Fuoco Steers #50 Ferrari To Historic 1000M Sebring Pole
AF Corse’s #50 Ferrari 499P will start from the from pole position for tomorrow’s 1000 Miles of Sebring. A stunning performance from Antonio Fuoco put the Italian brand on pole for its first race in the Hypercar category and its first race at the top of sportscar racing for 50 years.
Fuoco’s 1:45.067 with the sun setting over the pit straight stunned the Toyota personnel behind the pit wall, who would have been confident of securing pole position after setting the pace in the Prologue test and Free Practice.
The Italian’s lap was by far the quickest time of the meeting so far, and means AF Corse has become the first team to score pole position in each FIA WEC category.
“I feel really good at the moment, I want to thank the guys. Getting pole for Ferrari after 50 years is amazing. The team has done an amazing job, we are putting everything together. It was quite difficult because the sun was setting, and visibility was low in the final corners,” Fuoco said after the session. “The car felt really nice though. It’s good to start from a nice position.
Ferrari make history and take first ever pole position for the 499P in the Hypercar class with Antonio Fuoco clocking a 1:45.067.#WEC #1000MSebring @FerrariHypercar pic.twitter.com/cNBlZQiyPo
— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) March 16, 2023
“The key tomorrow will be managing tyres, we will try to do our best in our first experience. We are really motivated and will do our best.”
The best a Toyota could muster was a 1:45.281 from Brendon Hartley in the #8, two-tenths off the pole time. The #7 of Kamui Kobayashi ended up third, almost half a second adrift.
“Today we did our best but Ferrari were a bit quicker in qualifying; they did a great job,” admitted Kobayashi. “We knew they were competitive after the Prologue and free practice sessions, and everyone could see their performance in qualifying.
“We are definitely part of a fight, and I am enjoying it. We have worked hard over the past days to get our cars set-up for the race, because obviously, this is endurance racing so Friday is the most important day for us. I think we have prepared well and we’re in a promising starting position so we have a great chance. It is going to be an exciting race.”
The sister #51 AF Corse 499P slotted in fourth and was the final car to set a time under 1:46, Alessandro Pier Guidi managing a 1:45.874 after regrouping from an early error, kicking up the dust at the exit of Turn 1.
Best of the rest was the Cadillac Racing V-Series.R following a 1:46.082 from Alex Lynn who secured a top-five spot for Cadillac’s debut race as a WEC manufacturer.
It was a tough session for Porsche and Peugeot. The #6 was the fastest of the two Porsches, Kevin Estre setting a lap time two seconds off.
Loic Duval was the fastest driver for Peugeot. The French team’s struggles for speed continued here, the two 9X8s 2.3 and 3.1 seconds off the pace.
Glickenhaus and Vanwall were also nowhere on pace, both non-hybrid LMHs over four seconds back.
Oliver Jarvis sets the P2 pace
In the LMP2 class it was Oliver Jarvis who snatched pole position for tomorrow. The Briton in the #23 United Autosports ORECA overcame challenges from JOTA, WRT and Alpine in setting the fastest time, which was a 1:49.974.
“I wouldn’t say it was a perfect lap, there was a bit left on the table, but I am really pleased with the lap we got. Delighted to start on pole after a great week of running,” Jarvis said after the session.
His time was just 0.093 quicker than the #28 JOTA ORECA of Pietro Fittipaldi, who sat atop the timing screens briefly before Jarvis responded with his flyer with five minutes to go.
Robin Frijns, who told DSC the team had been struggling with the set up and balance of the #31 prior to the session, ended up third. It was a strong performance from Frijns here, to give the Belgian team a spot on row two.
A late improvement from Matthieu Vaxiviere put the #36 Alpine fourth. The second WRT ORECA, the #41, will start from fifth.
Bovy storms to Am pole
Iron Dames’ Porsche 911 RSR 19 will start from pole in GTE Am tomorrow after a superb performance in the first Qualifying session of the season from Sarah Bovy. It’s the first pole in the class for a Porsche since Le Mans 2021.
In what turned into a shootout between Bovy and Corvette’s Ben Keating after their tyres got up to temperature, Bovy set the best time and with two minutes to go, a 1:58.949.
After multiple improvements by both drivers throughout the session, the pair trading the provisional pole position, her time bettered Keating’s best effort in the C8.R by four-tenths.
“Frey It’s amazing, Sarah is doing very well. She loves it, but the time to celebrate is tomorrow,” said Bovy’s teammate Rahel Frey. “I didn’t do a single lap under two minutes before QUalifying so I wasn’t so confident. I actually thought it wasn’t enough but I caught a slipstream and it made a difference.
“It’s clear we’ve got a fast race car and qualifying car.”
Third in the running was the ORT by TF Aston Martin, which made it three makes in the top three.
Ahmad Al Harthy in his first WEC Qualifying session will be full of confidence ahead of his World Championship race debut tomorrow. It also marked a significant improvement for the Vantages, which had struggled to find pace until today’s track action.
Making it four in the top four, in fourth, was Luis Perez Companc in the Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari.
Tomorrow’s 1000 Miles of Sebring is set to get underway at 12:00 local time.
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