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Jamie Klein

WEC Sebring: Ferrari beats Toyota to first pole of 2023

Antonio Fuoco set what turned out to be the benchmark time of 1m45.067s at the wheel of the quicker of the two brand-new Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercars, which are making their race debut this weekend.

Fuoco's lap in the #50 car, which he shares with Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, knocked the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley off provisional pole to the tune of almost three tenths of a second.

Hartley was able to shave almost a tenth off his best time to get down to a 1m45.281s, but Toyota had to admit defeat as the tyres went past their peak in the closing stages of the 15-minute Hypercar session.

Kamui Kobayashi was third-fastest in the #7 Toyota, 0.481s away from pole, ahead of the #51 Ferrari in which Alessandro Pier Guidi was eight tenths off the pace with a minor off at Turn 7.

 

Cadillac secured fifth on the grid with its solo Chip Ganassi Racing-run V.Series.R, Alex Lynn beating the two Porsche 963s to the honour of top LMDh runner.

Lynn spent the first part of the session in the pits with an apparent issue but managed to return to the track with six minutes remaining to set a 1m46.082s, which was over a second quicker than either Kevin Estre or Michael Christensen managed in their Porsches.

Peugeot was a disappointing eighth and ninth with its two 9X8 LMHs, the faster of which was 2.3s off the pace with Loic Duval at the wheel.

The sister #93 car of Mikkel Jensen briefly stopped on track at the start of the session before resuming.

Glickenhaus and Vanwall rounded out the 11-car Hypercar field, both over four seconds off the pace.

United Autosports, Iron Dames get class poles

Oliver Jarvis bagged LMP2 pole for United Autosports in the #23 ORECA 07-Gibson he shares with Tom Blomqvist and Josh Pierson.

A best time of 1m49.974s from Jarvis was enough to overhaul JOTA's full-season #28 ORECA of Pietro Fittipaldi by 0.093s.

The 12-car field was split between those cars that opted to change tyres midway through the 15-minute session and those that didn't, but the top two runners fell in the latter category.

WRT opted for mid-session pitstops for both cars, with the faster #31 car of Robin Frijns coming third ahead of the lead Alpine entry, the #36 car of Matthieu Vaxiviere, which likewise opted for a tyre change.

JOTA's #48 car, which is running at Sebring in place of the team's yet-to-be delivered Porsche 963, was fifth-fastest in the hands of Yifei Ye.

In GTE Am, the first pole of the new season went the way of the #85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Sarah Bovy, Rahel Frey and Michelle Gatting.

#85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR - 19: Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting, Rahel Frey (Photo by: Porsche Motorsport)

Bovy came out on top in an entertaining tussle with Corvette Racing's Ben Keating with a best lap of 1m58.949s, which was enough to beat the only C8.R in the field by 0.396s.

Third-fastest was the #25 TF Sport Aston Martin Vantage of Ahmad Al Harthy, while Luis Perez Companc ensured all four manufacturers were represented in the top four in the #83 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE.

The Sebring 1000 Miles starts on Friday at 12pm local time (GMT -5).

WEC Sebring - Hypercar qualifying results:

Cla # Drivers Car Time Gap
1 50 Italy Antonio Fuoco
Spain Miguel Molina
Denmark Nicklas Nielsen
Ferrari 499P 1'45.067  
2 8 Switzerland Sébastien Buemi
New Zealand Brendon Hartley
Japan Ryo Hirakawa
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 1'45.281 0.214
3 7 United Kingdom Mike Conway
Japan Kamui Kobayashi
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota GR010 - Hybrid 1'45.548 0.481
4 51 Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi
United Kingdom James Calado
Italy Antonio Giovinazzi
Ferrari 499P 1'45.874 0.807
5 2 New Zealand Earl Bamber
United Kingdom Alex Lynn
United Kingdom Richard Westbrook
Cadillac V-Series.R 1'46.082 1.015
6 6 France Kevin Estre
Germany Andre Lotterer
Belgium Laurens Vanthoor
Porsche 963 1'47.193 2.126
7 5 United States Dane Cameron
Denmark Michael Christensen
France Frédéric Makowiecki
Porsche 963 1'47.210 2.143
8 94 France Loic Duval
United States Gustavo Menezes
Switzerland Nico Müller
Peugeot 9X8 1'47.455 2.388
9 93 United Kingdom Paul di Resta
Denmark Mikkel Jensen
France Jean-Eric Vergne
Peugeot 9X8 1'48.205 3.138
10 708 France Romain Dumas
Australia Ryan Briscoe
France Olivier Pla
Glickenhaus 007 1'49.164 4.097
11 4 France Tom Dillmann
Argentina Esteban Guerrieri
Canada Jacques Villeneuve
Vanwall Vandervell 680 1'49.329 4.262

WEC Sebring - LMP2 qualifying results:

Cla # Drivers Car Avg Time Gap
1 23 United States Josh Pierson
United Kingdom Tom Blomqvist
United Kingdom Oliver Jarvis
Oreca 07 1'49.974  
2 28 Denmark David Heinemeier Hansson
Brazil Pietro Fittipaldi
Denmark Oliver Rasmussen
Oreca 07 1'50.067 0.093
3 31 Indonesia Sean Gelael
Austria Ferdinand Habsburg
Netherlands Robin Frijns
Oreca 07 1'50.155 0.181
4 36 France Matthieu Vaxiviere
France Julien Canal
France Charles Milesi
Oreca 07 1'50.174 0.200
5 48 Germany David Beckmann
China Ye Yifei
United Kingdom Will Stevens
Oreca 07 1'50.218 0.244
6 41 Portugal Rui Andrade
Poland Robert Kubica
Switzerland Louis Deletraz
Oreca 07 1'50.291 0.317
7 22 Frederick Lubin
United Kingdom Philip Hanson
Portugal Filipe Albuquerque
Oreca 07 1'50.408 0.434
8 9 Filip Ugran
Netherlands Bent Viscaal
Italy Andrea Caldarelli
Oreca 07 1'50.417 0.443
9 10 Ireland Ryan Cullen
Matthias Kaiser
France Gabriel Aubry
Oreca 07 1'50.710 0.736
10 63 France Doriane Pin
Italy Mirko Bortolotti
Russian Federation Daniil Kvyat
Oreca 07 1'50.726 0.752
11 34 Poland Jakub Smiechowski
Switzerland Fabio Scherer
Spain Albert Costa
Oreca 07 1'50.889 0.915
12 35 Brazil Andre Negrao
Mexico Memo Rojas
United Kingdom Olli Caldwell
Oreca 07 1'51.284 1.310

WEC Sebring - GTE Am qualifying results:

Cla # Drivers Car Avg Time Gap
1 85 Belgium Sarah Bovy
Denmark Michelle Gatting
Switzerland Rahel Frey
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 1'58.949  
2 33 United States Ben Keating
Nicolas Varrone
Netherlands Nick Catsburg
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R 1'59.345 0.396
3 25 United Kingdom Ahmad Al Harthy
Michael Dinan
Ireland Charles Eastwood
Aston Martin Vantage AMR 1'59.657 0.708
4 83 Argentina Luis Perez Companc
France Lilou Wadoux
Italy Alessio Rovera
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 1'59.733 0.784
5 21 Italy Stefano Costantini
France Simon Mann
Ulysse De
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 1'59.992 1.043
6 56 PJ Hyett
United States Gunnar Jeannette
Italy Matteo Cairoli
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 2'00.588 1.639
7 57 Japan Takeshi Kimura
United States Scott Huffaker
Brazil Daniel Serra
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 2'00.591 1.642
8 98 Canada Paul Dalla Lana
Zimbabwe Axcil Jefferies
Denmark Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR 2'00.807 1.858
9 777 Japan Satoshi Hoshino
Casper Stevenson
Japan Tomonobu Fujii
Aston Martin Vantage AMR 2'00.941 1.992
10 54 Switzerland Thomas Flohr
Italy Francesco Castellacci
Italy Davide Rigon
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO 2'01.041 2.092
11 77 Germany Christian Ried
Mikkel Pedersen
France Julien Andlauer
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 2'01.054 2.105
12 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright
Italy Riccardo Pera
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 2'02.588 3.639
13 60 Italy Claudio Schiavoni
Italy Matteo Cressoni
Belgium Alessio Picariello
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 2'02.820 3.871
14 88 United States Ryan Hardwick
Canada Zacharie Robichon
United Kingdom Harry Tincknell
Porsche 911 RSR - 19    
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