Qualifying report
WEC Sebring
Sebring WEC: Alonso record lap gives #8 Toyota pole
Fernando Alonso established a new lap record at Sebring International Raceway to give the #8 Toyota crew pole position for Friday's 1000-mile FIA World Endurance Championship round.
Gary Watkins
Edited: Mar 15, 2019, 3:35 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Alonso lapped the Florida airfield venue in 1m40.124s in the quicker of the two Toyota TS050 Hybrids, lowering Mike Conway's unofficial record from pre-event testing last weekend by nearly a second.
Kazuki Nakajima took over the #8 Toyota to establish a qualifying average of 1m40.318s, a little under half a second up on the sister #7 car shared by Conway and Jose Maria Lopez.
Conway's 1m41.082s left the #7 Toyota nearly a second behind after the first runs before Lopez posted a 1m40.544s right at the end of the session.
The Argentinian had to pull out a quick lap to make it another all-Toyota front row after an off on his previous lap, his time resulting in a 1m40.803s average.
Alonso said: "Definitely it was a nice lap, a nice feeling with the car. There were a couple of tenths here and there, so maybe a 1m39s was possible."
Nakajima added: "Thanks to Fernando's mega lap the only job I had to do was not mess up and put the lap together."
The #17 SMP Racing entry qualified by Stephane Sarrazin and Egor Orudzhev was best of the LMP1 privateers with a 1m42.730s average.
Sarrazin had posted a 1m43.542s to put the BR Engineering BR1 sixth after the first runs, before his teammate's 1m41.919s vaulted the car up to third.
Thomas Laurent had put the #3 Rebellion-Gibson R-13 third with a 1m42.640s on the first runs, but Menezes 1m43.086s dropped the car's average to a 1m42.863s.
The second of the AER-powered BR1s took fifth with a 1m43.005s average from Mikhail Aleshin and Brendon Hartley, while the #1 Rebellion qualified by Mathias Beche and Neel Jani took sixth position with a 1m43.015s average.
The two Jota-run Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca 07s blocked out the top positions in LMP2.
Stephane Richelmi set the fastest P2 lap of the session with 1m46.932s before Gabriel Aubry followed it up with a 1m48.194s.
That gave them a 1m47.558s average, which put them more than half a second up on the 1m48.208s from Will Stevens and David Heinemeier Hansson in the sister car.
Pierre Thiriet and Nicolas Lapierre took third with a 1m48.524s average in the Signatech Alpine Oreca.
GTE: Porsche on pole, Aston Martin hits trouble
Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre took pole for Porsche in GTE Pro.
Christensen was second after the first runs behind Aston Martin driver Alex Lynn with a 1m57.384s, which Estre followed up on with a 1m57.616s after a short interruption for a red flag.
That gave the #92 factory Porsche 911 RSR a 1m57.500s average, which was just over a tenth up on Ganassi Ford drivers Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell.
Priaulx had been sixth after the first runs with a 1m57.495s, before Tincknell's 1m57.735s gave the car a 1m57.615s average that vaulted the car up to second position.
The second of the Ford GTs took third in the hands of Stefan Mucke and Olivier Pla on 1m57.714s.
The best of the MTEK-run BMW M8s qualified by Augusto Farfus and Antonio Felix da Costa was fourth on a 1m57.841s average.
Antonio Garcia set the fastest GTE Pro time of the session on a 1m57.257s in the solo factory Chevrolet Corvette C7.R - giving the car a 1m57.844s average after Jan Magnussen had been slowest in class after the first runs.
Davide Rigon and Sam Bird were sixth in the best of the AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTEs, while the two Aston Martin Vantage GTEs brought up the rear of the class field.
Technical problems prevented Maxime Martin from setting a quick lap in the car he qualified alongside Lynn, leaving them last in class.
Christian Ried and Matt Campbell took pole in GTE Am in the fastest of the Dempsey-Proton Porsche 911 RSRs.
There was a red flag during the GTE session due to a major crash for Luis Perez Companc in the #61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari at Turn 7. The Argentine driver escaped unharmed.
Prototype times:
Pos. No. Drivers Car Class Avg Time Gap 1 8 
Fernando Alonso
Kazuki Nakajima
Sébastien Buemi Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'40.318 2 7 
Kamui Kobayashi
Mike Conway
Jose Maria Lopez Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'40.803 0.485 3 17 
Sergey Sirotkin
Stéphane Sarrazin
Egor Orudzhev BR Engineering BR1 LMP1 1'42.730 2.412 4 3 
Nathanael Berthon
Thomas Laurent
Gustavo Menezes Rebellion R13 LMP1 1'42.863 2.545 5 11 
Vitaly Petrov
Brendon Hartley
Mikhail Aleshin BR Engineering BR1 LMP1 1'43.005 2.687 6 1 
Bruno Senna
Neel Jani
Mathias Beche Rebellion R13 LMP1 1'43.015 2.697 7 10 
Henrik Hedman
Renger van der Zande
Ben Hanley BR Engineering BR1 LMP1 1'44.288 3.970 8 38 
Ho-Pin Tung
Stéphane Richelmi
Gabriel Aubry Oreca 07 LMP2 1'47.558 7.240 9 37 Will Stevens
David Heinemeier Hansson
Jordan King Oreca 07 LMP2 1'48.208 7.890 10 36 
Nicolas Lapierre
Pierre Thiriet
Andre Negrao Alpine A470 LMP2 1'48.524 8.206 11 31 
Anthony Davidson
Pastor Maldonado
Roberto Gonzalez Oreca 07 LMP2 1'49.681 9.363 12 50 
Gunnar Jeannette
Romano Ricci
Erwin Creed Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 1'50.705 10.387 13 28 Loic Duval
François Perrodo
Matthieu Vaxiviere Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.218 10.900 14 29 
Giedo van der Garde
Nyck de Vries
Frits van Eerd Dallara P217 LMP2 1'51.307 10.989
GTE times:
Pos. No. Drivers Car Class Avg Time Gap 1 92 
Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 1'57.500 2 67 Harry Tincknell
Jonathan Bomarito
Andy Priaulx Ford GT LMGTE PRO 1'57.615 0.115 3 66 
Stefan Mücke
Olivier Pla
Billy Johnson Ford GT LMGTE PRO 1'57.714 0.214 4 82 
Antonio Felix da Costa
Bruno Spengler
Augusto Farfus BMW M8 GTE LMGTE PRO 1'57.841 0.341 5 63 
Jan Magnussen
Antonio Garcia
Mike Rockenfeller Chevrolet Corvette C7R LMGTE PRO 1'57.844 0.344 6 71 
Sam Bird
Davide Rigon
Miguel Molina Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'57.938 0.438 7 81 Nick Catsburg
Martin Tomczyk
Alexander Sims BMW M8 GTE LMGTE PRO 1'58.000 0.500 8 91 
Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 1'58.113 0.613 9 51 James Calado
Alessandro Pier Guidi
Daniel Serra Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'58.232 0.732 10 95 
Marco Sorensen
Nicki Thiim
Darren Turner Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 1'58.366 0.866 11 77 Christian Ried
Matthew Campbell
Julien Andlauer Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'59.790 2.290 12 56 
Jörg Bergmeister
Patrick Lindsey
Egidio Perfetti Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'59.935 2.435 13 98 
Pedro Lamy
Paul Dalla Lana
Mathias Lauda Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE AM 2'00.076 2.576 14 54 
Giancarlo Fisichella
Francesco Castellacci
Thomas Flohr Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'00.358 2.858 15 88 Gianluca Roda
Matteo Cairoli
Giorgio Roda Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'00.417 2.917 16 90 Jonathan Adam
Salih Yoluc
Charles Eastwood Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE AM 2'00.543 3.043 17 70 
Olivier Beretta
Eddie Cheever III
Motoaki Ishikawa Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'01.650 4.150 18 86 
Michael Wainwright
Benjamin Barker
Thomas Preining Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'03.797 6.297 19 97 
Maxime Martin
Alex Lynn Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 2'04.748 7.248
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Sebring WEC: Lopez keeps #7 Toyota ahead in FP3
Next article Clearwater Ferrari withdrawn after Sebring crash
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Gary Watkins
A fond farewell to a few WEC favourites
WEC
Monza
A fond farewell to a few WEC favourites
WEC Monza: Antonio Fuoco takes pole for Ferrari
WEC
WEC
Monza
6 d
WEC Monza: Antonio Fuoco takes pole for Ferrari
More from
Fernando Alonso
F1 driver contracts: How long is each driver tied down for?
Formula 1
Formula 1 13 h
F1 driver contracts: How long is each driver tied down for?
Who slept worst last night: Fernando Alonso
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
4 d
Who slept worst last night: Fernando Alonso
More from
Toyota Motorsport GmbH
Ogier to contest Spain, Japan to complete WRC season
WRC
WRC Sep 19, 2022
Ogier to contest Spain, Japan to complete WRC season
Rovanpera: It won’t be easy to beat on-form Tanak to WRC Finland win
WRC
WRC
Rally Finland
Aug 6, 2022
Rovanpera: It won’t be easy to beat on-form Tanak to WRC Finland win
Latvala admits Toyota's five-car WRC expansion a possibility
WRC
WRC Apr 28, 2022
Latvala admits Toyota's five-car WRC expansion a possibility
Latest news
TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
1 h
TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale
Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role
NASCAR Truck
NSTR NASCAR Truck
Homestead
2 h
Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role
“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 6 h
“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe