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Motorsport
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Jamie Klein

WEC Sebring 1000 Miles: Alpine beats Glickenhaus to pole

Watch the entire WEC 1000 Miles of Sebring race live on Motorsport.tv (geo-restrictions may apply).

It was Nicolas Lapierre that set the benchmark time aboard the #36 Alpine A480-Gibson grandfathered LMP1 car, the Frenchman setting a 1m47.407s to take the French marque's first pole since last year's Portimao round.

"It was a clean lap, no traffic, the car was fantastic tonight," said Lapierre. "We did a good adjustment on the setup and the car was really nice to drive."

Lapierre's time was 1.3 seconds faster than compatriot Olivier Pla's best effort of 1m48.741s aboard the #708 Glickenhaus 007 LMH in second.

Third-quickest was best of the LMP2 runners, with Nicklas Nielsen posting a sensational time of 1m49.014s aboard the Pro/Am-entered AF Corse Oreca 07-Gibson to grab class pole and third overall.

That was enough to shade the quicker of the two Toyota GR010 Hybrids, the #8 car of Brendon Hartley, by a little under two tenths.

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

The sister #7 Toyota languished down in seventh overall behind two more LMP2 runners, the two United Autosports cars.

Jose Maria Lopez's best effort aboard the #7 was a 1m49.581s, putting him behind both the #22 United car of Filipe Albuquerque and the #23 machine of Paul di Resta.

Fourth in LMP2 and eighth overall was the best of the WRT machines driven by Rene Rast, followed by the sister Realteam by WRT car of Ferdinand Habsburg and Robert Kubica in the Prema Oreca.

Dane Cameron set the ninth-fastest time in class aboard the Penske Oreca to put the American squad 13th on the grid for its WEC debut.

The 10-minute Hypercar/LMP2 session came to an early end following a shunt for Fabio Scherer, who is standing in for a COVID-positive Alex Brundle at the Inter Europol Competition LMP2 squad.

GTE: Porsche locks out front row

In the GTE Pro class, Porsche's pair of factory 911 RSR-19s swept the top two positions, with the #92 car of Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre securing pole.

 

Christensen left it until the very end of the 10-minute GTE session to post his best time of 1m57.233s to usurp his opposite number in the #91 Porsche, Gianmaria Bruni, by 0.150s.

Best of the rest was the solo Corvette C8.R driven by Nick Tandy, 0.463s off the pace.

The AF Corse-run works Ferrari 488 GTE Evos propped up the class order, with both James Calado (#51) and team newcomer Antonio Fuoco (#52) setting times slower than the GTE Am pole-sitting TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage.

Ben Keating set a best time of 1m59.204s to grab Am pole, well over a second ahead of Paul Dalla Lana in the NorthWest AMR car. Third-fastest was Brendan Iribe in the #56 Project 1 Porsche.

The sister #46 Project 1 car caused a brief red flag period courtesy of an off for Nicolas Leutwiler.

Hypercar/LMP2 qualifying times:

Cla # Drivers Car Class Avg Time Gap
1 36 Brazil Andre Negrao
France Nicolas Lapierre
France Matthieu Vaxiviere
Alpine A480 HYPERCAR 1'47.407  
2 708 France Olivier Pla
France Romain Dumas
Australia Ryan Briscoe
Glickenhaus 007 LMH HYPERCAR 1'48.741 1.334
3 83 France François Perrodo
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Italy Alessio Rovera
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'49.014 1.607
4 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Japan Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'49.217 1.810
5 22 United Kingdom Philip Hanson
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
United States Will Owen
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'49.388 1.981
6 23 United Kingdom Paul di Resta
United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
United States Josh Pierson
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'49.510 2.103
7 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 1'49.581 2.174
8 31 Indonesia Sean Gelael
Netherlands Robin Frijns
Germany René Rast
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'49.670 2.263
9 41 Portugal Rui Andrade
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
France Norman Nato
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'49.688 2.281
10 9 Poland Robert Kubica
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
Italy Lorenzo Colombo
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.057 2.650
11 28 Denmark Oliver Rasmussen
United Arab Emirates Ed Jones
South Africa Jonathan Aberdein
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.178 2.771
12 38 Mexico Roberto Gonzalez
Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa
United Kingdom Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.596 3.189
13 5 United States Dane Cameron
France Emmanuel Collard
Brazil Felipe Nasr
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.629 3.222
14 1 France Lilou Wadoux
France Sébastien Ogier
France Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.916 3.509
15 35 France Jean Baptiste Lahaye
France Matthieu Lahaye
France François Heriau
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.954 3.547
16 10 Switzerland Nico Müller
Ireland Ryan Cullen
Germany Mike Rockenfeller
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.955 3.548
17 44 Slovakia Miro Konopka
Switzerland Mathias Beche
Netherlands Tijmen van der Helm
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.182 3.775
18 45 United States Steven Thomas
Australia James Allen
Austria Rene Binder
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.332 3.925
19 34 Poland Jakub Smiechowski
Switzerland Fabio Scherer
Mexico Esteban Gutierrez
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.872 4.465

GTE qualifying times:

Cla # Drivers Car Class Avg Time Gap
1 92 Denmark Michael Christensen
France Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'57.233  
2 91 Italy Gianmaria Bruni
Austria Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 1'57.383 0.150
3 64 United States Tommy Milner
United Kingdom Nick Tandy
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE PRO 1'57.696 0.463
4 33 United States Ben Keating
France Florian Latorre
Denmark Marco Sorensen
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 1'59.204 1.971
5 51 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'59.299 2.066
6 52 Spain Miguel Molina
Italy Antonio Fuoco
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'59.388 2.155
7 98 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
United Kingdom David Pittard
Denmark Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'00.570 3.337
8 56 United States Brendan Iribe
United Kingdom Ollie Millroy
United Kingdom Ben Barnicoat
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'00.649 3.416
9 85 Switzerland Rahel Frey
Denmark Michelle Gatting
Belgium Sarah Bovy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'01.140 3.907
10 777 Japan Satoshi Hoshino
Japan Tomonobu Fujii
United Kingdom Charlie Fagg
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'01.379 4.146
11 77 Germany Christian Ried
United Kingdom Sebastian Priaulx
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'02.079 4.846
12 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
New Zealand Nick Cassidy
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'02.264 5.031
13 71 France Franck Dezoteux
France Pierre Ragues
France Gabriel Aubry
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'02.800 5.567
14 21 France Simon Mann
Switzerland Christoph Ulrich
Finland Toni Vilander
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'03.116 5.883
15 88 United States Fred Poordad
United States Patrick Lindsey
France Julien Andlauer
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 2'03.560 6.327
16 60 Italy Claudio Schiavoni
Italy Matteo Cressoni
Italy Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'03.726 6.493
17 46 Italy Matteo Cairoli
Denmark Mikkel Pedersen
Switzerland Nicolas Leutwiler
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM    
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