Sebring WEC: Alonso record lap gives #8 Toyota pole

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