WEC: Glickenhaus and Alpine share top spots in Sebring’s practice sessions

WEC: Glickenhaus and Alpine share top spots in Sebring’s practice sessions

Glickenhaus driver Romain Dumas topped the first official practice session of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship, while a last lap flyer from Matthieu Vaxiviere eclipsed teammate Andre Negrao’s earlier time to ensure Alpine consolidate the top position in the second of today’s practice sessions.

FP1: Dumas Quickest for Glickenhaus; Estre Tops Times for Porsche

Hypercar

  • Romain Dumas set his best time of 1m49.738s just before rain fell at Sebring Raceway with 20 minutes of the session left
  • Sebstien Buemi had set early benchmark with a 1m50.267s lap in No.7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercar but saw both the Glickenhaus and then the Alpine ELF Team entry push him down to third
  • Matthieu Vaxiviere lapped the Alpine A480-Alpine 0.565s shy of Dumas’ best time to place second in Hypercar category

LMGTE Pro

  • Kevin Estre tops LMGTE Pro with an early session best lap of 1m58.827s in the No.92 Porsche 911 RSR
  • Estre edges stablemates, Gianmaria Bruni and Richard Lietz, in No.91 Porsche by just 0.054s
  • Corvette Racing place third as they prepare for their first ever full WEC season. Tommy Milner sets best lap of 1m59.839s
  • Reigning champions, AF Corse Ferrari’s James Calado and Alesandro PierGuidi are fourth ahead of the No.52 car driven this season by Miguel Molina and new Ferrari factory young gun, Antonio Fuoco

LMP2

  • Real Team by WRT head LMP2 as the class enters its most competitive season ever
  • Ferdinand Habsburg peaks with a 1m50.477s, which is one of two laps he sets that was good enough for P1
  • Habsburg’s best time is 0.5s ahead of the Prema Orlen Team as it makes its WEC debut this weekend. Louis Deletraz sets the best lap of 1m51.068s
  • Third in LMP2 is the No.23 United Autosports USA Oreca-Gibson with Paul di Resta, standing in for Alex Lynn this weekend, claiming the best time of 1m51.218s

LMGTE Am

  • Team Project 1’s Matteo Cairoli leads class with a best time set in early stages of 1m58.906
  • This proves to be just under a second faster than the No.99 Dempsey Proton Porsche driven by Julien Andlauer
  • Aston Martin deny a Porsche clean sweep as Nicki Thiim laps in 2m00.253s in Northwest AMR Vantage

FP2: Vaxiviere Quickest for Alpine; Porsche on top again in LMGTE Pro

Hypercar 

  • Matthieu Vaxiviere continues fine form with a late 1m50.512s lap to take fastest time of session for Les Bleues 
  • Earlier Andre Negrao took the Alpine A480-Alpine to the top of the timing screens by setting best lap of the session with a 1m50.845s 
  • No.8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid places second in session 
  • But Brendon Hartley’s time is struck off for speeding in pitlane, although his next best time of 1m51.380s is still good enough for second place 
  • No.7 Toyota takes third in session with a 1m51.503s best set by Jose-Maria Lopez 
  • Contact between Mike Conway’s No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid and the No. 28 JOTA Oreca 07 Gibson of Jonathan Aberdein at Turn 1 resulted in a yellow flag with less than 15 minutes in the session.
  • Glickenhaus placed fourth in Hypercar after missing first half of 60-minute session 

LMGTE Pro 

  • Michael Christensen leads the LMGTE Pro class after setting best time of 1m58.488s in the No.92 Porsche 911 RSR 
  • Corvette Racing second as Nick Tandy posts a 1m58.580 to get within 0.092s of the Porsche 
  • A 1m58.889s lap by Richard Lietz ensures that the top three in class are separated by less than 0.5s 
  • AF Corse Ferraris placed fourth and fifth in LMGTE Pro as No.51 488 GTE Evo laps narrowly quicker than the sister No.52 car 

LMP2  

  • United Autosports USA place 1-2 in LMP2 as a late time by Paul di Resta just beats sister car by 0.018s 
  • Di Resta’s 1m51.040s lap just shades the early time set by the No.22 United Autosports USA car with Filipe Albuquerque stopping the clocks on 1m51.058 
  • Real Team by WRT takes third place with Ferdinand Habsburg again claiming fastest lap on a 1m51.244s 
  • Robert Kubica places the Prema Orlen Team LMP2 car in fourth position after peaking with a bets lap of 1m51.395s 
  • Top four in LMP2 covered by just 0.4s 

LMGTE Am  

  • Aston Martin fastest as David Pittard laps in 2m00.029s in Northwest AMR Vantage 
  • No.77 Dempsey Proton Porsche takes second as Harry Tincknell manages an early session 2m00.181s 
  • No.56 Team Project 1 Porsche is third as Ben Barnicoat set fastest time of 2m00.367s 

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