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Autosport
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Charles Bradley

WEC Sebring: Toyota dominates, Ferrari scores podium on debut

The #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez beat the sister #8 entry of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa at Sebring International Raceway’s WEC opener.

The #8 car led for the opening half of the race but the #7 took command after a particularly rapid out-lap from Lopez in the fifth hour, as Hirakawa took longer to get up to speed. Earlier, Hartley had just managed to hold his position at the front, even when he had to make two pitstops in rapid succession in the fourth hour, including one to top up on fuel under a full-course yellow.

The cars were just half a second apart with 90 minutes remaining, as Kobayashi and Buemi took over. But Buemi reported that his car became undrivable in traffic and fell away by over 10s as the race entered its final hour, which more than doubled after a slow final pitstop, meaning their battle was over and they cruised to a crushing 1-2.

Behind them – two laps in arrears – was a fierce battle for the final step on the podium. The #50 Ferrari 499P that Antonio Fuoco had qualified on pole position, led early on but a strategy decision to pit under an early safety car backfired.

He was hit with a drive-through at the restart and a further 5s penalty for not following correct procedure, while the #51 sister car suffered a further delay that dropped both into the middle of the Hypercar pack.

With two hours to go, Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 car clipped the #54 GTE Am Ferrari 488 of Francesco Castellacci at Turn 15, near the pit entry, and spun into the #56 Project 1 Porsche, smashing its left-rear corner – which Pier Guidi further damaged having to drag the car around on three wheels, sending it to the garage for 20 minutes.

#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Before that, the Ferraris had enjoyed some entertaining on-track battles with the pair of Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s and the single Cadillac V-Series.R, with the latter being delayed when Alex Lynn suffered a drive-through penalty for not respecting the FCY procedure at the end of hour 2.

The Cadillac – piloted by Lynn, Earl Bamber and Richard Westbrook – just missed out on a podium finish, and chased home the #50 Ferrari of Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, which gave Ferrari a podium finish in the car’s first start.

The Porsche 963s finished a distant fifth and sixth, another two laps down, with the #6 of Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor aided in the intra-team battle when the #5 of Dane Cameron, Michael Christensen and Frederic Makowiecki earned a drive-through penalty for an FCY infringement. But an electrical system reset with an hour remaining switched their places back, so the #5 prevailed.

Peugeot suffered a disastrous race, with a number of technical issues consigning both 9X8 LMH cars behind the wall for prolonged periods. The #94 entry encountered a gear-shifting issue at the very start of the race, with further high-voltage energy store issues later on putting the car shared by Loic Duval, Gustavo Menezes and Nico Muller in the garage for several hours.

The #93 sister car also had a troubled run, with an incident between Mikkel Jensen and the Vanwall Vandervell 680 of Esteban Guerrieri compounding the misery of the French marque. Jensen was caught out when Guerrieri slowed down in response to a FCY period at the end of hour 3, spinning as a result.

The sole Vanwall picked up a puncture in the process and had to pit immediately, but its hitherto untroubled run was spoiled when Jacques Villeneuve suffered a wild spin at Sunset Corner due to a suspension failure, and the former Formula 1 world champion was forced to crab back to the pits. But, after repairs, the Vanwall recovered to beat the factory-run Peugeots.

The sole Glickenhaus retired from the race after Romain Dumas stopped on track at Turn 17 in the second hour with an electrical issue.

#48 Hertz Team Jota Oreca 07 - Gibson: David Beckmann, Yifei Ye, William Stevens (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Bizarre United Autosports TV camera issue hands LMP2 win to Jota

Oliver Jarvis led the early part of the race after qualifying the #23 United Autosports car on pole position, with Joshua Pierson carrying on his team-mate’s good work after being put in the driver's seat at the end of the second hour.

But Pierson’s ORECA-Gibson 07 suddenly crawled to a halt in the fourth hour, ending the #23 crew’s hopes of repeating their Sebring victory from 12 months ago. United reported that the electric failure was “caused by an in-car TV camera fixture”.

That handed the class lead to the #48 Jota of David Beckmann, Will Stevens and Yifei Ye, which is the car that the team is running while it waits for its customer Porsche 963 LMDh to be delivered - and duly isn’t registered for points in LMP2.

But the #48 was off-strategy to the #63 Prema car of Doriane Pin, Mirko Bortolotti and Daniil Kvyat, and looked to have given up victory with just over 10 minutes remaining as it needed to pit for fuel. But the Prema car also had to stop a few laps later, so Jota retook the position and the win with just three minutes remaining.

#33 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R: Ben Keating, Nicolas Varrone, Nicky Catsburg (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Corvette wins GTE Am after Iron Dames drama

Corvette scored victory on home turf in GTE Am, with Ben Keating, Nicky Catsburg and Nicolas Varrone enjoying a flawless race in their #33 C8.R.

The Corvette was handed the lead when the #85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 of Rahel Frey went wide over the kerbs at the exit of Turn 1, with the impact breaking apart the car's entire rear bodywork that needed replacing. That undid all the great work done by Sarah Bovy across the opening stints, which included a brilliantly-timed pitstop before an FCY that gave the car its considerable lead.

Dempsey-Proton’s Porsche finished a lap down in second, ahead of Kessel Racing’s #57 Ferrari, which needed a late stop for fuel which gave away the runner-up spot.

There was a major crash for Richard Mille driver Luis Perez Companc in the opening hour of the race, with the Argentine’s #83 Ferrari rolling upside down after going wide at Turn 1 and smashing into the barriers.

WEC Sebring 1000 miles - Race results

Cla # Drivers Car Class Laps Time
1 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 239 -
2 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Japan Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid HYPERCAR 239 2.168
3 50 Italy Antonio Fuoco
Spain Miguel Molina
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Ferrari 499P HYPERCAR 237 2 laps
4 2 New Zealand Earl Bamber
United Kingdom Alex Lynn
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
Cadillac V-Series.R HYPERCAR 237 2 laps
5 5 United States Dane Cameron
Denmark Michael Christensen
France Frédéric Makowiecki
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 235 4 laps
6 6 France Kevin Estre
Germany Andre Lotterer
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
Porsche 963 HYPERCAR 235 4 laps
7 48 Germany David Beckmann
China Ye Yifei
United Kingdom Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 230 9 laps
8 22 Frederick Lubin
United Kingdom Philip Hanson
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
Oreca 07 LMP2 230 9 laps
9 63 France Doriane Pin
Italy Mirko Bortolotti
Russian Federation Daniil Kvyat
Oreca 07 LMP2 230 9 laps
10 34 Poland Jakub Smiechowski
Switzerland Fabio Scherer
Spain Albert Costa
Oreca 07 LMP2 230 9 laps
11 41 Portugal Rui Andrade
Poland Robert Kubica
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
Oreca 07 LMP2 230 9 laps
12 28 Denmark David Heinemeier Hansson
Brazil Pietro Fittipaldi
Denmark Oliver Rasmussen
Oreca 07 LMP2 230 9 laps
13 31 Indonesia Sean Gelael
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
Netherlands Robin Frijns
Oreca 07 LMP2 230 9 laps
14 9 Filip Ugran
Netherlands Bent Viscaal
Italy Andrea Caldarelli
Oreca 07 LMP2 229 10 laps
15 51 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
Ferrari 499P HYPERCAR 228 11 laps
16 36 France Matthieu Vaxiviere
France Julien Canal
France Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 LMP2 228 11 laps
17 33 United States Ben Keating
Nicolas Varrone
Netherlands Nick Catsburg
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE AM 221 18 laps
18 77 Germany Christian Ried
Mikkel Pedersen
France Julien Andlauer
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 219 20 laps
19 57 Japan Takeshi Kimura
United States Scott Huffaker
Brazil Daniel Serra
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 219 20 laps
20 21 Italy Stefano Costantini
France Simon Mann
Ulysse De
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 219 20 laps
21 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
Italy Davide Rigon
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 219 20 laps
22 60 Italy Claudio Schiavoni
Italy Matteo Cressoni
Belgium Alessio Picariello
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 219 20 laps
23 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
Italy Riccardo Pera
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 218 21 laps
24 85 Belgium Sarah Bovy
Denmark Michelle Gatting
Switzerland Rahel Frey
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 218 21 laps
25 10 Ireland Ryan Cullen
Matthias Kaiser
France Gabriel Aubry
Oreca 07 LMP2 218 21 laps
26 25 United Kingdom Ahmad Al Harthy
Michael Dinan
Ireland Charles Eastwood
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 217 22 laps
27 777 Japan Satoshi Hoshino
Casper Stevenson
Japan Tomonobu Fujii
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 217 22 laps
28 98 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
Zimbabwe Axcil Jefferies
Denmark Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 216 23 laps
29 56 PJ Hyett
United States Gunnar Jeannette
Italy Matteo Cairoli
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE AM 215 24 laps
30 4 France Tom Dillmann
Argentina Esteban Guerrieri
Canada Jacques Villeneuve
Vanwall Vandervell 680 HYPERCAR 215 24 laps
31 93 United Kingdom Paul di Resta
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
France Jean-Eric Vergne
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 213 26 laps
32 94 France Loic Duval
United States Gustavo Menezes
Switzerland Nico Müller
Peugeot 9X8 HYPERCAR 141 98 laps
33 35 Brazil Andre Negrao
Mexico Memo Rojas
United Kingdom Olli Caldwell
Oreca 07 LMP2 139 100 laps
34 23 United States Josh Pierson
United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
Oreca 07 LMP2 91 148 laps
35 708 France Romain Dumas
Australia Ryan Briscoe
France Olivier Pla
Glickenhaus 007 HYPERCAR 62 177 laps
36 83 Argentina Luis Perez Companc
France Lilou Wadoux
Italy Alessio Rovera
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 4 235 laps
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