1000 Miles of Sebring LMP2 race

WECLMP

Mar 27

The 1000 Miles of Sebring LMP2 race was due to be very tight as 11 of the 12 entries qualified within a margin of 1 second. The only entry with a qualifying time more than 1 second slower than the fastest car in class was Alpine #35 whose qualifying driver André Negrão was within that second during free practice 1.

A tight race with 3 major leaders

The 1000 Miles of Sebring LMP2 race counted three teams who led the race during more than 10 laps.

Oliver Jarvis who started from pole with United Autosport #23 led the race during 77 laps of the first 91 until his teammate Joshua Pierson had to abandon due to a technical problem.

📷 © Luc Warnotte. Yifei Ye, Will Stevens and David Beckmann on board of #48 Hertz Team Jota at **1000 Miles of Sebring** 2023.

Yifei Ye, Will Stevens and David Beckmann with #48 Hertz Team JOTA started to dominate the race from then on being challenged by Bortolotti, Doriane Pin and Daniil Kvyat driving the #63 Prema.

📷 © Luc Warnotte. Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa in the #8 GR010 HYBRID at **1000 Miles of Sebring** 2023.

With 7 laps to go after the GTP incident, #48 Oreca had to stop for a last splash leaving the lead to Mirko Bortolotti with #63 Prema until he was forced to pit 4 laps later.

The LMP2 podium

Yifei Ye, Will Stevens and David Beckmann on board of #48 Hertz Team Jota won the LMP2 class 2.863” ahead of United Autosports #22.

Stevens also won the first-ever Goodyear Wingfoot Trophy, awarded to the fastest driver on average over a double stint.

📷 © Luc Warnotte. Filipe Albuquerque, Phil Hanson and Frederick Lubin with United Autosports #22 at **1000 Miles of Sebring** 2023.

For the #22 United Autosports, Phil Hanson started on the grid in P7, handing the car to Frederick Lubin in P2 for his debut WEC stint. After an early setback relating to a pitstop under FCY, the #22 re-joined the race one lap down … a podium looking unlikely.

With lightening pace, storming lap times and determination to the bitter end, however, the #22 crew turned it around - Filipe Albuquerque bringing the car home in second place. And on top of trophies and podium celebrations, the #22 team also take the championship lead, as the winning #48 car isn’t contesting the full WEC season.

Source: United Autosport.

📷 © Luc Warnotte. Kvyat, Bortolotti and Pin with Prema racing #63 at **1000 Miles of Sebring** 2023.

Kvyat started the car with a spirited drive and took advantage of a safety-car to make an early pit-stop. The offset strategy of the Prema #63 continued throughout the race, with Pin making a stellar debut and leading chunks of the middle phases. Unfortunately, the fuel offset, plus the lack of Full Course Yellow situations in the final stages, eventually made it impossible to reach the finish without a splash-and-go. Bortolotti eventually had to dive in with a handful of minutes to go. When he re-emerged from the pit-lane, he was running third and held that same spot until the end of the 8-hour event.

Mirko Bortolotti: "I’d like to thank the entire team for a great job in the race. We fought ourselves back from the issues we had in quali with a strong run, and it’s a great start to the season with a podium finish at Sebring."

Danill Kvyat: "The race was very strong today from start to finish, and we all did a clean job with the team and my teammates. There is still work ahead to try and improve things to get to the top step of the podium. We have only one goal in our minds, and everyone in the team is looking forward to working towards that goal. But nonetheless, it was a very strong start!"

Doriane Pin: "I'm so so happy about what we achieved today, it's even hard to believe! It was an amazing experience to get a podium finish in my first LMP2 start with a very strong pace for the team. I enjoyed every lap, and I'm delighted to be part of this with PREMA and as an Iron Dame. It is a great start to the season, I look forward to the next races!"

Source: Prema Racing

Four cars end in the same lap.

📷 © Luc Warnotte. The #2 Cadillac-V-Series.R co-driven by Alex Lynn, Earl Bamber and Richard Westbrook at **1000 Miles of Sebring** 2023.

📷 © Luc Warnotte at 1000 Miles of Sebring 2023.

#34 Inter Europol Competition driven by J. SMIECHOWSKI / F. SCHERER / A. COSTA ended fourth, 55.723” behind the winners.

#41 Team WRT with R. ANDRADE / R. KUBICA / L. DELÉTRAZ at the wheel ended P5, 0.950” behind P4, after spending most of the race in P3 until they were forced to a late “splash and dash”.

Rui Andrade: “I feel the race was quite nice, when I got into the car we were in a good position and the car was fine and the team was on a good strategy. Obviously, in the end, it didn’t work as we wanted for both cars. We know we have a good team and now we have to focus on Portimão.”

Louis Delétraz: “It’s a disappointing result. We were running a strong second and I think we made a strategic mistake. We work as a team, with a lot of people, and these things happen, we just need to make sure it does not happen again. Together with my teammates, we were fast and brought the car in front, there was the potential for more. We’ll work on these issues and sort them for the next races.”

Robert Kubica: “For sure, P5 is not what we were expecting. We started well, gaining quite a few positions and having a strong first part of the race. We were fighting for a podium but unfortunately, an issue with one of the tires prevented us to optimize the second part of the race, and we lost a lot of ground while some of our competitors were climbing up positions. P5 leaves us unsatisfied but we can be happy about how we work as a team.”

#28 JOTA driven by D. HEINEMEIER-HANSSON / P. FITTIPALDI / Oliver Rasmussen finished 6th of LMP2 class.

S. GELAEL / F. HABSBURG / R. FRIJNS with #31 Team WRT ended 7th, still in the same lap as the leaders.

Robin Frijns: “I am disappointed about the race. We had a pretty decent car, but in my first double stint, we struggled a lot with tire temperature and were one second off pace. In the final stint, the car was alive again. I think something went wrong with the tires, it was unfortunate, otherwise, things would have gone much better.”

Sean Gelael: “Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose… The pace was good at the beginning, but then there were issues during Robin’s stint. Strategy-wise some teams nailed it better than us with the new rules. Some gambled and it worked, we tried something hoping it would work, but it didn’t go our way. Hopefully, we can optimize our package in the next races.”

Ferdinand Habsburg: “Honestly, I had a good time, I enjoyed racing lap after lap at Sebring and was happy with my stints. In between, there were things out of anyone’s control. There are small things we need to look at, but the difference between today’s results and winning is not big. I look forward to Portimão and Spa, two tracks where we should be ok.”

Source: W Racing Team