The official pre-season test of 2022 was red-flagged after just two hours as a torrential rainstorm hit the historic Florida-based venue, bringing an early end to morning’s running.
Fortunately, the track dried out before the start of the afternoon session, allowing teams across all four classes to complete a full three hours of running on slick tyres.
One-time grand prix winner Kubica set the overall pace for single-seater powerhouse Prema, a newcomer in the WEC this year with a single Oreca 07-Gibson, lapping the 3.74-mile course in 1min49.084sec.
This was 0.126s faster than the top Hypercar, the Alpine A480 driven by Matthieu Vaxiviere, as Charles Milesi put the Richard Mille Oreca third in the overall order.
AF Corse made it three Oreca LMP2 cars in the top four despite completing only a single installation lap in the morning before returning on track later in the afternoon, as it edged the Glickenhaus 007 Hypercar driven by Romain Dumas by just 0.001s.
The fastest of the two Toyota GR010 Hybrid Hypercars, the #7 which set the pace in the morning’s rain-shortened session, was seventh thanks to Jose Maria Lopez while the sister #8 car was 10th.
Moving into the Top 10 was Team Penske’s LMP2 Oreca entry to be shared by Dane Cameron, Felipe Nasr and Emmanuel Collard. They wound up just behind United Autosports’ fastest entry, and 0.9sec off the ultimate pace.
The Porsche GT team’s pair of 911 RSR-19s remained top of the GTE Pro entries, Kevin Estre an unusual half-a-second quicker than Gianmaria Bruni.
As per this morning, the works Porsche’s closest opposition came from the lone Corvette C8.R of Nick Tandy and Tommy Milner which had a handy six-tenth margin over two AF Corse Ferrari 488s of Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado and Miguel Molina/Antonio Fuoco.
Another Ferrari, the Iron Lynx #60 car, topped the GTE Am times thanks to ex-F1 winner Giancarlo Fisichella, just a few hundredths in front of Team Project 1’s Porsche 911 RSR-19 and the Iron Dames Ferrari.
Weather allowing, the Prologue recommences Sunday morning with 3hr30min session followed by a three hour session.
