Sebring Test day 2: Times continue to tumble as WEC testing concludes
The second and final day of unofficial WEC testing at Sebring Raceway is now over and lap times have continued to tumble in all four classes of WEC competition.
There is a familiar look to the prototype time sheets with Toyota Gazoo Racing and TDS Racing at the top of LMP1 and LMP2, while in the GTE classes, Porsche and Clearwater Racing led the way in Pro and Am respectively.
The second and final day of unofficial WEC testing at Sebring Raceway is now over and there is a familiar look to the prototype time sheets with Toyota Gazoo Racing and TDS Racing at the top of LMP1 and LMP2 respectively. In the GTE classes, Porsche and Clearwater Racing led the way in Pro and Am respectively.
After a slightly delayed start to testing this morning due to fog around Sebring Raceway, Toyota Gazoo Racing’s Mike Conway went on to demonstrate once again how much he loves racing in the USA! The Briton further lowered the unofficial track record in the No.7 Toyota TS050 HYBRID with a lap of 1:41.152.
Also improving during this afternoon was the No.28 TDS Racing ORECA 07 Gibson in the hands of Loïc Duval, 1:47.642, while this morning Nyck de Vries in the No.29 Racing Team Nederland Dallara P217 – Gibson set the time to beat in LMP2 with a great lap of 1:47.086.
Porsche GT Team’s Richard Lietz in the No.91 911 RSR stopped the clocks at 1:57.302 this afternoon improving on yesterday’s fastest time by a second, but there was little to choose between the GTE Pro manufacturers with Ferrari, Ford and BMW close behind.
In LMGTE Am the newly re-liveried No.61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari 488 GTE put in a quick lap in the latter stages of the afternoon session with Matt Griffin at the wheel, but it was Matteo Cairoli in the No.88 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR which claimed the fastest GTE Am lap of the day (1:58.707).
In the only serious incident over the last two days, the No.56 Team Project 1 entry suffered an onboard fire one hour into Sunday’s morning test session. The damage to the LMGTE Am class leading Porsche 911 RSR, driven at the time by Jörg Bergmeister who swiftly exited from the car without injury, was extensive and the German team is now waiting for a replacement chassis to be delivered for the 1000 Miles of Sebring event.
The next session for the WEC cars will be Free Practice 1 on Wednesday, 13 March for the start of official track action as part of the joint WEC/IMSA Super Sebring weekend. The 1000 Miles of Sebring will take begin at 4:00 pm (local time) on Friday, 15 March and will run for approximately 8 hours.
