After AF Corse’s Ferrari 499Ps managed to get close to the Toyotas on pace in the opening practice session of the 1000 Miles event this morning, the Japanese team turned the wick up during the red-flag-interrupted FP2.
The quickest time in the session was set by the #7 GR010 HYBRID, Kamui Kobayashi posting a 1:46.954, a tour of the circuit significantly faster than this morning’s quickest lap from Ryo Hirakawa (1:47.649).
There is real pace from the GR010 HYBRID still to be found it seems. The quickest time this afternoon was over a second faster than the best laps achieved during the Prologue test and you’d expect the team to find even more time in Qualifying tomorrow.
Nobody else in the Hypercar field was able to get within a second of the lead Toyota. In third, eight tenths off the sister #8 Toyota that finished the day second, was the #50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, The Italian completed a 10-lap run and set a best time of 1:48.121.
The Cadillac Racing V-Series.R, as it has been throughout the event so far, was in the mix too, splitting the two Ferraris on the timing screens after Richard Westbrook’s 1:48.265.
It wasn’t a clean session for Westbrook however, the Briton involved in contact with the #88 Proton Competition Porsche at the Hairpin which ended with Ryan Hardwick hitting the concrete blocks before the armco section at the hairpin head-on. The contact occurred in the braking zone, Westbrook moving across on Hardwick, clipping the front of the Porsche with the rear of his V-Series.R.
The damage to the Porsche is significant, the red flag period for the clean up lasted around 10 minutes.
It was a rather quiet session for the Porsche and Peugeot Hypercar camps. Porsche’s #5 963 was the only car of the quartet across the two teams that lapped quicker than the #28 JOTA ORECA that topped LMP2. The #5’s best lap was only good enough for seventh, behind the Glickenhaus 007 which had a more promising run, Olivier Pla setting a time almost a second quicker than the team’s best during the Prologue.
The aforementioned #28 JOTA ORECA, which led the way in LMP2, saw Pietro Fittipaldi set a 1:50.326, a tenth up on the fastest of the two Peugeots, and four tenths quicker than the first of the two United Autosports ORECAs that ended up second and third.
In GTE, the off for the #88 wasn’t the only drama in the class causing a red flag in the session. The running had to be neutralised towards the end after an off for the GTE Am pace-setting Kessel Ferrari at Turn 3.
Takeshi Kimura was aboard for the off, his teammate Daniel Serra meanwhile, set the best time in the class, a 1:58.845.
Corvette Racing’s improved form from FP1 continued here, the #33 C8.R finishing up second, with the quickest Aston Martin, D’Station’s #777, third.
The performance from D’Station represented the highest in the classification an Aston has finished in a session since the teams arrived in Florida last week.
The third and final Practice session is set for tomorrow morning at 11:55am local time.
