The heat continues to climb at Circuit of the Americas, as the lap times continue to fall after Free Practice 2 – where the two factory Ferrari AF Corse 499Ps finished 1-2 in the Hypercar class.
Leading the way was the #51 Ferrari of last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans winner, Antonio Giovinazzi, who took the red Ferrari up to the top of the time sheets just ten minutes into the session – with a 1:52.268.
A few minutes later, the #50 Ferrari of reigning Le Mans champion Antonio Fuoco came across to set a 1:52.320, good for second place on the board.
The #20 Team WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 showed some speed early on as Robin Frijns set the third-fastest time (1:52.383).
But just before half-time, Sheldon van der Linde was four laps into a stint when he spun out exiting turn 15 and lost his right rear wheel.
This incident brought out a red flag, the only interruption of the session – but a bizarre one for the often beleaguered Bavarian machine which was towed back to the garage otherwise intact.
Alex Lynn was fourth-fastest in the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R, which continues to show good one-lap pace around COTA.
In fifth was the yellow AF Corse privateer Ferrari, the #83 of Robert Kubica which was fifth – ahead of the #8 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 Hybrid of Sebastien Buemi in sixth.
The best of the Porsche 963s was not one of the Porsche Penske Motorsport works cars – but rather the #12 Hertz Team JOTA car of defending Lone Star Le Mans winner, Norman Nato, in eighth.
Matt Campbell was only 13th fastest in the #5 Penske Porsche but, as the session progressed, long-run development became more of a focus over one-shot speed.
In the LMGT3 category, Dani Juncadella topped the session in the #82 TF Sport Corvette Z06 LMGT3R (2:05.630). He was less than one-tenth faster than the #55 Vista AF Corse shared by Francois Heriau, Simon Mann and Alessio Rovera (2:05.673). The sister car, the #54 driven by Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci and Davide Rigon finished third on the time sheets, less than two tenths behind the fastest LMGT3 car (2:05.708).
The #87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F LMGT3 (2:05.868) shared by Takeshi Kimura, Esteban Masson and Jose Maria Lopez landed in fourth position after dominating the first hour of the session. This confirmed that the Lexus is a car to count on tracks where high top speed is required.
After a troubled first free practice session, the #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 EVO2 led the earlier part of the session and finished in fifth position (2:06.141).
Further down in the ranks, the LMGT3 championship-leading car had another disappointing session. The #92 Manthey PureRxcing Porsche 911 GT3 R LMGT3 finished 15th, a full second and a half behind the fastest LMGT3 car (2:07.173).
Free Practice 3 starts tomorrow at 11:00 AM CDT (local time) and, as has been the case at every round this season, it will be streamed for free on the WEC official YouTube channel!
Images © Ferrari, Graham Goodwin / Dailysportscar.com
