WEC Sebring: Toyotas lead Ferrari, Cadillac in interrupted second practice

Brendon Hartley set the benchmark time of 1m47.272s early in the one-hour session aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID, before Kamui Kobayashi lapped three tenths quicker soon after to record 1m46.954s in the sister #7 car.

That lap time proved to be the fastest of the entire week so far, ahead of Friday’s Sebring 1000 Miles.

Antonio Fuoco’s #50 Ferrari was best of the rest in third, setting 1m48.121s in the closing stages to pip Richard Westbrook in the sole Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh, whose 1m48.265s was over a second off the pace of the Toyota duo.

The session was red flagged after 10 minutes, following a clash between Westbrook and Ryan Hardwick’s GTE Am Proton Porsche at Turn 7, which sent the 911 into the tyrewall. That removed 12 minutes from the available running time while the incident was cleared up and was under investigation by the stewards.

James Calado was fifth quickest in the sister Ferrari 499P, which is making its debut in Sebring, ahead of Olivier Pla’s Glickenhaus 007, which was 2.7s off the pace.

The best Porsche Penske Motorsport 963 LMDh was Fred Makowiecki’s #5 car, but it was almost 3s off the pace. The fastest Peugeot 9X8, meanwhile, was slower than the quickest LMP2 car in ninth overall.

A second, much shorter, red flag was required for Takashi Kimura's Ferrari spinning to a halt at Turn 3.

#28 Jota Oreca 07 - Gibson: David Heinemeier Hansson, Pietro Fittipaldi, Oliver Rasmussen (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

In LMP2, Pietro Fittipaldi led the way by setting 1m50.806s in the opening minutes in his #28 Jota ORECA-Gibson 07, and then extended his advantage with 1m50.326s.

That was almost four tenths clear of the closely matched United Autosports cars, which were just 0.007s apart.

GTE Am proved to be highly competitive with Alessio Picariello (Iron Lynx Porsche 911) leading in the early stages on 1m59.160s, beaten first by Casper Stevenson (D’Station Aston Martin) and then Nicky Catsburg (Corvette) and, eventually, Daniel Serra (Kessel Racing Ferrari 488) who set 1m58.845s.

Third free practice begins at 11:55 local time at Sebring on Thursday. 

WEC Sebring - FP2 results:

Cla	#	Drivers		Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez		Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'46.954
2	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa		Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	1'47.272	0.318
3	50	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen		Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	1'48.121	1.167
4	2	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook		Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	1'48.265	1.311
5	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi		Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	1'48.606	1.652
6	708	Romain Dumas Ryan Briscoe Olivier Pla		Glickenhaus 007	HYPERCAR	1'49.700	2.746
7	5	Dane Cameron Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki		Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	1'49.782	2.828
8	28	David Heinemeier Hansson Pietro Fittipaldi Oliver Rasmussen		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.326	3.372
9	94	Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller		Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	1'50.378	3.424
10	22	Frederick Lubin Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.701	3.747
11	23	Josh Pierson Tom Blomqvist Oliver Jarvis		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.708	3.754
12	48	David Beckmann Ye Yifei Will Stevens		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.827	3.873
13	10	Ryan Cullen Matthias Kaiser Gabriel Aubry		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.902	3.948
14	93	Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne		Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	1'50.914	3.960
15	41	Rui Andrade Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.918	3.964
16	6	Kevin Estre Andre Lotterer Laurens Vanthoor		Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	1'51.060	4.106
17	36	Matthieu Vaxiviere Julien Canal Charles Milesi		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.229	4.275
18	35	Andre Negrao Memo Rojas Olli Caldwell		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.415	4.461
19	4	Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri Jacques Villeneuve		Vanwall Vandervell 680	HYPERCAR	1'51.524	4.570
20	9	Filip Ugran Bent Viscaal Andrea Caldarelli		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.722	4.768
21	34	Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Albert Costa		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'52.144	5.190
22	63	Doriane Pin Mirko Bortolotti Daniil Kvyat		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'52.457	5.503
23	31	Sean Gelael Ferdinand Habsburg Robin Frijns		Oreca 07	LMP2	1'52.819	5.865
24	57	Takeshi Kimura Scott Huffaker Daniel Serra		Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'58.845	11.891
25	33	Ben Keating Nicolas Varrone Nick Catsburg		Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE AM	1'59.122	12.168
26	777	Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson Tomonobu Fujii		Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'59.156	12.202
27	60	Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Alessio Picariello		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'59.160	12.206
28	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon		Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'59.191	12.237
29	86	Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'59.331	12.377
30	21	Stefano Costantini Simon Mann Ulysse De		Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'59.496	12.542
31	77	Christian Ried Mikkel Pedersen Julien Andlauer		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	1'59.506	12.552
32	98	Paul Dalla Lana Axcil Jefferies Nicki Thiim		Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'59.689	12.735
33	83	Luis Perez Companc Lilou Wadoux Alessio Rovera		Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'00.011	13.057
34	25	Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charles Eastwood		Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'00.041	13.087
35	56	PJ Hyett Gunnar Jeannette Matteo Cairoli		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'00.080	13.126
36	85	Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Rahel Frey		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'00.186	13.232
37	88	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Harry Tincknell		Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	2'01.261	14.307
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