Ryo Hirakawa knocked Ferrari driver James Calado off the top spot in the dying minutes of the one-hour Free Practice 1 session with a time more than half a second quicker than the Toyota Le Mans Hypercar managed in last weekend’s official pre-season Prologue test.
The Japanese driver’s 1m47.649s aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID compared to the 1m48.208s with which Jose Maria Lopez headed the times from the two-day official test that led into race week for Friday’s Sebring 1000 Miles.
Calado bounced back from an accident during the Prologue when he went quickest in the #51 Ferrari 499P 15 minutes into FP1.
He posted a 1m47.935s, which represented an improvement of 1.3s for the Ferrari LMH making its race debut in Sebring.
Miguel Molina put the #50 Ferrari third right at the end of the session when he got down to a 1m48.039s.
Earl Bamber found over three tenths on his Prologue best in the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh, getting down to a 1m49.090s to take fourth position.
The second Toyota ended up fifth in the when Lopez improved on Mike Conway’s previous best in the car by three tenths.
The Argentinian driver’s 1m48.613s gave him a one tenth margin over the best of the Porsche 963 LMDhs in sixth place.
Laurens Vanthoor’s 1m48.745s in the #6 Porsche Penske Motorsport entry was just a couple of tenths up on the 1m48.043s posted by Frederic Makowiecki in #5.
Peugeot took eighth and ninth position in the Hypercar class with its 9X8 as Loic Duval was quickest of the drivers in the French LMH with a 1m49.315s, which was on a par with team-mate Nico Muller’s best for the marque at the Prologue.
Jean-Eric Vergne was less than a tenth behind in the second Peugeot, while Olivier Pla took 10th position for Glickenhaus with a time four tenths up on the Pipo-engined 007 LMH’s Prologue best.
Esteban Guerrieri brought up the rear in the Vanwall-Gibson Vandervell 680 LMH.
Formula 1 world champion Jacques Villeneuve started the session in the car and improved by more than four seconds during his first long run in the Vanwall.
Prema led the way in LMP2, Mirko Bortolotti taking class honours in the #63 ORECA-Gibson 07.
The Italian’s 1m53.074s gave him a margin of more than two tenths over Robin Frijns in the best of the WRT ORECAs.
The Dutch driver’s 1m50.317s was just a hundredth up on the fastest lap from Andrea Caldarelli in the second Prema entry.
The United Autosport squad that headed the class order at the Prologue was sixth and seventh in the times with its pair of ORECAs, Oliver Jarvis ending up three tenths ahead of Phil Hanson.
Michelle Gatting was quickest in GTE Am in the Iron Dames Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.
Her 1m59.028s knocked Francesco Castellacci’ off the top of the times by a couple of hundredths.
Second free practice begins at 16:45 local time at Sebring.
WEC Sebring - FP1 results:
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 |
 Sébastien Buemi  Brendon Hartley  Ryo Hirakawa |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 1'47.649 | ||
| 2 | 51 |
 Alessandro Pier Guidi  James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi |
Ferrari 499P | HYPERCAR | 1'47.935 | 0.286 | |
| 3 | 50 |
Antonio Fuoco  Miguel Molina  Nicklas Nielsen |
Ferrari 499P | HYPERCAR | 1'48.039 | 0.390 | |
| 4 | 2 |
Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook |
Cadillac V-Series.R | HYPERCAR | 1'48.090 | 0.441 | |
| 5 | 7 |
Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi  Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 1'48.613 | 0.964 | |
| 6 | 6 |
 Kevin Estre  Andre Lotterer  Laurens Vanthoor |
Porsche 963 | HYPERCAR | 1'48.745 | 1.096 | |
| 7 | 5 |
 Dane Cameron Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 963 | HYPERCAR | 1'49.043 | 1.394 | |
| 8 | 94 |
Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller |
Peugeot 9X8 | HYPERCAR | 1'49.315 | 1.666 | |
| 9 | 93 |
Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne |
Peugeot 9X8 | HYPERCAR | 1'49.407 | 1.758 | |
| 10 | 63 |
Doriane Pin Mirko Bortolotti  Daniil Kvyat |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.074 | 2.425 | |
| 11 | 31 |
 Sean Gelael  Ferdinand Habsburg  Robin Frijns |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.317 | 2.668 | |
| 12 | 9 |
Filip Ugran Bent Viscaal Andrea Caldarelli |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.338 | 2.689 | |
| 13 | 28 |
David Heinemeier Hansson  Pietro Fittipaldi Oliver Rasmussen |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.349 | 2.700 | |
| 14 | 41 |
 Rui Andrade  Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.382 | 2.733 | |
| 15 | 23 |
Josh Pierson Tom Blomqvist Oliver Jarvis |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.459 | 2.810 | |
| 16 | 708 |
Romain Dumas  Ryan Briscoe Olivier Pla |
Glickenhaus 007 | HYPERCAR | M | ||
| 17 | 22 |
Frederick Lubin Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.765 | 3.116 | |
| 18 | 35 |
Andre Negrao  Memo Rojas Olli Caldwell |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.903 | 3.254 | |
| 19 | 36 |
Matthieu Vaxiviere Julien Canal Charles Milesi |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.013 | 3.364 | |
| 20 | 4 |
Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri  Jacques Villeneuve |
Vanwall Vandervell 680 | HYPERCAR | 1'51.014 | 3.365 | |
| 21 | 34 |
Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Albert Costa |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.095 | 3.446 | |
| 22 | 48 |
David Beckmann  Ye Yifei Will Stevens |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.524 | 3.875 | |
| 23 | 10 |
 Ryan Cullen Matthias Kaiser Gabriel Aubry |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.100 | 4.451 | |
| 24 | 85 |
Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Rahel Frey |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.028 | 11.379 | |
| 25 | 54 |
Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.053 | 11.404 | |
| 26 | 33 |
Ben Keating Nicolas Varrone Nick Catsburg |
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE AM | 1'59.101 | 11.452 | |
| 27 | 57 |
Takeshi Kimura Scott Huffaker Daniel Serra |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.123 | 11.474 | |
| 28 | 88 |
Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Harry Tincknell |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.128 | 11.479 | |
| 29 | 77 |
Christian Ried Mikkel Pedersen Julien Andlauer |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.274 | 11.625 | |
| 30 | 86 |
Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.295 | 11.646 | |
| 31 | 60 |
Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Alessio Picariello |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.334 | 11.685 | |
| 32 | 21 |
Stefano Costantini Simon Mann Ulysse De |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.393 | 11.744 | |
| 33 | 83 |
Luis Perez Companc Lilou Wadoux Alessio Rovera |
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.500 | 11.851 | |
| 34 | 777 |
Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson Tomonobu Fujii |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 1'59.603 | 11.954 | |
| 35 | 56 |
PJ Hyett Gunnar Jeannette Matteo Cairoli |
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.632 | 11.983 | |
| 36 | 25 |
Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charles Eastwood |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'00.053 | 12.404 | |
| 37 | 98 |
Paul Dalla Lana  Axcil Jefferies Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'00.458 | 12.809 | |
| View full results | |||||||
