As in Wednesday afternoon’s second session, the Alpine A480-Gibson grandfathered LMP1 sat at the head of the classification for the majority of the session on Thursday morning, until the Glickenhaus 007 LMH jumped ahead towards the end.
After a quiet Wednesday for the Toyota Hypercars, they ran an early 1-2 with Brendon Hartley ahead of Jose Maria Lopez, but both failed to dip under the 1m50s barrier.
Nicolas Lapierre went quickest with 1m50.293s in the one-hour practice period, then worked down to 1m49.664s to cement his position at the top of the times.
Antonio Felix da Costa jumped up to second in his JOTA LMP2 Oreca, with a lap of 1m49.980s, which was eclipsed by Filipe Albuquerque’s United Autosports version on 1m49.745s, just 0.081s off the Alpine’s pace.
With 20 minutes of the session to go, Olivier Pla jumped to the top of the timesheet with a stunning lap of 1m49.261s in the Glickenhaus, 0.403s faster than the Alpine.
The Toyota GR010 Hybrids ended the session in fifth and eighth, with the #7 car setting a 1m50.169s, ahead of Paul di Resta’s 1m50.438s in the second United Oreca and AF Corse’s similar car.
Watch WEC 1000 Miles of Sebring qualifying and the race live on Motorsport.tv (geo-restrictions may apply).
Porsche leads GTE Pro from Corvette
The #91 Porsche 911 RSR-19 led the GTE Pro times early on, with Gianmaria Bruni setting the bar at 1m57.672s early on.
After a spell in the pits, Wednesday’s pacesetter Michael Christensen then beat teammate Bruni’s time with 1m57.448s just after the halfway point of the one-hour session in the #92 car.
Nick Tandy took third in the sole Chevrolet Corvette C8.R, just 0.021s off Bruni, with the GTE Am-leading Team Project 1 Porsche of Matteo Cairoli next up on 1m58.776s.
The AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evos once again struggled, with James Calado unable to dip under 1m59.005s in fifth, and just over a tenth clear of Harry Tincknell in the best of the Dempsey Proton Porsches.
Qualifying for Friday’s Sebring 1000 Miles begins at 7:00pm local time.
Practice times:
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 708 |
Olivier Pla Romain Dumas Ryan Briscoe | Glickenhaus 007 LMH | HYPERCAR | 1'49.261 | |
2 | 36 |
Andre Negrao Nicolas Lapierre Matthieu Vaxiviere | Alpine A480 | HYPERCAR | 1'49.664 | 0.403 |
3 | 22 |
Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Will Owen | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'49.745 | 0.484 |
4 | 38 |
Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Will Stevens | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'49.980 | 0.719 |
5 | 8 |
Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa | Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 1'50.169 | 0.908 |
6 | 23 |
Paul di Resta Oliver Jarvis Josh Pierson | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.438 | 1.177 |
7 | 83 |
François Perrodo Nicklas Nielsen Alessio Rovera | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'50.449 | 1.188 |
8 | 7 |
Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez | Toyota GR010 - Hybrid | HYPERCAR | 1'50.475 | 1.214 |
9 | 28 |
Oliver Rasmussen Ed Jones Jonathan Aberdein | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.031 | 1.770 |
10 | 1 |
Lilou Wadoux Sébastien Ogier Charles Milesi | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.183 | 1.922 |
11 | 31 |
Sean Gelael Robin Frijns René Rast | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.367 | 2.106 |
12 | 9 |
Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz Lorenzo Colombo | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.402 | 2.141 |
13 | 10 |
Nico Müller Ryan Cullen Mike Rockenfeller | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.600 | 2.339 |
14 | 5 |
Dane Cameron Emmanuel Collard Felipe Nasr | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'51.835 | 2.574 |
15 | 45 |
Steven Thomas James Allen Rene Binder | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.061 | 2.800 |
16 | 44 |
Miro Konopka Mathias Beche Tijmen van der Helm | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.140 | 2.879 |
17 | 34 |
Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Esteban Gutierrez | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.639 | 3.378 |
18 | 41 |
Rui Andrade Ferdinand Habsburg Norman Nato | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'52.949 | 3.688 |
19 | 35 |
Jean Baptiste Lahaye Matthieu Lahaye François Heriau | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'53.260 | 3.999 |
20 | 92 |
Michael Christensen Kevin Estre | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'57.448 | 8.187 |
21 | 91 |
Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE PRO | 1'57.672 | 8.411 |
22 | 64 |
Tommy Milner Nick Tandy | Chevrolet Corvette C8.R | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.693 | 9.432 |
23 | 46 |
Matteo Cairoli Mikkel Pedersen Nicolas Leutwiler | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'58.776 | 9.515 |
24 | 51 |
Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.005 | 9.744 |
25 | 77 |
Christian Ried Sebastian Priaulx Harry Tincknell | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 1'59.185 | 9.924 |
26 | 98 |
Paul Dalla Lana David Pittard Nicki Thiim | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 1'59.233 | 9.972 |
27 | 33 |
Ben Keating Florian Latorre Marco Sorensen | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 1'59.382 | 10.121 |
28 | 54 |
Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Nick Cassidy | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 1'59.811 | 10.550 |
29 | 52 |
Miguel Molina Antonio Fuoco | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'59.837 | 10.576 |
30 | 777 |
Satoshi Hoshino Tomonobu Fujii Charlie Fagg | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE AM | 2'00.127 | 10.866 |
31 | 56 |
Brendan Iribe Ollie Millroy Ben Barnicoat | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'00.159 | 10.898 |
32 | 88 |
Fred Poordad Patrick Lindsey Julien Andlauer | Porsche 911 RSR - 19 | LMGTE AM | 2'00.180 | 10.919 |
33 | 85 |
Rahel Frey Michelle Gatting Sarah Bovy | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'01.076 | 11.815 |
34 | 71 |
Franck Dezoteux Pierre Ragues Gabriel Aubry | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'01.134 | 11.873 |
35 | 21 |
Simon Mann Christoph Ulrich Toni Vilander | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'01.354 | 12.093 |
36 | 60 |
Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Giancarlo Fisichella | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE AM | 2'03.517 | 14.256 |
View full results |