WEC Prologue Concludes With A Third Toyota 1-2
Toyota Gazoo Racing completed its 2023 FIA WEC Prologue running with a third 1-2 from four sessions over the two days of track action.
The final session of the day, and event, was topped by Brendon Hartley in the #8 Toyota GR010 HYBRID. His 1:48.216 was just eight thousandths off the fastest time of the Prologue test, which came from Jose Maria Lopez (#7), which came in the first session yesterday.
Notably, all six Toyota drivers featured in the top seven of the combined fastest lap by driver chart. There was just over four-tenths of a second between Lopez and Kamui Kobayashi, who bookend the Toyota times.
Cadillac Racing’s Earl Bamber spoiled a Toyota clean sweep, with his session-topping time yesterday afternoon, which was just a tenth off the fastest time in the test.
During the final session, Toyota completed 145 laps across its pair of GR010s. This was significantly more than the other manufacturers. Over the two days, Toyota completed 3,533 kilometres of running across 587 laps.
At the other end of the scale, it was a frustrating end to the Prologue for Peugeot Sport. Its 9X8s managed just 69 laps combined, with 65 of them coming from the #94.
The #93 car completed just four laps, spending most of the session in the garage for mechanical repairs. It wasn’t a clean session for the #94 either, as the car had an off at Turn 3, damaging the front end, and was forced into the pits for some replacement bodywork.
The fastest non-Toyota was the Cadillac, with a 1:48.890 from Richard Westbrook, who was buoyed by the team’s performance in its first FIA WEC event.
“What a start we’ve made and there is so much more to come,” he said after the session.
The Briton was four-tenths clear of Nicklas Nielsen in the sole (#50) Ferrari that took part in the session which moved up the order after a late effort from the Dane. The #51 sister car missed the entire session, the team spent all afternoon assessing the integrity of the chassis following James Calado’s hefty off at Turn 1 during the morning session on cold tyres.
We await further information from AF Corse concerning the extent of the damage.
Elsewhere in the class, the two Penske Porsches ended up fifth and sixth, 1.5 and 1.6 seconds off the fastest Toyota time.
The fastest car in LMP2, the #41 WRT ORECA, ended up with a 1:50.827 from Robert Kubica. The Pole ended up in amongst the Hypercar’s in eighth overall, his time faster than the best tours from the #94 Peugeot, Vanwall and Glickenhaus.
Completing the top three in the class was the #48 JOTA ORECA, with the #22 United example that topped the first three sessions in third.
Further down the order in the class, there was significant drama for JOTA’s other ORECA. The #28 of David Heinemeier Hansson had an off at Turn 14 10 minutes before the end of the session, damaging the front end of the car following a hit to the wall on driver’s right. This brought out the third and final red flag in the session, which ended prematurely as a result of the stoppage.
1.6 seconds separated the entire field in LMP2.
GTE Am’s pace was set by GR Racing’s Ben Barker to conclude the test. He reeled off a 1:59.253 to go 1 hundredth of a second faster than the impressive Lilou Wadoux in the Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 488 which slotted in second.
The Project 1 Porsche completed the top three. Corvette’s single C8.R ended up seventh, and yet again the three Aston Martin Vantages occupied the bottom three positions in the times.
There was a significant drama in Am too. Stefano Costantini had an off into the barriers at Turn 17 towards the end of the session, resulting in substantial rear-end damage for the #21 AF Corse Ferrari.
With the FIA WEC Prologue now over it’s time for a pair of rest days before the ‘Super Sebring’ meeting gets fully underway on Wednesday. By then the full IMSA paddock will be set up and the first competitive sessions of the FIA WEC season will take place.
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