Robert Kubica takes Prema to the top of the overall standings at the end of the first day of the Prologue of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
At the Sebring International Raceway on Saturday of work along the winding 6.019km of the US track where the 1000 Miglia will take place next week was not easy for anyone.
In the morning the session was interrupted prematurely due to a storm that hit the track, with strong winds and pouring water that forced the protagonists to take refuge in the pits for a few hours.
Fortunately, in Florida things got better in the afternoon and the asphalt-concrete surface slowly dried, allowing the riders not only to try even in wet and humid conditions, but also to push to seek the limit performance.
As mentioned, in the end it stands out Kubica with the Oreca 07-Gibson # 9 that he shares with Louis Delétraz and Lorenzo Colombo, stopping the clock in 1’49 “084 and also setting the best time of the LMP2.
Second for 0 “126 is the Alpine A480 LMP1 # 36 from Negrão / Lapierre /Vaxivièrebefore the Hypercars, with the Richard Mille Racing Team obtaining the third overall performance (second LMP2) thanks to the Oreca # 1 shared by Wadoux / Ogier /Milesi.
Good fourth place for AF Corse with its new Oreca LMP2 # 83 that Perrodo /Nielsen/ Rovera lead to the primacy of the Pro / Am category.
The Glickenhaus 007 LMH of Pla /Dumas/ Briscoe, closely followed by Team WRT’s Oreca # 31 (Gelael / Frijns /Rast) and from the first of the Toyota GR010 Hybrid, the Hypercar # 7 of the reigning champions Conway / Kobayashi /Lópezwho suffer a delay of half a second from the summit after they had been the fastest in the morning.
Their teammates from # 8, Buemi/ Hartley / Hirakawa are instead in tenth place, preceded by the Oreca of United Autosports (# 22 Hanson /Albuquerque/ Owen) and Team Penske (# 5 Cameron / Collard /Nasr).
To complete the talk of Pro / Am’s Oreca LMP2, ARC Bratislava (# 44 Konôpka /Beche/ Van Der Helm) gets the second place with the 15th overall time trial, with the Algarve Pro Racing (# 45 Thomas /Allen/ Binder) third.
# 7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota GR010 – Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez
Photo by: Paul Foster
Turning instead to the LMGTE PRO, there is immediately a double win for the official Manthey Porsches: the 911 RSR-19 # 92 of Christensen /Extre hits the 156 “494 that holds it for half a second in front of the # 91 of Bruni/ Lietz.
Very close to the latter Milner /Tandy with the Corvette C8.R # 64 of Pratt & Miller, while the Ferrari 488 managed by AF Corse closed in fourth and fifth place with Calado/ Pier Guidi (# 51) and Fire/ Molina (# 52) accusing longer delays.
However, Ferrari has a smile at the end of the day thanks to the 1’58 “227 that gets the 488 # 60 of the Iron Lynx with Fisichella/ Schiavoni / Cressoni, first in LMGTE AM for only 0 “014 ahead of the Porsche # 56 of Team Project 1 / Inception of the Iribe / Millroy trio /Barnicoat.
Third Iron Dames Frey /Gatting/ Bovy in the Ferrari # 85, keeping the Porsches of Dempsey-Proton Racing behind (# 88 Poordad / Lindsey / Andlauer /Heylen and # 77 Ried / Priaulx /Tincknell/ Gidley) and Project 1 (# 46 Cairoli /Pedersen/ Leutwiler).
The Prologue continues today from 15.50 to 23.50 (Italian times) with a stop of 90 ‘between one session and another.
In Bold the drivers who set the best time
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