Alpine, United Autosports, AF Corse, Porsche-Manthey and NorthWest AMR are the winners of the 1000 Miglia di Sebring, the first event of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
It may have been the excitement for the start of the 2022 season, or the atmosphere of the ‘Super Sebring’ weekend that brings together the World Endurance series and the IMSA one, but the first race of the year gave twists to the last, fully respecting the style of an American show.
There were three interruptions in the past 8 hours, the last two of which due to a lightning storm and a downpour that hit the Florida track during the final 65 ‘.
Despite an attempt to restart with 45 ‘on the clock, the race direction called everyone to the pits to shelter from the deluge that gave no way to start racing again, putting an end to the hostilities.
The start of the Hypercar class
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
HYPERCAR
Having obtained the Pole Position in Qualifying, Alpine completed the work by triumphing for the first time since the Hypercar Class exists, using the old Oreca LMP1.
Despite the well-known problem of having a smaller fuel tank – and therefore forced to stop earlier and more times than the other cars in the category – Team Signatech’s A480 LMP1 # 36 driven without the slightest burr from Negrão / Lapierre / Vaxivière easily tax on the fearsome Toyota.
One of these gave it a hand by eliminating itself, curiously the GR010 Hybrid # 7 of the reigning champions Conway / Kobayashi / López, when the Argentine in the fourth hour came into contact with a Porsche GTE in the dubbing phase, banging and ruining the front.
Restarted, “Pechito” tried to reach the pits a little too quickly and at the next corner he arrived without brakes and steering, collapsing against the barriers and causing the interruption which, in fact, canceled the advantage that was at that moment. taking with the Toyota # 8.
Here the Alpine thanked and in the second part of the race took off again, while the Buemi / Hartley / Hirakawa trio had nothing left but to be satisfied with the place of honor.
As a partial excuse from the Japanese there is a Balance of Performance which denied the GR010 Hybrid to make the most of the four-wheel drive system, which can only be activated from 190km / h up, so something at the regulatory level will necessarily be revised for the next events.
In the home race the first World podium for the Glickenhaus arrives. Pla / Dumas / Briscoe’s 007 LMH # 708 started very well, but after a couple of hours it began to suffer from drops in performance and excessive tire wear.
These things, combined with a penalty arrived for lightness (overtaking under the Safety Car regime), sent the American car even further back, which in any case takes the satisfaction of the third step and the first WEC trophy placed on the bulletin board.
# 23 United Autosports Usa Oreca 07 – Gibson: Paul di Resta, Oliver Jarvis, Joshua Pierson
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
LMP2
As announced by the entry list and the many protagonists, the LMP2 Class showed that it was very open and fun this year, much more than in the past.
To center the victory between the Oreca 07-Gibson in the end is the # 23 of United Autosports (Di Resta / Pierson / Jarvis), deservedly given that for a long time it has played with the ‘twin’ # 22.
In the last few hours, however, there has been the great comeback of the two WRT Team cars. A return to the pits to top up petrol in the short Safety Car period between the last two red flags due to lightning risked dropping the # 41 of Habsburg / Andrade / Nato branded RealTeam from third to fifth place.
Considering the final classification on the lap preceding the interruption, in the end the Belgian team rejoices for the double with the # 31 of Gelael / Frijns / Rast to take home the second place followed by the # 41.
Too bad because the # 9 of Prema was also fighting for the podium, third with the excellent Kubica / Colombo / Delétraz, underlining the great performance at the debut of the young Lorenzo.
Fifth and sixth of the lot we find the two Jotas (# 38 by Gonzalez / Da Costa / Stevens and # 28 by Rasmussen / Jones / Aberdein), followed by United # 22 (Hanson / Albuquerque / Owen), among the great disappointments of the day , and from # 5 of Team Penske in the hands of Cameron / Collard / Nasr and just outside the absolute Top10.
A huge applause also goes to AF Corse, first in LMP2 Pro / Am with the great crew formed by Perrodo / Nielsen / Rovera. The guys from # 83 were perfect in this first prototype adventure, beating opponents from Ultimate (# 35 J.Lahaye / M.Lahaye / Heriau) and Algarve Pro Racing (# 45 Thomas / Allen / Binder), to complete the podium, from which the ARC Bratislava remains (# 44 Konôpka / Beche / Van Der Helm).
Fifteenth place overall and 11th LMP2 for the Richard Mille Racing Team (# 1 Ogier / Milesi / Wadoux), while chewing bitter Vector Sport and Inter Europol Competition.
# 92 Porsche GT Team Porsche 911 RSR – 19: Michael Christensen, Kevin Estre
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
LMGTE PRO
Porsche takes the first and third ops of the LMGTE PRO Class without too many worries. For long stretches, the 911 RSR-19s managed by the Manthey team showed their strength, but in the final the double win was lost at the hands of the Corvette.
Winning is the Estre / Christensen duo with # 92, while Bruni / Lietz (# 91) find themselves behind Tandy / Milner’s C8.R # 64. The Pratt & Miller standard bearers did well to take the opportunity to fit into the Weissach cars, also managing to lead in the central part of the race.
Unfortunately, the Ferrari-AF Corse World Champions were not part of the match. The 488s were clearly too penalized by the BoP to be able to play even just for the podium, so much so that after 60 ‘of the race the Reds’ delay from the leaders was well above the minute.
The reigning world champions Pier Guidi / Calado (# 51) and their colleagues Molina / Fuoco (# 52) could not help but settle for fourth and fifth position, taking home points that can be useful later, when it is hoped that things can be a little more balanced by those in charge.
# 98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin Vantage AMR: Paul Dalla Lana, David Pittard, Nicki Thiim, Henrique Chaves
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
LMGTE AM
The Aston Martin manages to hit the brace in the LMGTE AM class in a very tight finish. The Vantage of NorthWest AMR (# 98 Dalla Lana / Pittard / Thiim) wins with merit, practically always at first after passing the # 33 of TF Sport (Keating / Latorre / Sorensen), today a bit too ‘foul’ to be the protagonist.
The Porsche # 56 of Team Project 1 (Iribe / Millroy / Barnicoat) completes the podium, even if a forced pit stop to fix a mirror made it go down from the second place it was in, moreover within range of attacking the Aston # 98.
Fourth we have the Porsche # 77 of Dempsey Proton Racing (Ried / Priaulx / Tincknell), followed by the very good Iron Dames (Frey / Bovy / Gatting) with the Ferrari # 85, the best of the 488s.
Sixth after showing some good performances was the Aston Martin # 777 of D’Station Racing / TF Sport (Fujii / Hoshino / Fagg), which precedes the Ferraris of AF Corse (# 21 Mann / Vilander / Ulrich), Iron Lynx (# 60 Cressoni / Schiavoni / Fisichella) and AF Corse (# 54 Flohr / Castellacci / Cassidy).
Nothing to do for the Porsche # 88 of Dempsey-Proton Racing (Andlauer / Poordad / Lindsey) and # 46 of Project 1 (Leutwiler / Cairoli / Pedersen), and the Ferrari of Spirit of Race / AF Corse (# 71 Dezoteux / Aubry / Ragues).
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