Toyota Gazoo Racing, somewhat unsurprisingly, ended up top of the charts in the second day of the unofficial WEC pre-event test at Sebring ahead of the inaugural Sebring 1000 Miles this Friday.
Mike Conway was once again the fastest man on track, improving his best time which on Day 1 (unofficially) broke the circuit lap record. He managed to reel off a 1:41.152 yesterday in the #7 TS050 HYBRID to go quickest.
The lap came after the track action got underway late due to fog around the circuit.
“When we had the test here a few weeks ago we were doing similar lap times so we knew it was looking good to beat the lap record,” Conway said.
“To have done that is pretty cool but we have to do it again in qualifying or the race for it to count. It’s a nice feeling to go around Sebring quicker than anyone has before. There could be even more to come during the race week; we might be able to go quicker again. The main thing this weekend was to get ourselves well prepared for race week and we have done that.”
The time topped the official record for the current track layout set by Peugeot in 2009 by 2.1 seconds. According to Toyota, with an average speed of 214.22km/h, Mike’s lap was also only 0.04km/h slower than the fastest in Sebring’s 69-year history, a record set in 1986 on a previous track layout.
During the test, Toyota completed a whopping 580 laps and ran for 3491 kilometres.
In LMP2 the Racing Team Nederland Dallara went quickest on Day 2, Nyck de Vries’ setting his best time from the morning session in the Michelin-shod #29 P217, a 1:47.086. The #28 TDS Racing ORECA went fastest in the afternoon on Day 2, Loic Duval was behind the wheel for the car’s best tour, a 1:47.642, the best time of the Dunlop runners, using the new-for-2019 C compound.
GTE’s ranks meanwhile, was topped by the #91 Porsche GT Team 911 RSR, with a 1:57.302, going a second quicker than the best GTE Pro time from the first day. It was tight though, the top six all within a second in the Pro class, with the #71 AF Corse Ferrari and #66 Ford GT ending up second and third respectively.
In GTE Am, the #61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari 488 GTE, sporting new colours to mark the retirement of Weng Sun Mok’s chrome livery, ended up fastest in the class in the afternoon. While the Singaporean outfit is running with a fresh driver line-up in the race, the team’s only ever-present driver Matt Griffin put in its quickest lap in the latter stages of the afternoon session, a 1:59.488.
Matteo Cairoli in the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche 911 RSR set the best time of the day on the class though, a 1:58.707 in the morning.
Day 2 was not only interrupted by fog, but also by the Project 1 Porsche suffering a major fire, as reported on DSC. Jorg Bergmeister escaped from the car unhurt, thankfully, though the team has been left scrambling to source a new 911 RSR for race week as a result.
The next session for the WEC cars will be Free Practice 1 on Wednesday, 13 March.
Featured image courtesy of Toyota Gazoo Racing, Clearwater image from FIA WEC
