WEC Sebring: Toyota dominates, Ferrari scores debut podium

The #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid driven by Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez beat the sister #8 entry of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa at Sebring International Raceway’s WEC opener.

The #8 car led for the opening half of the race but the #7 took command after a particularly rapid out-lap from Lopez in the fifth hour, as Hirakawa took longer to get up to speed. Earlier, Hartley had just managed to hold his position at the front, even when he had to make two pitstops in rapid succession in the fourth hour, including one to top up on fuel under a full-course yellow.

The cars were just half a second apart with 90 minutes remaining as Kobayashi and Buemi took over, but Buemi reported that his car became undrivable in traffic and fell away by over 10s as the race entered its final hour.

That gap more than doubled after a slow final pitstop for the #8, meaning their battle was over and they cruised to a crushing 1-2, marking Toyota's 40th victory in WEC competition.

Behind them – two laps in arrears – was a fierce battle for the final step on the podium. The #50 Ferrari 499P that Antonio Fuoco had qualified on pole position led early on but a strategy decision to pit under an early safety car backfired.

He was hit with a drive-through at the restart and a further 5s penalty for not following correct procedure, while the #51 sister car suffered a further delay that dropping both into the middle of the Hypercar pack.

With two hours to go, Alessandro Pier Guidi in the #51 car clipped the #54 GTE Am Ferrari 488 of Francesco Castellacci at Turn 15, near the pit entry, and spun into the #56 Project 1 Porsche, smashing its left-rear corner – which Pier Guidi further damaged having to drag the car around on three wheels, sending it to the garage for 20 minutes.

#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

Before that, the Ferraris had enjoyed some entertaining on-track battles with the pair of Porsche Penske Motorsport 963s and the single Cadillac V-Series.R, with the latter being delayed when Alex Lynn suffered a drive-through penalty for not respecting the FCY procedure at the end of hour 2.

The Cadillac – piloted by Lynn, Earl Bamber and Richard Westbrook – just missed out on a podium finish, and chased home the #50 Ferrari of Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen, which gave Ferrari a podium finish in the car’s first start.

The Porsche 963s finished a distant fifth and sixth, another two laps down, with the #6 of Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor aided in the intra-team battle when the #5 of Dane Cameron, Michael Christensen and Frederic Makowiecki earned a drive-through penalty for an FCY infringement. But an electrical system reset with an hour remaining switched their places back, so the #5 prevailed.

Peugeot suffered a disastrous race, with a number of technical issues consigning both 9X8 LMH cars behind the wall for prolonged periods. The #94 entry encountered a gear-shifting issue at the very start of the race, with further high-voltage energy store issues later on putting the car shared by Loic Duval, Gustavo Menezes and Nico Muller in the garage for several hours.

The #93 sister car also had a troubled run, with an incident between Mikkel Jensen and the Vanwall Vandervell 680 of Esteban Guerrieri compounding the misery of the French marque. Jensen was caught out when Guerrieri slowed down in response to a FCY period at the end of hour 3, spinning as a result.

The sole Vanwall picked up a puncture in the process and had to pit immediately, but its hitherto untroubled run was spoiled when Jacques Villeneuve suffered a wild spin at Sunset Corner due to a suspension failure, and the former Formula 1 world champion was forced to crab back to the pits.

After repairs, the Vanwall recovered to beat the factory-run Peugeots.

The sole Glickenhaus retired from the race after Romain Dumas stopped on track at Turn 17 in the second hour with an electrical issue.

#48 Hertz Team Jota Oreca 07 - Gibson: David Beckmann, Yifei Ye, William Stevens (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

LMP2: Bizarre United issue hands win to JOTA

A bizarre TV camera issue for United Autosports handed victory in the LMP2 class to the Hertz Team JOTA car of David Beckmann, Will Stevens and Yifei Ye.

Oliver Jarvis led the early part of the race after qualifying the #23 United car on pole position, with Josh Pierson carrying on his team-mate’s good work after being put in the driver's seat at the end of the second hour.

But Pierson’s ORECA-Gibson 07 suddenly crawled to a halt in the fourth hour, ending the #23 crew’s hopes of repeating their Sebring victory from 12 months ago. United reported that the electric failure was “caused by an in-car TV camera fixture”.

That handed the class lead to the #48 JOTA car, which is the car that the team is running while it waits for its customer Porsche 963 LMDh to be delivered - and duly isn’t registered for points in LMP2.

But the #48 was off-strategy compared to the #63 Prema car of Doriane Pin, Mirko Bortolotti and Daniil Kvyat, and looked to have given up victory with just over 10 minutes remaining as Stevens needed to pit for fuel.

But Bortolotti in the Prema car also had to stop a few laps later, so JOTA retook the position and the win with just three minutes remaining.

United's surviving LMP2 car was second with Phil Hanson, Filipe Albuquerque and newcomer Frederick Lubin ahead of the #63 Prema entry.

#33 Corvette Racing Chevrolet Corvette C8.R: Ben Keating, Nicolas Varrone, Nicky Catsburg (Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images)

GTE Am: Corvette wins after Iron Dames drama

Corvette scored victory on home turf in GTE Am, with Ben Keating, Nicky Catsburg and Nicolas Varrone enjoying a flawless race in their #33 C8.R.

The Corvette was handed the lead when the #85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Rahel Frey went wide over the kerbs at the exit of Turn 1, with the impact breaking apart the car's entire rear bodywork that needed replacing.

That undid all the great work done by Sarah Bovy across the opening stints, which included a brilliantly-timed pitstop before an FCY that gave the car its considerable lead.

Dempsey-Proton’s Porsche finished a lap down in second, ahead of Kessel Racing’s #57 Ferrari, which needed a lap stop for fuel and gave away the runner-up spot as a result.

There was a major crash for AF Corse driver Luis Perez Companc in the opening hour of the race, with the Argentine’s #83 Ferrari rolling upside down after going wide at Turn 1 and smashing into the barriers.

WEC Sebring 1000 miles - Race results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Time
1	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	239	-
2	8	Sébastien Buemi Brendon Hartley Ryo Hirakawa	Toyota GR010 - Hybrid	HYPERCAR	239	2.168
3	50	Antonio Fuoco Miguel Molina Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	237	2 laps
4	2	Earl Bamber Alex Lynn Richard Westbrook	Cadillac V-Series.R	HYPERCAR	237	2 laps
5	5	Dane Cameron Michael Christensen Frédéric Makowiecki	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	235	4 laps
6	6	Kevin Estre Andre Lotterer Laurens Vanthoor	Porsche 963	HYPERCAR	235	4 laps
7	48	David Beckmann Ye Yifei Will Stevens	Oreca 07	LMP2	230	9 laps
8	22	Frederick Lubin Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque	Oreca 07	LMP2	230	9 laps
9	63	Doriane Pin Mirko Bortolotti Daniil Kvyat	Oreca 07	LMP2	230	9 laps
10	34	Jakub Smiechowski Fabio Scherer Albert Costa	Oreca 07	LMP2	230	9 laps
11	41	Rui Andrade Robert Kubica Louis Deletraz	Oreca 07	LMP2	230	9 laps
12	28	David Heinemeier Hansson Pietro Fittipaldi Oliver Rasmussen	Oreca 07	LMP2	230	9 laps
13	31	Sean Gelael Ferdinand Habsburg Robin Frijns	Oreca 07	LMP2	230	9 laps
14	9	Filip Ugran Bent Viscaal Andrea Caldarelli	Oreca 07	LMP2	229	10 laps
15	51	Alessandro Pier Guidi James Calado Antonio Giovinazzi	Ferrari 499P	HYPERCAR	228	11 laps
16	36	Matthieu Vaxiviere Julien Canal Charles Milesi	Oreca 07	LMP2	228	11 laps
17	33	Ben Keating Nicolas Varrone Nick Catsburg	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE AM	221	18 laps
18	77	Christian Ried Mikkel Pedersen Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	219	20 laps
19	57	Takeshi Kimura Scott Huffaker Daniel Serra	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	219	20 laps
20	21	Stefano Costantini Simon Mann Ulysse De	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	219	20 laps
21	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	219	20 laps
22	60	Claudio Schiavoni Matteo Cressoni Alessio Picariello	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	219	20 laps
23	86	Michael Wainwright Riccardo Pera Benjamin Barker	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	218	21 laps
24	85	Sarah Bovy Michelle Gatting Rahel Frey	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	218	21 laps
25	10	Ryan Cullen Matthias Kaiser Gabriel Aubry	Oreca 07	LMP2	218	21 laps
26	25	Ahmad Al Harthy Michael Dinan Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	217	22 laps
27	777	Satoshi Hoshino Casper Stevenson Tomonobu Fujii	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	217	22 laps
28	98	Paul Dalla Lana Axcil Jefferies Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	216	23 laps
29	56	PJ Hyett Gunnar Jeannette Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE AM	215	24 laps
30	4	Tom Dillmann Esteban Guerrieri Jacques Villeneuve	Vanwall Vandervell 680	HYPERCAR	215	24 laps
31	93	Paul di Resta Mikkel Jensen Jean-Eric Vergne	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	213	26 laps
32	94	Loic Duval Gustavo Menezes Nico Müller	Peugeot 9X8	HYPERCAR	141	98 laps
33	35	Andre Negrao Memo Rojas Olli Caldwell	Oreca 07	LMP2	139	100 laps
34	23	Josh Pierson Tom Blomqvist Oliver Jarvis	Oreca 07	LMP2	91	148 laps
35	708	Romain Dumas Ryan Briscoe Olivier Pla	Glickenhaus 007	HYPERCAR	62	177 laps
36	83	Luis Perez Companc Lilou Wadoux Alessio Rovera	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	4	235 laps
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