Britain’s Mike Conway was the fastest driver on the first day of the two day test ahead of the 1000 Miles of Sebring, Round 6 of the 2018/19 FIA World Endurance Championship Super Season. Toyota finished the day with 1-2, with the no7 TS050 ahead of the no8 Toyota by 0.9 seconds.
Conway’s 1m41.211 lap of the 6.019km Sebring International Speedway broke the previous fastest WEC lap set by André Lotterer in the non hybrid Audi R18 back in March 2012 during qualifying, which was a 1m45.820. Andre Lotterer also holds the official WEC lap record, with the German setting a 1m46.467 during the 2012 race.
The fastest lap by an LMP1 car at the Florida track was set during the 2013 12 Hours of Sebring, with Marcel Fassler setting a 1m43.886 in the Audi R18 e-tron Quattro.
The fastest of the private LMP1 teams was the no3 Rebellion R13-Gibson of Thomas Laurent, the French driver setting a 1m44.082, three tenths ahead of Mikhail Aleshin in the no11 SMP Racing BR1-AER.
In LMGTE Pro the Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK finished the day at the head of the class with the no67 Ford GT of Jonathan Bomarito finishing the afternoon session with a 1m58.318, shaving one tenth of the cars best time in the morning session set by Andy Priaulx. The no66 Ford GT was just 0.174s behind at the end of the day after Olivier Pla set a 1m58.492 lap.
The championship leading no92 Porsche 911 of Kevin Estre was third fastest with a 1m58.567 lap, just ahead of Gianmaria Bruni in the no91 Porsche, the Italian just a tenth of a second behind.-
The no28 TDS Racing Oreca07-Gibson was the quickest of the four LMP2 cars taking part in the test, with former World Champion Loïc Duval posting a 1m47.869, just 0.12s ahead of the no36 Signatech Alpine of Andre Negrão. Duval’s time was also well inside the current WEC LMP2 lap record from 2012 of 1m51.306, currently held by Ford’s Olivier Pla.
The LMGTE Am category was headed by the no98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage after Pedro Lamy set a 1m59.435 lap to finish the day nearly half a second ahead of the no54 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Giancarlo Fisichella. The no88 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche was third quickest at the end of the two session thanks to the 1m59.943 set by Matteo Cairoli in the morning session, just 0.013s ahead of the best time of the no70 MR Racing Ferrari of Olivier Beretta.
The second day of testing begins at 09h00 (local) tomorrow morning and will conclude at 17h00.
