WEC Portimao: Buemi leads Toyota 1-2 in FP1

The Japanese manufacturer continued its domination of the 2023 WEC season after finishing 1-2 in the opening round at Sebring last month, with Sebastien Buemi edging out Mike Conway by nearly four tenths.

Buemi got down to a 1m32.792s aboard the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID Le Mans Hypercar early in the 90-minute FP1 session on Friday morning, which Conway followed up on with a 1m33.176s.

The fastest Toyota time was just under a second quicker than the marque’s best time at this stage of the meeting on the WEC’s previous visit to the Automdromo Internacional do Algarve in 2021.

Buemi’s mark gave Toyota nearly a margin of nearly seven tenths over the next best manufacturer in Ferrari.

Alessandro Pier Guidi took third position in the Hypercar class aboard the best of the AF Corse-run Ferrari 499P LMHs. The Italian driver’s 1m33.453s shaded the 1m33.569s from team-mate Nicklas Nielsen in the sister car by just over a tenth.

The two factory Porsche 963 LMDhs filled out positions five and six in the Hypercar class, with Frederic Makowiecki and Laurens Vanthoor evenly-matched in the two Penske-run cars. Makowiecki posted a 1m33.688s to end up a tenth ahead of Vanthoor’s 1m33.792s.

Earl Bamber took seventh position in the Chip Ganassi Racing-run Cadillac V-Series.R LMDh on the European competition debut for the American car courtesy of a 1m34.107s.

Two two Peugeot 9X8 LMDhs took eighth and ninth positions, a 1m34.523s from Gustvo Menezes leaving the French manufacturer 1.7s off the pace. Mikkel Jensen was half a second in arrears in the sister car on a 1m35.033s.

Glickenhaus and Vanwall LMHs were evenly matched at the back of the Hypercar field. Tom Dillmann’s 1m35.309s in the Vanwall-Gibson Vandervell 680 just shaded the 1m35.496s from Olivier Pla in the Glickenhaus-Pipo 007.

#63 Prema Racing - Oreca 07 - Gibson - Doriane Pin, Mirko Bortolotti, Daniil Kvyat

Photo by: Paul Foster

The Italian Prema team ended up 1-2 in LMP2 with its pair of ORECA-Gibson 07s, Mirko Bortolotti ending up with a three-tenth margin in the secondary prototype class. Bortolotti’s 1m34.542s compared with Bent Viscaal’s 1m34.884s.

Inter Europol took third in class with a 1m32.920s from Fabio Scherer. Oliver Jarvis took fourth in the best of the two United Autosports ORECAs.

Ferrari factory driver Daniel Serra led the way in GTE Am for the Kessel Ferrari squad. His 1m41.341s aboard the Swiss team’s 488 GTE Evo was half a second up on second-placed Nicki Thiim’s 1m41.858s in the Northwest AMR Aston Martin Vantage GTE.

The session ended a couple of minutes early with a second red flag after Rui Andrade went off and hit the barriers at Turn 11 in his WRT LMP2 ORECA.

WEC Portimao FP1 results

Cla	Drivers	Car	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	43	1'32.792
2	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	43	1'33.176	0.384
3	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi	Ferrari 499P	35	1'33.453	0.661
4	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari 499P	40	1'33.569	0.777
5	Dane Cameron Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 963	36	1'33.688	0.896
6	Kevin Estre Andre Lotterer Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 963	37	1'33.792	1.000
7	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook	Cadillac V-Series.R	23	1'34.107	1.315
8	Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller	Peugeot 9X8	40	1'34.523	1.731
9	Doriane Pin Mirko Bortolotti Daniil Kvyat	Oreca 07	41	1'34.542	1.750
10	Filip Ugran Juan Manuel Correa Bent Viscaal	Oreca 07	38	1'34.884	2.092
11	Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Albert Costa	Oreca 07	41	1'34.920	2.128
12	Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne	Peugeot 9X8	26	1'35.033	2.241
13	Josh Pierson Giedo van der Garde Oliver Jarvis	Oreca 07	41	1'35.035	2.243
14	Rui Andrade Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz	Oreca 07	39	1'35.042	2.250
15	Frederick Lubin Philip Hanson Ben Hanley	Oreca 07	42	1'35.129	2.337
16	David Heinemeier Hansson Pietro Fittipaldi Oliver Rasmussen	Oreca 07	36	1'35.212	2.420
17	David Beckmann Ye Yifei Antonio Felix da Costa	Oreca 07	39	1'35.244	2.452
18	Sean Gelael Ferdinand Habsburg Robin Frijns	Oreca 07	40	1'35.260	2.468
19	Andre Negrao Memo Rojas Olli Caldwell	Oreca 07	34	1'35.293	2.501
20	Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri Jacques Villeneuve	Vanwall Vandervell 680	36	1'35.309	2.517
21	Matthieu Vaxiviere Julien Canal Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	40	1'35.442	2.650
22	Romain Dumas Ryan Briscoe Olivier Pla	Glickenhaus 007	34	1'35.496	2.704
23	Ryan Cullen Matthias Kaiser Gabriel Aubry	Oreca 07	22	1'36.119	3.327
24	Takeshi Kimura Scott Huffaker Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	39	1'41.341	8.549
25	Paul Dalla Lana Axcil Jefferies Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	37	1'41.858	9.066
26	Ryan Hardwick Zacharie Robichon Harry Tincknell	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	36	1'41.862	9.070
27	Luis Perez Companc Lilou Wadoux Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	38	1'41.885	9.093
28	Ben Keating Nicolas Varrone Nick Catsburg	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	35	1'41.896	9.104
29	Miguel Pedro Guilherme Moura Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	38	1'41.940	9.148
30	Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Rahel Frey	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	34	1'41.944	9.152
31	Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Alessio Picariello	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	36	1'42.071	9.279
32	Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	37	1'42.176	9.384
33	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	38	1'42.287	9.495
34	Diego Alessi Simon Mann Ulysse De	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	40	1'42.296	9.504
35	Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson Tomonobu Fujii	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	37	1'42.648	9.856
36	Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	39	1'42.871	10.079
37	Christian Ried Mikkel Pedersen Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	34	1'42.931	10.139
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