The World Endurance Championship Prologue has concluded at Sebring with both Toyota Gazoo Racing leading the time sheets and closely followed by Cadillac Racing.
It was the #7 entry that set the fastest time on Saturday morning, a time that stood for the following afternoon run and wasn’t bettered by anything set on Sunday. Jose Maria Lopez was the driver at the wheel when he set a 1:48.208 around the Florida circuit.
The Toyota Gazoo #8 came close to topping this on Sunday afternoon, Kiwi Brendon Hartley falling just .008 seconds short. Mike Conway went close to eclipsing this time in the #8 to reaffirm Toyota’s statement of being the team to beat this year.
There was another Kiwi in the mix up front, Earl Bamber’s Saturday time of 1:48.429 putting the Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R third in the combined standings.
Porsche’s re-entry into the top fold also started strongly off the back of Michael Christiensen’s 1:48.957 on Sunday morning, just bettering their teammates who were fifth fastest.
Ferrari’s new 499P is also looking extremely racey and set the sixth fastest time, albeit a second off the blistering pace shown from Toyota. They were able to pip the faster of the two Peugeot TotalEnergies Peugeot 9X8s by just .002 seconds.
The second 9X8 came in to be eighth quickest ahead of the second Ferrari whose 1:49.573 was set by former Formula 1 driver Antonio Giovinazzi. That car was unable to take to the track for the final session after crashing on Sunday morning.
Vanwall came in 10th fastest to be fastest of the private entries, setting a time over a second faster than the best lap of Glickenhaus, completed by ex-IndyCar ace Ryan Briscoe.
With the prologue concluded we now have a fair insight as to how teams are shaping up ahead of this weekend’s season-opening 1000 Miles of Sebring.
The signs look positive for both Kiwis who have been tasked with driving some extremely quick Hypercars.
Practice for the 1000 Miles of Sebring gets underway on Thursday (NZ Time) with the race taking place on Saturday. Sebring will be busy over the weekend with IMSA’s 12 Hours of Sebring following two days later, also with a number of Kiwis in the field.
Keep an eye out for Friday’s Motorsport Diary to see when and how you can watch our successful Kiwis competing on the world stage.
Header Image: Toyota Gazoo Racing
