Porsche’s stranglehold on the top of the timing screens in Qatar continued during Free Practice 2 this evening, with Kevin Estre becoming the first driver to set a sub-1:40 lap of the Lusail International Circuit this week.
The Frenchman’s best time was a 1:39.990 in the #6 963, almost eight-tenths clear of the rest of the runners on a circuit which is constantly evolving with each session.
After the rest day between the Prologue and Free Practice 1, drivers struggled on the dirty sand-covered surface. The times, as a result, were slower across the board than the two-day test. But, in Free Practice 2 this evening, after plenty of track action throughout the day from the FIA WEC and support bill runners, times began to tumble as teams began to think ahead to Qualifying tomorrow.
Second fastest in the times was the #93 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 after a 1:40.772 from Jean-Eric Vergne, 0.010 up on the #38 HERTZ Team JOTA 963 which made it two 963s and three teams in the top three.
The #2 Cadillac V-Series.R’s promising week in Qatar continued with the fourth-best time set by Alex Lynn, who lapped within a second of Estre.
The #6 Porsche bookened the top five for Team Penske with a 1:41.173.
Lower down the order, Toyota and Ferrari had a quiet evening under the floodlights in terms of outright pace. The #51 was the quickest 499P and ended up seventh, while the #7 Toyota ended the night eighth, the pair 1.4 and 1.5 seconds off Estre’s hot lap respectively.
There were two notable incidents involving Hypercars in the session which brought out red flags. The first was for off for Isotta Fraschini’s Jean Karl Vernay into the Gravel at Turn 6. The second came with just six minutes left in the 90-minute run when Mirko Bortolotti stopped at Turn 7 in the #63 Lamborghini SC63.
The #20 BMW Team WRT M Hybrid V8 also hit trouble, the Belgian team was forced to change the car’s battery pack in the session, limiting the car to just 15 laps.
LMGT3 saw Vista AF Corse’s Ferrari 296 LMGT3s finish up 1-2 in the times with Simon Mann’s 1:55.190 in the #55 the quickest tour in the session. While undoubtedly a quick time, it was still more than half a second off the best LMGT3 time from the Prologue (1:54.480) set by United Autosports’ Gregoire Saucy.
Best of the rest was the #31 WRT BMW M4 GT3, which was just three-tenths off the #55 Ferrari. The #777 Aston Martin finished up fourth ahead of the #95 United Autosports McLaren.
Free Practice 3 is next up at 11:00 am local time. It will be broadcast for free on the FIA WEC YouTube channel.
