WEC Prologue at Sebring

📷 © Luc Warnotte. Jose Maria Lopez was fastest of WEC Prologue with #7 Toyota Gazoo GR010 HYBRID.

📷 © Luc Warnotte: Harley and Harakawa did set 2nd and 3rd fastest lap during WEC Prologue at Sebring.

The two days of the WEC Prologue at Sebring saw both Toyota dominating the clock with the 6 drivers of both GR010 HYBRID lapping under the bar of 1’49”. Earl Bamber was third fastest on day one but Hartley and Conway overtook him on Sunday afternoon bringing 4 Toyota Gazoo drivers on top of the Prologue fastest lap classification by driver: Jose maria Lopez (#7), Brendon Hartley (#8), Hyo Hirakawa (#8) and Mike Conway (#7).

📷 © Luc Warnotte. The Porsche 963 #5 at Sebring.

Sunday morning Michael Christensen managed to climb into the reduced circle of pilots (9) under the bar of 1'49". The #5 Porsche 963 is 4th overall.

📷 © Luc Warnotte: #2 Cadillac V-Series.R during WEC Prologue at Sebring 2023.

In the afternoon, Richard Westbrook confirmed the speed of the Cadillac V-LMDh #2 by setting the 8th fastest lap of the weekend. With Bamber setting the 5th fastest lap, the Cadillac V-Series.R is third overall.

So we have 3 manufacturers represented in the top 9 drivers with a lap time inferior of 1’49”: Toyota, Cadillac and Porsche.

Alex Lynn was the 10th fastest driver of the WEC Prologue. With its three drivers in the top 10 fastest lap, Cadillac Racing is definitively the best positioned to compete withToyota.

Porsche Penske Motorsport is to be considered a real challenger because 3 of the 6 Porsche Works drivers are within the top-12 drivers in the WEC Prologue fastest lap ranking.

📷 © Luc Warnotte. Ferrari 499P #50 during WEC Prologue at Sebring 2023.

The 3 drivers (Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen) of the #50 Ferrari 499P stand within 0.145" just over 1" of Lopez's fastest lap in the #7 Toyota.

James Calado crashed the #51 Ferrari at the fast and bumpy T1 after one hour in the first session on Sunday morning. The Ferrari 499P he shares with Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi had sustained damage to the front right corner and the nose.

📷 © Luc Warnotte: Peugeot 9X8 #94 during WEC Prologue at Sebring 2023.

Niko Muller set a good 14th time of the weekend (1.36" behind the #7 Toyota) but the Peugeots spent a lot of time in the garage. The #93 9X8 did 139 laps over the weekend whereas the #7 Toyota has driven more than 286 laps.

The #708 Glickenhaus struggled this weekend, turning nearly three seconds slower than the #7 Toyota.

Let's not talk about the #4 Vandervell 680 with Jacques Villeneuve which was more than eight seconds off the fastest lap.

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