1000 Miles of Sebring: Qualifying
Hypercars
📷 © Luc Warnotte. Antonio Fuoco at the wheel of #50 Ferrari 499P during 1000 Miles of Sebring qualifying session.
Ferrari takes the first pole position of the 2023 World Endurance Championship for the 1000 Miles of Sebring thanks to Antonio Fuoco who sets the benchmark time of 1:45.067 at the wheel of the #50 Ferrari 499P.
499P #50 DRIVER ANTONIO FUOCO: « Taking pole position is truly unbelievable. I want to thank the entire team involved here and at Maranello for the extraordinary effort of the last eight months. I am proud of all of them, and I can’t wait to compete. Tomorrow, we will set off from pole position and try to do our best, knowing that the race will be long and will run on a track like Sebring that is very demanding for the car. Given the high afternoon temperatures, tyre management will be a crucial factor in the race. »
📷 © Luc Warnotte. Kamui Kobayashi with Toyota Gazoo Racing #7 and Brendon Hartley with GR010 Hybrid #8 during 1000 Miles of Sebring qualifying..
Toyota have to settle for P2 and P3 with Brendon Hartley driving #8 Toyota GR10 Hybrid 0.214 sec. away from pole, ahead of teammate Kamui Kobayashi on board of sister #7.
Kamui Kobayashi (Team Principal and driver, car #7): “Today we did our best but Ferrari were a bit quicker in qualifying; they did a great job. We knew they were competitive after the Prologue and free practice sessions, and everyone could see their performance in qualifying. We are definitely part of a fight, and I am enjoying it. We have worked hard over the past days to get our cars set-up for the race, because obviously this is endurance racing so Friday is the most important day for us. I think we have prepared well and we’re in a promising starting position so we have a great chance. It is going to be an exciting race.”
Brendon Hartley (Driver, car #8): “There was a lot of anticipation before qualifying. My heart was beating, and I had the same sensations like before Hyperpole at Le Mans. There are a lot of places on this track where you can make a mistake, and the sun was coming down too, so it was tricky. I did my best. There are always corners where you think it could have been a tiny bit faster but I thought I did a good lap. The Ferrari put in a quick lap so congratulations to them. We wanted to start on the front row, and it was almost the perfect job, but we are happy enough. Now I am looking forward to an amazing race.”
📷 © Luc Warnotte. Alessandro Pier Guidi with #51 Ferrari 499P during 1000 Miles of Sebring qualifying.
Alessandro Pier Guidi with #51 Ferrari was fourth, 0.807 sec. off the fastest lap of sister car.
499P #51 DRIVER ALESSANDRO PIER GUIDI: « I am delighted for the team. We achieved a pole position with one car and a second row with the other. It’s an excellent start to the season. We qualified first and immediately after the Toyotas, the benchmark in the Hypercar class. Our car’s performance is excellent, but we know the 1000 Miles of Sebring is a challenging race where reliability will be crucial. »
Those two manufacturers cars are within less from one second from each other.
📷 © Luc Warnotte. Alex Lynn with Cadillac V-Series.R #2 during 1000 Miles of Sebring qualifying.
Alex Lynn with Cadillac Racing #2 is fifth of the session with his fastest lap still 1.015 sec. slower than the #50 Ferrari. Lynn, who won IMSA's 12 Hours of Sebring race alongside teammate Earl Bamber in 2022, clocked a lap time of 1:46.082 in the evening qualifying session.
Alex Lynn: “The car felt really good and that’s why I was a little bit disappointed to be only P5, but I think all credit has to go to Cadillac Racing and Chip Ganassi Racing because we’ve come into WEC and made a strong impression. The work has only just begun really. We’re in a strong place, we have a fast car and I think we just need to run the eight hours really clean and really hard. I think we’re in a stronger place in the race potentially with how we are with our tires. We know that the Hypercars can boost up their power quite a lot, so we need to work out where we can improve and go again tomorrow.”
All the other Hypercars are more than 2 seconds behind the Ferrari #50 on pole.
Kevin Estre with Porsche #6 is 6th, 2.126 sec. from pole
Michael Christensen with sister #5 is 7th, 0.017 sec. behind sister car
Loïc Duval with Peugeot 9X8 #94 is 8th, 0.245 sec. behind Porsche #5
The second Peugeot 9X8 #93 is 9th, 3.138 sec. behind the pole
Both private teams are more than 4 seconds behind the benchmark with Glickenhaus #708 10th and Vanderwell 11th.
LMP2
📷 © Luc Warnotte. Oliver Jarvis with United Autosports #23 was the fastest in LMP2 class during 1000 Miles of Sebring qualifying and will start from pole of LMP2 group.
LMGTE AM
📷 © Luc Warnotte. Sarah Bovy with Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR #85 was the fastest in LMGTE AM class during 1000 Miles of Sebring qualifying and will start from pole of LMGTE group.
Important to note that Bovy and Gatting are setting second and third fastest lap of all sessions. The PRO driver Daniel Serra with Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo #57 was the only driver to be faster than the two Dames during the two days session of the 1000 Miles of Sebring.
Remember we wrote that Sarah Bovy, Ben Keating and Al Harty were the fastest AM drivers? They end the qualifying session in that order.
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