Practice report
WEC Sebring
WEC Sebring: Toyota fastest but suffers crash in truncated final practice
Toyota completed a clean sweep in practice for the World Endurance Championship season opener at Sebring, but not before Jose Maria Lopez picked up some damage after a late crash in the final 60-minute session.
Rachit Thukral
Edited: Mar 16, 2023, 10:08 PM
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Kamui Kobayashi set a blistering time of 1m45.783s in the #7 Toyota GR010 HYBRID to lead a one-two finish for the Japanese marque ahead of Thursday’s afternoon qualifying for the Sebring 1000 Miles.
The 36-year-old set his fastest lap just 20 minutes into the 60-minute session, dethroning the #50 Ferrari that had sat atop the timesheets with Antonio Fuoco at the wheel.
His time was a full 1.2s quicker than Wednesday’s benchmark time set by Brendon Hartley in the sister #8 car and cemented Toyota’s status as the favourite for pole position in the expanded 11-car Hypercar class.
However, it wasn’t a clean session for Toyota with Kobayashi’s team-mate Lopez hitting the barriers at Turn 13 rear-first in the final 10 minutes of practice, a year on from his double incident that allowed rival Alpine to win the race.
The impact led to some visible damage to the #7 GR010 Hybrid and, with Nicklas Nielsen also crashing his #50 Ferrari at almost the same time, the session was red-flagged with just under six minutes left on the clock.
A decision was made not to resume practice, ensuring the #7 Toyota would not be overhauled at the top of the timesheets.
Hartley ensured Toyota finished first and second despite the late drama, but he ended up more than six tenths adrift of Kobayashi despite having set his quickest lap time just seconds after his Japanese squadmate.
Ferrari was again Toyota’s quickest challenger in practice, with Fuoco’s early time of 1m46.777s good enough for third on the timesheets. Ferrari, too, will have some damage to inspect though after Nielsen hit the barriers after running over the kerbs in the final part of the session.
Cadillac jumped to fourth late in the final 10 minutes when Alex Lynn posted a 1m47.155s in the #2 Chip Ganassi Racing V-Series.R.
Peugeot enjoyed its most competitive outing of the weekend so far with Mikkel Jensen fifth-fastest in the #93 9X8 with a 1m47.965s, although it was still two seconds slower than the fastest time of the day.
The two Porsche Penske cars finished sixth and eighth respectively, with Michael Christensen the fastest of the two in the #5 963 LMDh.
The two Porsches were separated by Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 Ferrari 499P, while the sole Glickenhaus was 10th with Romain Dumas at the wheel.
The #4 Vanwall stopped on track just after the pit exit at the start of practice, with Tom Dillmann reporting a lack of power from the car’s non-hybrid Gibson engine. A full course yellow had to be deployed to retrieve the car and Vanwall was unable to repair the car in time to send it back on track, losing a full-hour of mileage as a result.
Pietro Fittipaldi again led the way for JOTA in the LMP2 division, improving his own benchmark from Wednesday to a 1m50.102s in the #28 Oreca-Gibson 07.
Philip Hanson ended up second in the #22 United Autosports Oreca with a time that was less than a tenth slower than what Fittipaldi managed, while third place went to the other JOTA LMP2 entry piloted by Yifei Ye.
Oliver Jarvis’ time of 1m50.291s in the #23 Oreca made it a duopoly for Jota and United at the sharp end of the LMP2 field, as the four cars from the two teams were separated by just 0.163s seconds at the end of the session.
Lamborghini driver Mirko Bortolotti put the #63 Prema entry in fifth place with his best effort of 1m50.409s, which was 0.281s down on the fastest class time of the session.
In GTE Am, factory Aston Martin driver Nicki Thiim set the fastest time in the #98 NorthWest AMR Vantage GTE, beating the #86 GR Racing Porsche of Riccardo Pera by 0.043s.
Daniel Serra was another 0.011s behind in third position in the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE.
WEC Sebring - FP3 results:
Cla # Drivers Car Class Time Gap 1 7 Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'45.783 2 8
Sébastien Buemi
Brendon Hartley
Ryo Hirakawa Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'46.392 0.609 3 50
Antonio Fuoco
Miguel Molina
Nicklas Nielsen Ferrari 499P HYPERCAR 1'46.777 0.994 4 2
Earl Bamber
Alex Lynn
Richard Westbrook Cadillac V-Series.R HYPERCAR 1'47.155 1.372 5 93
Paul di Resta
Mikkel Jensen
Jean-Eric Vergne Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 1'47.965 2.182 6 5
Dane Cameron
Michael Christensen
Frédéric Makowiecki Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 1'48.303 2.520 7 51
Alessandro Pier Guidi
James Calado
Antonio Giovinazzi Ferrari 499P HYPERCAR 1'48.425 2.642 8 6
Kevin Estre
Andre Lotterer
Laurens Vanthoor Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 1'48.485 2.702 9 94
Loic Duval
Gustavo Menezes
Nico Müller Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 1'48.602 2.819 10 28
David Heinemeier Hansson
Pietro Fittipaldi
Oliver Rasmussen Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.128 4.345 11 22 Frederick Lubin
Philip Hanson
Filipe Albuquerque Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.218 4.435 12 48
David Beckmann
Ye Yifei
Will Stevens Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.256 4.473 13 23
Josh Pierson
Tom Blomqvist
Oliver Jarvis Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.291 4.508 14 63
Doriane Pin
Mirko Bortolotti
Daniil Kvyat Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.409 4.626 15 36
Matthieu Vaxiviere
Julien Canal
Charles Milesi Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.467 4.684 16 9 Filip Ugran
Bent Viscaal
Andrea Caldarelli Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.912 5.129 17 31
Sean Gelael
Ferdinand Habsburg
Robin Frijns Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.162 5.379 18 35
Andre Negrao
Memo Rojas
Olli Caldwell Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.281 5.498 19 708
Romain Dumas
Ryan Briscoe
Olivier Pla Glickenhaus 007 HYPERCAR 1'51.288 5.505 20 41
Rui Andrade
Robert Kubica
Louis Deletraz Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.495 5.712 21 34
Jakub Smiechowski
Fabio Scherer
Albert Costa Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.556 5.773 22 10
Ryan Cullen
Matthias Kaiser
Gabriel Aubry Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.579 5.796 23 98
Paul Dalla Lana
Axcil Jefferies
Nicki Thiim Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'59.030 13.247 24 86
Michael Wainwright
Riccardo Pera
Benjamin Barker Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'59.073 13.290 25 57
Takeshi Kimura
Scott Huffaker
Daniel Serra Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'59.084 13.301 26 54
Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Davide Rigon Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'59.093 13.310 27 33
Ben Keating
Nicolas Varrone
Nick Catsburg Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE AM 1'59.098 13.315 28 83
Luis Perez Companc
Lilou Wadoux
Alessio Rovera Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'59.119 13.336 29 77
Christian Ried
Mikkel Pedersen
Julien Andlauer Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'59.210 13.427 30 21
Stefano Costantini
Simon Mann
Ulysse De Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 1'59.216 13.433 31 60 Claudio Schiavoni
Matteo Cressoni
Alessio Picariello Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'59.325 13.542 32 85
Sarah Bovy
Michelle Gatting
Rahel Frey Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'59.487 13.704 33 25
Ahmad Al Harthy
Michael Dinan
Charles Eastwood Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'59.622 13.839 34 56 PJ Hyett
Gunnar Jeannette
Matteo Cairoli Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 1'59.637 13.854 35 777
Satoshi Hoshino
Casper Stevenson
Tomonobu Fujii Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'00.880 15.097 36 4
Tom Dillmann
Esteban Guerrieri
Jacques Villeneuve Vanwall Vandervell 680 HYPERCAR 37 88
Ryan Hardwick
Zacharie Robichon
Harry Tincknell Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM View full results
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