTE Pro from Corvette

The #92 Porsche 911 RSR-19 again headed the GTE Pro times, this time with Michael Christensen at the wheel. He posted a 1m58.448s to end up less than one hundredth of a second clear of Nick Tandy in the solo Chevrolet Corvette C8.R.

The Briton’s 1m58.580s put him four tenths clear of the second Porsche in which Richard Lietz set a best lap of 1m58.889s, which was almost identical to teammate Gianmaria Bruni’s mark from session one.

The two AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evos again brought up the rear and failed to break the two-minute mark.

WEC debutant David Pittard ended up quickest in GTE Am in the Northwest AMR Aston Martin. The Briton’s time of 2m00.029s in the Prodrive-run Vantage GTE put him just over a tenth up on fellow countryman Harry Tincknell in the best of the Dempsey Proton Porsches.

Practice continues on Thursday with the final of the three 60-minute practice sessions at 11:55am local time before qualifying for Friday’s Sebring 1000 Miles begins at 7:00pm.

Practice times:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	36	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	1'50.512
2	23	Paul di Resta Oliver Jarvis Josh Pierson	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.040	0.528
3	22	Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Will Owen	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.058	0.546
4	41	Rui Andrade Ferdinand Habsburg Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.244	0.732
5	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'51.380	0.868
6	9	Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz Lorenzo Colombo	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.395	0.883
7	31	Sean Gelael Robin Frijns René Rast	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.446	0.934
8	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'51.503	0.991
9	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.683	1.171
10	28	Oliver Rasmussen Ed Jones Jonathan Aberdein	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.783	1.271
11	5	Dane Cameron Emmanuel Collard Felipe Nasr	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'52.047	1.535
12	35	Jean Baptiste Lahaye Matthieu Lahaye François Heriau	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'52.142	1.630
13	83	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'52.343	1.831
14	708	Olivier Pla Romain Dumas Ryan Briscoe	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	1'52.479	1.967
15	34	Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Esteban Gutierrez	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'52.752	2.240
16	10	Nico Müller Ryan Cullen Mike Rockenfeller	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'53.772	3.260
17	1	Lilou Wadoux Sébastien Ogier Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'53.976	3.464
18	45	Steven Thomas James Allen Rene Binder	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'54.144	3.632
19	44	Miro Konopka Mathias Beche Tijmen van der Helm	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'56.085	5.573
20	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'58.488	7.976
21	64	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE PRO	1'58.580	8.068
22	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'58.889	8.377
23	98	Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'00.029	9.517
24	77	Christian Ried Sebastian Priaulx Harry Tincknell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'00.181	9.669
25	56	Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'00.367	9.855
26	52	Miguel Molina Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	2'00.416	9.904
27	21	Simon Mann Christoph Ulrich Toni Vilander	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'00.533	10.021
28	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	2'00.559	10.047
29	71	Franck Dezoteux Pierre Ragues Gabriel Aubry	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'00.621	10.109
30	60	Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'00.866	10.354
31	33	Ben Keating Florian Latorre Marco Sorensen	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'01.143	10.631
32	777	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Charlie Fagg	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'01.424	10.912
33	88	Fred Poordad Patrick Lindsey Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'01.546	11.034
34	85	Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Sarah Bovy	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'01.883	11.371
35	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Nick Cassidy	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'01.899	11.387
36	46	Matteo Cairoli Mikkel Pedersen Nicolas Leutwiler	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'02.234	11.722
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