Getting back on the front foot of the FIA World Endurance Championship, Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus finished the practice sessions taking the fastest lap of the 1,000 Miles of Sebring.
It had looked to be another fastest session for Alpine Elf Matmut with the sole LMP1 car on the grid as Nicolas Lapierre lead most of the hour. He started by putting the benchmark at 1:50.293 before becoming the second driver to dip below the 1m50s lap time setting a 1:49.664. No one looked like they had anything to beat that lap time throughout most of the final practice session.
It was Olivier Pla who took the session fastest and fastest lap set so far this weekend in the Glickenhaus, setting a 1:49.261 with twenty minutes left on the clock. As much as the other drivers tried, no one could get anywhere near that time, with the closest being Lapierre four tenths down.
Before Pla’s stellar lap time, it had been a battle of the LMP2s to take second overall. Antonio Felix da Costa showed that JOTA were here for the fight putting in a strong 1:49.980, but he was beat by one of the class favourites Filipe Alberquerque in the #22 United Autosports who’s time got him just eight hundredths off the then benchmark of Lapierre. Alberquerque and da Costa dropped to third and fourth overall, first and second in class, when Pla set his lap time.
Toyota Gazoo Racing came out of the final practice session looking like the Hypercar team on the backfoot. They are now the only cars from the front-running class that has failed to set a sub 1m50s lap time during practice, now being out paced by some of the LMP2 cars. The #8 crew were, once again, faster than the #7, taking fifth with their 1:50.169, but the LMP2 #23 United Autosports and #83 AF Corse split the Toyota pair, adding more woes to the #7 team’s opening race weekend. Toyota certainly do not go into qualifying as the favourites and will be lucky to outqualify some of the LMP2 cars if their practice pace is to be taken into account.
With United Autosports taking a one-three and AF Corse fourth in class, the second JOTA #28 and the Richard Mille Racing car with Sebastien Ogier on board rounded off the overall top ten, fifth and sixth in class respectively.
Credit: FIA World Endurance Championship
It was a clean sweep for GTE Pro favourites Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen who go into qualifying having set the fastest lap time in all three practice sessions. The sister #91 Porsche GT Team looked like it might take the top sport in free practice three, but a great lap from Christensen halfway through the session saw him set a 1:57.448, outpacing Gianmaria Bruni by two tenths of a second.
The gap between Porsche and the rest of the GTE Pro grid grew substantially this session, with third-placed Corvette Racing a second down on the fastest class lap time. Ferrari have bridged the gap slightly to Corvette, with James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi only four tenths off the American team and with only one GTE Am car separating them on the timing board. This time it was Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco who suffered in the #52; although they did break the two minute lap time, setting a 1:59.837, they were eight tenths off the sister Ferrari and 29th in the overall standings.
As the pattern has shown through the practice sessions, Porsche took the fastest lap once again in Am showing Balance of Performance (BoP) is certainly in their favour this weekend. Team Project 1 #46 was top of the timing screen with a 1:58.776, followed by other Porsche running #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing. Paul Dalla Lana, David Pittard and Nicki Thiim kept their Aston Martin in the running, less than a tenth off the time set by the Dempsey-Proton team.
Ferrari are looking like they will struggle in qualifying, with Porsche remaining strong as favourites to take Pro and Am pole position. United Autosports ar to be strongest in LMP2, whilst we could have a battle between Alpine and Glickenhaus for overall pole position as Toyota are still on the hunt for that little bit more pace. It’s safe to say qualifying for the 1,000 Miles of Sebring is going to be anything but straightforward and promises to bring some intense battles ahead of tomorrow’s race.
GTE qualifying gets underway 23:00 GMT for twenty minutes, followed immediately by the LMP session.