WEC: Vaxiviere Quickest for Alpine in Sebring 2nd Practice
The first official track sessions of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship got underway today (Wednesday), to start the countdown to the opening round of the season, the 1000 Miles of Sebring.
After LMP2 cars set the pace in the Prologue pre-season test sessions, the senior Hypercar entrants began to assert their authority. Fastest in the morning session was the Glickenhaus 007 driven by double 24 Hours of Le Mans winner and former WEC champion Romain Dumas, who set a time of 1m49.738s.
The afternoon session saw the Alpine Elf Team to the fore with the fastest time of 1m50.512s being set by Matthieu Vaxiviere. The defending WEC champions at Toyota Gazoo Racing had struggled for pace in the Prologue but were contending for the top of the timesheets throughout the day.
The #36 Alpine A40 Gibson Hypercar of Andre Negrao topped the second 60 minute Wednesday Free Practice session ahead of the FIA WEC’s season-opening 1000 Miles of Sebring.
Negrao’s best effort of 1:50.845 was over half a second clear of the best of the rest of the Hypercar entry, this the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.
Between the pair though were no fewer than three LMP2 runners with Paul di Resta less than two tenths off the Alpine in his #23 United Autosports Oreca, edging out the sister #22 United car by less than two hundredths of a second.
The #41 RealTeam by WRT Oreca also led the Toyota, 4th fastest overall.
The remaining pair of Hypercars were 8th (#7 Toyota) and 14th #708 Glickenhaus.
The Porsche GT Team’s number 92 car took a clean sweep of fastest times in the manufacturer-backed LMGTE Pro class. Kevin Estre set a time of 1m58.827s to go top of the opening session and team-mate Michael Christensen lowered the bar to 1m58.488s in a session when the Porsches and their new season-long challenger, the Corvette Racing team, were within half a second of each other.
Michael Christensen was fastest in the #92 Porsche (1:58.488), under a tenth of a second ahead of Nick Tandy in the #64 Corvette Racing C8.R, the Corvette splitting the two factory Porsches.
Porsche drivers also topped the timesheets in the opening session for the LMGTE Am class, with Team Project 1 driver Matteo Cairoli setting a lap of 1m58.906s, but in the second session it was the Northwest AMR team’s Aston Martin that held sway with a time of 2m00.029s.
There were two cautions in the session, the first for an on-track issue for the #45 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca, the car though made it back to pit lane.
There was trouble too between the #7. Toyota GR010 of Mike Conway and the #28 JOTA Oreca of Jonathan Aberdein in the last few minutes of the session, the pair coming into contact at Turn One with a post session investigation signalled by race control.
Practice 2 Results
| Pos | Team | Drivers | No. | Laps | Time | Behind | Gap |
| 1ST | Alpine Elf Team | Negrão A. Lapierre N. Vaxiviere M. | #36 | 26 | 1:50.512 | – | – |
| 2ND | United Autosports USA | Di Resta P. Jarvis O. Pierson J. | #23 | 24 | 1:51.040 | +0.528 | +0.528 |
| 3RD | United Autosports USA | Hanson P. Albuquerque F. Owen W. | #22 | 21 | 1:51.058 | +0.546 | +0.018 |
| 4TH | Realteam By WRT | Andrade R. Habsburg F. Nato N. | #41 | 26 | 1:51.244 | +0.732 | +0.186 |
| 5TH | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Buemi S. Hartley B. Hirakawa R. | #8 | 28 | 1:51.380 | +0.868 | +0.136 |
| 6TH | Prema Orlen Team | Kubica R. Deletraz L. Colombo L. | #9 | 27 | 1:51.395 | +0.883 | +0.015 |
| 7TH | WRT | Gelael S. Frijns R. Rast R. | #31 | 25 | 1:51.446 | +0.934 | +0.051 |
| 8TH | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Conway M. Kobayashi K. Lopez J. | #7 | 24 | 1:51.503 | +0.991 | +0.057 |
| 9TH | JOTA | Gonzalez R. Felix Da Costa A. Stevens W. | #38 | 28 | 1:51.683 | +1.171 | +0.180 |
| 10TH | JOTA | Rasmussen O. Jones E. Aberdein J. | #28 | 23 | 1:51.783 | +1.271 | +0.100 |
| 11TH | Team Penske | Cameron D. Collard E. Nasr F. | #5 | 20 | 1:52.047 | +1.535 | +0.264 |
| 12TH | Ultimate | Lahaye J. Lahaye M. Heriau F. | #35 | 25 | 1:52.142 | +1.630 | +0.095 |
| 13TH | AF Corse | Perrodo F. Nielsen N. Rovera A. | #83 | 28 | 1:52.343 | +1.831 | +0.201 |
| 14TH | Glickenhaus Racing | Pla O. Dumas R. Briscoe R. | #708 | 15 | 1:52.479 | +1.967 | +0.136 |
| 15TH | Inter Europol Competition | Smiechowski J. Scherer F. Gutierrez E. | #34 | 21 | 1:52.752 | +2.240 | +0.273 |
| 16TH | Vector Sport | Müller N. Cullen R. Rockenfeller M. | #10 | 20 | 1:53.772 | +3.260 | +1.020 |
| 17TH | Richard Mille Racing Team | Wadoux L. Ogier S. Milesi C. | #1 | 27 | 1:53.976 | +3.464 | +0.204 |
| 18TH | Algarve Pro Racing | Thomas S. Allen J. Binder R. | #45 | 23 | 1:54.144 | +3.632 | +0.168 |
| 19TH | Arc Bratislava | Konopka M. Beche M. Van Der Helm T. | #44 | 22 | 1:56.085 | +5.573 | +1.941 |
| 20TH | Porsche Gt Team | Christensen M. Estre K. | #92 | 25 | 1:58.488 | +7.976 | +2.403 |
| 21ST | Corvette Racing | Milner T. Tandy N. | #64 | 24 | 1:58.580 | +8.068 | +0.092 |
| 22ND | Porsche Gt Team | Bruni G. Lietz R. | #91 | 27 | 1:58.889 | +8.377 | +0.309 |
| 23RD | Northwest Amr | Dalla Lana P. Pittard D. Thiim N. | #98 | 25 | 2:00.029 | +9.517 | +1.140 |
| 24TH | Dempsey – Proton Racing | Ried C. Priaulx S. Tincknell H. | #77 | 26 | 2:00.181 | +9.669 | +0.152 |
| 25TH | Team Project 1 | Iribe B. Millroy O. Barnicoat B. | #56 | 25 | 2:00.367 | +9.855 | +0.186 |
| 26TH | AF Corse | Molina M. Fuoco A. | #52 | 24 | 2:00.416 | +9.904 | +0.049 |
| 27TH | AF Corse | Mann S. Ulrich C. Vilander T. | #21 | 26 | 2:00.533 | +10.021 | +0.117 |
| 28TH | AF Corse | Pier Guidi A. Calado J. | #51 | 23 | 2:00.559 | +10.047 | +0.026 |
| 29TH | Spirit Of Race | Dezoteux F. Ragues P. Aubry G. | #71 | 24 | 2:00.621 | +10.109 | +0.062 |
| 30TH | Iron Lynx | Schiavoni C. Cressoni M. Fisichella G. | #60 | 26 | 2:00.866 | +10.354 | +0.245 |
| 31ST | TF Sport | Keating B. Latorre F. Sørensen M. | #33 | 25 | 2:01.143 | +10.631 | +0.277 |
| 32ND | D’station Racing | Hoshino S. Fujii T. Fagg C. | #777 | 25 | 2:01.424 | +10.912 | +0.281 |
| 33RD | Dempsey – Proton Racing | Poordad F. Lindsey P. Andlauer J. | #88 | 26 | 2:01.546 | +11.034 | +0.122 |
| 34TH | Iron Dames | Frey R. Gatting M. Bovy S. | #85 | 26 | 2:01.883 | +11.371 | +0.337 |
| 35TH | AF Corse | Flohr T. Castellacci F. Cassidy N. | #54 | 26 | 2:01.899 | +11.387 | +0.016 |
| 36TH | Team Project 1 | Cairoli M. Pedersen M. Leutwiler N. | #46 | 14 | 2:02.234 | +11.722 | +0.335 |
Wednesday Summary
Hypercar
- Romain Dumas set his best time of 1m49.738s just before rain fell at Sebring Raceway with 20 minutes of the session left
- Sebastien 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 Pier Guidi 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