WEC Sebring 1000 Miles: Alpine wins after multiple red flags

The planned eight-hour race ended in an anticlimax when severe weather moved into the area in the final hour.

The #36 Alpine A480-Gibson grandfathered LMP1 car – driven by Nicolas Lapierre, Matthieu Vaxiviere and Andre Negrao – dominated the event, constantly outpacing the Hypercar class opposition from Toyota and Glickenhaus as well as the LMP2s.

Following the first red flag and 30-minute delay, while the barriers were repaired following Jose Maria Lopez’s huge crash in the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid at Turn 15, the race went green with just over 3hr40mins remaining.

The #8 Toyota led at that point but had to take emergency service, to avoid running out of fuel, and pitted on the following lap for another stop.

At the resumption, Alpine led the solo Glickenhaus 007 LMH by a lap with the remaining Toyota dropping back to third. However, as the green flag flew, Briscoe in the Glickenhaus passed the Corvette GTE Pro car before the restart, earning a penalty.

After a second red flag for electrical storms in the area, although no rain fell, the race was scheduled to restart with a 36-minute dash to the finish – but with more rain threatening. After further electrical activity, the field was getting ready to restart when more lightning was detected nearby.

The chequered flag was waved with 14 minutes still on the clock as the heavens finally opened.

Alpine claimed its first overall WEC win from the surviving #8 Toyota of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa, and the Glickenhaus of Olivier Pla, Romain Dumas and Ryan Briscoe.

In LMP2, the #23 of United Autosports Oreca entry of Paul di Resta, Oliver Jarvis and Josh Pierson won the class in fourth overall ahead of the lead WRT car of Robin Frijns, Sean Gelael and Rene Rast.

The Realteam by WRT car shared by Ferdinand Habsburg, Norman Nato and Rui Andrade initially dropped out of third place after taking an emergency pitstop behind the safety car following the second red flag, but was ultimately handed the final podium spot in an adjustment to the results.

That demoted Prema to fourth on the team's LMP2 debut with Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Lorenzo Colombo at the wheel, ahead of the two JOTA entries in fifth and sixth.

#92 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR - 19: Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre

Photo by: Paul Foster

Porsche overcomes Corvette in GTE Pro

The #92 factory Porsche squad of Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen, which dominated the weekend, won the GTE Pro class by 1.4s from the belligerent Chevrolet Corvette team.

After an entertaining battle between Porsche and Corvette over the opening hours, during which both 911 RSR-19s were penalized for a startline infringement, Estre’s car passed the sole Corvette C8.R soon after the restart following the first red flag on the run to the final corner.

The sister #91 Porsche of Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz looked set to make it a one-two but a jammed left-rear wheelnut hampered its cause as it finished third, over 9secs in arrears of the Corvette of Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner.

Ferrari's pair of 488 GTE Evos trailed home in fourth and fifth, with the #51 car of Alessandro Pier Guidi and James Calado leading home the #52 machine of Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco.

In GTE Am, Aston Martin locked out the top two places, with the NorthWest AMR squad of David Pittard, Nicki Thiim and Paul Dalla Lana winning out ahead of the TF Sport car of Marco Sorensen, Ben Keating and Florian Latorre and the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche.

Race results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Time
1	36	Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere	Alpine A480	HYPERCAR	194	-
2	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	194	6.886
3	708	Olivier Pla Romain Dumas Ryan Briscoe	Glickenhaus 007 LMH	HYPERCAR	193	1 lap
4	23	Paul di Resta Oliver Jarvis Josh Pierson	Oreca 07	LMP2	192	2 laps
5	31	Sean Gelael Robin Frijns René Rast	Oreca 07	LMP2	192	25.410
6	41	Rui Andrade Ferdinand Habsburg Norman Nato	Oreca 07	LMP2	192	3'13.649
7	9	Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz Lorenzo Colombo	Oreca 07	LMP2	192	3'16.997
8	28	Oliver Rasmussen Ed Jones Jonathan Aberdein	Oreca 07	LMP2	192	3'20.707
9	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens	Oreca 07	LMP2	192	3'22.676
10	22	Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Will Owen	Oreca 07	LMP2	192	3'27.793
11	5	Dane Cameron Emmanuel Collard Felipe Nasr	Oreca 07	LMP2	192	3'35.354
12	83	François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera	Oreca 07	LMP2	191	3 laps
13	35	Jean Baptiste Lahaye Matthieu Lahaye François Heriau	Oreca 07	LMP2	190	4 laps
14	45	Steven Thomas James Allen Rene Binder	Oreca 07	LMP2	190	2.258
15	1	Lilou Wadoux Sébastien Ogier Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	189	5 laps
16	44	Miro Konopka Mathias Beche Tijmen van der Helm	Oreca 07	LMP2	188	6 laps
17	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	183	11 laps
18	64	Tommy Milner Nick Tandy	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE PRO	183	0.916
19	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	183	2.878
20	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	183	3'34.623
21	98	Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	180	14 laps
22	52	Miguel Molina Antonio Fuoco	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	180	2.142
23	33	Ben Keating Florian Latorre Marco Sorensen	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	180	2'36.349
24	56	Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	180	2'39.225
25	77	Christian Ried Sebastian Priaulx Harry Tincknell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	180	3'15.435
26	85	Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Sarah Bovy	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	179	15 laps
27	777	Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Charlie Fagg	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	179	16.834
28	21	Simon Mann Christoph Ulrich Toni Vilander	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	178	16 laps
29	60	Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	178	8.196
30	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Nick Cassidy	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	178	9.330
31	34	Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Esteban Gutierrez	Oreca 07	LMP2	174	20 laps
32	88	Fred Poordad Patrick Lindsey Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	169	25 laps
33	10	Nico Müller Ryan Cullen Mike Rockenfeller	Oreca 07	LMP2	157	37 laps
34	71	Franck Dezoteux Pierre Ragues Gabriel Aubry	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	122	72 laps
35	46	Matteo Cairoli Mikkel Pedersen Nicolas Leutwiler	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	86	108 laps
36	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	110	86 laps
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