Portimao WEC: LMP2s fastest again in FP2, di Resta quickest

Di Resta, standing in for the absent Filipe Albuquerque at the wheel of the #22 United Oreca 07-Gibson, lapped the Portuguese track in 1m31.984s to go just 0.020s clear of nearest rival Robin Frijns in the #31 WRT Oreca. 

That was an improvement of nearly 1.8s above Friday’s benchmark in opening practice, established by local hero Antonio Felix da Costa in the #38 JOTA Oreca. 

With Alex Brundle taking third spot in the Inter Europol Competition Oreca, it meant the best of the cars in the new top Hypercar class, the Signatech Alpine A480-Gibson, was relegated to fourth place, albeit just 0.090s off the pace. 

Nicolas Lapierre set the best time at the wheel of the rebranded Rebellion R-13 LMP1 of 1m32.074s, almost six tenths faster than the best of the two Toyota GR010 Hybrids. 

That was the #8 machine of Sebastien Buemi, who posted a 1m32.669s with just a few seconds prior to the chequered flag to go seventh overall, behind the #28 JOTA Oreca of Tom Blomqvist and the #21 DragonSpeed Oreca of fellow last-minute improver Ben Hanley.

Splitting the two Toyotas was the second of the JOTA Orecas, leaving the #7 car piloted by Mike Conway a lowly ninth overall. 

Conway set the initial pace overall at the wheel right at the start of the one-and-a-half hour session, a 1m33.084s. 

Despite this being nearly eight tenths better than the Japanese marque’s best times from Friday, it was eclipsed almost immediately by Brundle’s time of 1m32.051s, which stood as the benchmark until Di Resta set his best time 21 minutes into the session. 

Wayne Boyd also got his first mileage at the wheel of the United car having been confirmed as the replacement for Fabio Scherer, who withdrew after testing positive for COVID-19.

Conway returned to the wheel of the #7 later on to post the car’s best time of 1m32.721s. 

The fourth and final car in the Hypercar class, the solo Glickenhaus 007 LMH, was 13th overall and around 1.9s off the outright pace in the hands of Romain Dumas, only beating the slowest two of the LMP2 cars. 

However, the Pipo Motors-powered machine suffered problems not long after Dumas set his best time of 1m33.875s with a gear shifting issue, which caused the first of two full-course yellow periods at around the halfway mark of the session. 

The second came in the final 10 minutes as the Glickenhaus suffered more problems just after Ryan Briscoe had headed out in the car after a long stint in the garage.

In GTE Pro, Daniel Serra put Ferrari on top with a 1m38.901s lap at the wheel of the #52 AF Corse-run 488 GTE Evo, a major improvement on the Friday benchmark in class. 

Porsches were second and third, with Neel Jani putting the quicker of the works 911 RSR-19, the #92, ahead of the sister #91 car of Frederic Makowiecki, followed by the #51 Ferrari of James Calado in fourth. 

GTE Am was topped by the #56 Porsche, the only Project 1 car in action this weekend following the withdrawal of the sister machine.

Fresh from winning last weekend’s Nurburgring 24 Hours, Matteo Cairoli set the benchmark time of 1m39.266s early on, which was less than two tenths clear of late improver Antonio Fuoco in the Cetilar Ferrari.

FP2 results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	22	Philip Hanson Wayne Boyd Paul di Resta	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'31.984
2	31	Robin Frijns Ferdinand Habsburg Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'32.004	0.020
3	34	Jakub Smiechowski Louis Deletraz Alex Brundle	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'32.051	0.067
4	36	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	1'32.074	0.090
5	28	Sean Gelael Stoffel Vandoorne Tom Blomqvist	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'32.175	0.191
6	21	Henrik Hedman Juan Pablo Montoya Ben Hanley	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'32.598	0.614
7	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'32.669	0.685
8	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'32.677	0.693
9	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'32.721	0.737
10	20	Jan Magnussen Anders Fjordbach Dennis Andersen	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'32.772	0.788
11	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'33.187	1.203
12	70	Esteban Garcia Mathias Beche Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'33.325	1.341
13	709	Ryan Briscoe Romain Dumas Richard Westbrook	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	1'33.875	1.891
14	1	Tatiana Calderon Sophia Flörsch Beitske Visser	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'34.338	2.354
15	44	Miro Konopka Oliver Webb Tom Jackson	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	1'34.799	2.815
16	52	Daniel Serra Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'38.901	6.917
17	92	Kevin Estre Neel Jani Michael Christensen	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'39.030	7.046
18	56	Egidio Perfetti Matteo Cairoli Riccardo Pera	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'39.266	7.282
19	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'39.328	7.344
20	47	Roberto Lacorte Giorgio Sernagiotto Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'39.419	7.435
21	86	Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker Tom Gamble	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'39.501	7.517
22	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'39.515	7.531
23	77	Christian Ried Jaxon Evans Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'39.622	7.638
24	85	Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Manuela Gostner	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'39.748	7.764
25	60	Claudio Schiavoni Andrea Piccini Matteo Cressoni	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'39.998	8.014
26	33	Ben Keating Dylan Pereira Felipe Fraga	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'40.041	8.057
27	83	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'40.102	8.118
28	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'40.123	8.139
29	88	Dominique Bastien Marco Seefried Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'40.182	8.198
30	57	Takeshi Kimura Mikkel Jensen Scott Andrews	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'40.229	8.245
31	777	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Andrew Watson	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'40.398	8.414
32	98	Paul Dalla Lana Augusto Farfus Marcos Gomes	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'40.534	8.550
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