WEC Prologue: Toyota ends Sebring test on top from Cadillac

The Japanese manufacturer was fastest in three of the testing periods totalling 12 and half hours of track time, with Jose Maria Lopez’s 1m48.208s aboard the #7 entry from the opening period on Saturday morning standing as the best of the weekend.

That was narrowly faster than the 1m48.216s set by Brendon Hartley in the #8 Le Mans Hypercar on Sunday afternoon.

Hartley’s best in the final session eclipsed Mike Conway’s fastest time of the closing session, a 1m48.333s, by just over a tenth.

The 1m48.429s with which Earl Bamber topped the times on Saturday afternoon put the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R third in the combined times.

Richard Westbrook led the chase of the Toyotas aboard the Caddy LMDh in the final session with a 1m48.890s.

Porsche took fourth spot courtesy of Michael Christensen’s 1m48.957s set on Sunday morning. That put him three tenths up the second of the Porsche 963 LMDh, in which Kevin Estre posted a 1m49.285s in the same session.

The best-placed Ferrari 499P LMH jumped to sixth in the combined order in the final half hour of the Prologue. Nicklas Nielsen posted a 1m49.300s, an improvement of almost exactly a tenth over team-mate Antonio Fuoco’s previous best, to move ahead of the #93 Peugeot LMH.

Nico Muller, who set a 1m49.302s on Sunday morning, was pushed down to seventh by just two thousandths of a second.

#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

The Swiss driver’s time was a further tenth and a half up on the 1m49.568s that Mikkel Jensen managed in the same session in the second 9X8.

A 1m49.573s from Antonio Giovinazzi put the other Ferrari, which did not run in the final session after James Calado’s accident on Sunday morning, in ninth position overall in the Prologue.

Vanwall eclipsed Glickenhaus in the battle of the garagistes, Tom Dillmann’s 1m50.038s for German-based marque more than a second up on Ryan Briscoe’s 1m51.173s for the American entrant.

United Autosports came out on top in LMP2 after heading three sessions with its #22 ORECA-Gibson 07.

Filipe Albuquerque’s 1m50.577s from Sunday morning stood as the best P2 of the weekend and was more than two tenths up on WRT driver Robert Kubica’s 1m50.827s set in the closing session.

Doriane Pin took third position in class for the Prema team on her first competitive outing in a P2 car, posting her 1m50.860s in session three. Yifei Ye and Pierto Fittipaldi both posted 1m51.000s on Sunday morning in their respective Jota ORECAs, the Chinese driver taking fourth spot courtesy of setting his time first.

Porsche blocked out the top positions in GTE Am, with Matteo Cairoli leading the way on 1m59.170s for the Project 1 team.

Second fastest of the Porsche 911 RSR flotilla was Michelle Gatting in the Iron Dames entry run by Iron Lynx. Ben Barker got close to her best of 1m59.201s when he claimed the top spot in session four aboard the GR Racing Porsche with a 1m59.253s.

The Prologue preceded race week for the opening round of the 2023 WEC, the Sebring 1000 Miles.

Practice begins on Wednesday prior to the race on Friday, which precedes the Sebring 12 Hours round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship.