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WEC COTA: Giovinazzi leads Ferrari 1-2 in FP2

Ferrari returned to the top of the World Endurance Championship timesheets for the first time since the Le Mans 24 Hours in second free practice for this weekend’s Austin round. 

The two factory Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercars, which could only finish fifth and sixth last time out in the WEC at Interlagos, ended up 1-2 in the times in the 90-minute Friday evening session. 

Antonio Giovinazzi’s 1m52.268s in the #51 car put him just five hundredths of a second up on the 1m52.320s from team-mate Antonio Fuoco

Fuoco was in turn only just six hundredths ahead of WRT BMW driver Robin Frijns, who got down to a 1m52.383s in his M Hybrid V8 LMDh. 

Giovinazzi set the initial pace only to be leapfrogged by Frijns before responding to retake the top spot in an initial flurry of quick times in the opening 10 or so minutes of the session when the drivers were on fresh rubber. 

Fuoco subsequently improved to jump to second and complete the Ferrari 1-2. 

Alex Lynn took fourth place in the solo Ganassi-run Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh with a 1m52.533s ahead of the customer Ferrari 499P in fifth on a 1m52.705s from Robert Kubica.

Sebastien Buemi was the best-placed Toyota driver in sixth with a 1m52.788s in the #8 GR010 HYBRID LMH, but Kamui Kobayashi set a time good enough for fourth in the sister car only to lose the lap to a track limits violation. 

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 - Hybrid: Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley, Ryo Hirakawa (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

The second BMW claimed seventh on a 1m52.791s from Dries Vanthoor.

Toyota’s #7 entry ended up tenth in the Free Practice 2 classification courtesy of Mike Conway’s 1m52.052s, which was six tenths slower than Kobayashi’s deleted lap but still within a second of the pace.

The Toyotas sandwiched the two Jota customer Porsche 963 LMDhs, Norman Nato taking eighth with a 1m52.940s and Jenson Button ninth with a 1m53.042s. 

Lamborghini claimed 11th thanks to a late improvement from Daniil Kvyat in the Italian manufacturer’s solo Iron Lynx-run SC63 LMDh, while Mick Schumacher was 12th in the best of the Alpine A424 LMDhs. 

Matt Campbell, who topped the times in FP1, was only 13th in the best of factory Porsches. 

He posted a time more than one second better than his eventual best of 1m53.492s late in the session to jump to fourth, only for the lap to be scrubbed out for track limits. 

The two Peugeot 9X8 LMHs ended up 16th and 18th in the hands of Mikkel Jensen and Paul di Resta respectively. 

The championship-leading Penske Porsche driven by Andre Lotterer finished between the two French cars in 17th.

The third-placed BMW precipitated a short mid-session red flag when Sheldon van der Linde lost the right rear wheel and stopped out on circuit. 

#55 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3: Francois Heriau, Simon Mann, Alessio Rovera (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

The LMGT3 class order was headed by the TF Sport Chevrolet team, Daniel Juncadella getting down to 2m05.630s aboard the best of the American manufacturer’s Z06 GT3.Rs.

He ended up just four hundredths clear of late-improver Alessio Rovera, who got down to a 2m05.673s in the best of the AF Corse 296 GT3s.

David Rigon also lowered his time late in the session in the sister car, ending up third on a 2m05.708s

Final free practice for the Lone Star Le Mans six-hour race starts at 11:00 local time on Saturday, with the kick-off of qualifying at 15:00.

WEC COTA FP2 Results:

   
1
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4
   
   
1
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2
   
Cla Team # Drivers Car Laps Time Interval km/h
1
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
51 Italy A. Pier Guidi United Kingdom J. Calado Italy A. Giovinazzi Ferrari 499P 34

1'52.268

  176.780
2
FERRARI AF CORSE HYPERCAR
50 Italy A. Fuoco Spain M. Molina Denmark N. Nielsen Ferrari 499P 38

+0.052

1'52.320

0.052 176.698
3
BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR
20 South Africa S. Van Der Linde Netherlands R. Frijns Germany R. Rast BMW M Hybrid V8 17

+0.115

1'52.383

0.063 176.599
4
CADILLAC RACING HYPERCAR
2 New Zealand E. Bamber United Kingdom A. Lynn Cadillac V-Series.R 39

+0.265

1'52.533

0.150 176.364
5
AF Corse HYPERCAR
83 Poland R. Kubica Israel R. Shwartzman China Y. Yifei Ferrari 499P 40

+0.437

1'52.705

0.172 176.095
6
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
8 Switzerland S. Buemi New Zealand B. Hartley Japan R. Hirakawa Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 41

+0.520

1'52.788

0.083 175.965
7
BMW M Team WRT HYPERCAR
15 Belgium D. Vanthoor Italy R. Marciello Germany M. Wittmann BMW M Hybrid V8 41

+0.523

1'52.791

0.003 175.960
8
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
12 United Kingdom W. Stevens United Kingdom C. Ilott France N. Nato Porsche 963 39

+0.672

1'52.940

0.149 175.728
9
HERTZ TEAM JOTA HYPERCAR
38 United Kingdom J. Button United Kingdom P. Hanson Denmark O. Rasmussen Porsche 963 38

+0.774

1'53.042

0.102 175.570
10
Toyota Racing HYPERCAR
7 United Kingdom M. Conway Japan K. Kobayashi Netherlands N. de Vries Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 38

+0.784

1'53.052

0.010 175.554
11
Lamborghini Iron Lynx HYPERCAR
63 Italy M. Bortolotti Switzerland E. Mortara Russian Federation D. Kvyat Lamborghini SC63 37

+1.072

1'53.340

0.288 175.108
12
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
36 France N. Lapierre Germany M. Schumacher France M. Vaxiviere Alpine A424 37

+1.223

1'53.491

0.151 174.875
13
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
5 Australia M. Campbell Denmark M. Christensen France F. Makowiecki Porsche 963 31

+1.224

1'53.492

0.001 174.873
14
Alpine Endurance Team HYPERCAR
35 France P. Chatin Austria F. Habsburg France C. Milesi Alpine A424 40

+1.409

1'53.677

0.185 174.589
15
Proton Competition HYPERCAR
99 United Kingdom H. Tincknell Switzerland N. Jani France J. Andlauer Porsche 963 38

+1.550

1'53.818

0.141 174.373
16
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
93 Denmark M. Jensen Switzerland N. Müller France J. Vergne Peugeot 9X8 2024 36

+1.561

1'53.829

0.011 174.356
17
PORSCHE PENSKE MOTORSPORT HYPERCAR
6 France K. Estre Germany A. Lotterer Belgium L. Vanthoor Porsche 963 33

+1.791

1'54.059

0.230 174.004
18
PEUGEOT TOTALENERGIES HYPERCAR
94 United Kingdom P. di Resta France L. Duval Belgium S. Vandoorne Peugeot 9X8 2024 40

+2.258

1'54.526

0.467 173.295
19
TF Sport LMGT3
82 Japan H. Koizumi
S. Baud
Spain D. Juncadella
Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 32

+13.362

2'05.630

11.104 157.978
20
Vista AF Corse LMGT3
55 France F. Heriau France S. Mann Italy A. Rovera Ferrari 296 GT3 34

+13.405

2'05.673

0.043 157.924
21
Vista AF Corse LMGT3
54 Switzerland T. Flohr Italy F. Castellacci Italy D. Rigon Ferrari 296 GT3 35

+13.440

2'05.708

0.035 157.880
22
AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3
87 Japan T. Kimura
E. Masson
Argentina J. Lopez
Lexus RC F GT3 37

+13.600

2'05.868

0.160 157.679
23
IRON LYNX LMGT3
60 Italy C. Schiavoni Italy M. Cressoni
F. Perera
Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 35

+13.873

2'06.141

0.273 157.338
24
Manthey EMA LMGT3
91
Y. Shahin
M. Schuring
Austria R. Lietz
Porsche 911 GT3 R 36

+13.893

2'06.161

0.020 157.313
25
TF Sport LMGT3
81 Belgium T. Van Rompuy Portugal R. Andrade Ireland C. Eastwood Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R 33

+13.999

2'06.267

0.106 157.181
26
Heart of Racing Team LMGT3
27 United Kingdom I. James Italy D. Mancinelli Spain A. Riberas Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 32

+13.999

2'06.267

0.000 157.181
27
TEAM WRT LMGT3
46 United Kingdom A. Al Harthy Italy V. Rossi Belgium M. Martin BMW M4 GT3 34

+14.008

2'06.276

0.009 157.170
28
United Autosports LMGT3
59 J. Cottingham N. Costa Switzerland G. Saucy McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 33

+14.050

2'06.318

0.042 157.117
29
IRON DAMES LMGT3
85 Belgium S. Bovy Switzerland R. Frey Denmark M. Gatting Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 30

+14.185

2'06.453

0.135 156.950
30
AKKODIS ASP Team LMGT3
78
A. Robin
Austria C. Schmid South Africa K. van der Linde
Lexus RC F GT3 34

+14.509

2'06.777

0.324 156.548
31
Proton Competition LMGT3
77 United States R. Hardwick Canada Z. Robichon United Kingdom B. Barker Ford Mustang GT3 23

+14.698

2'06.966

0.189 156.315
32
TEAM WRT LMGT3
31
D. Leung
Indonesia S. Gelael Brazil A. Farfus
BMW M4 GT3 35

+14.899

2'07.167

0.201 156.068
33
Manthey PureRxcing LMGT3
92
A. Malykhin
J. Sturm
Austria K. Bachler
Porsche 911 GT3 R 36

+14.905

2'07.173

0.006 156.061
34
United Autosports LMGT3
95 United Kingdom J. Caygill Chile N. Pino Japan M. Sato McLaren 720S GT3 Evo 32

+14.960

2'07.228

0.055 155.993
35
Proton Competition LMGT3
88 United States B. Keating
M. Pedersen
Norway D. Olsen
Ford Mustang GT3 32

+14.962

2'07.230

0.002 155.991
36
D'Station Racing LMGT3
777 France C. Mateu
E. Bastard
Denmark M. Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR GT3 16

+16.161

2'08.429

1.199 154.535
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