Paul di Resta put the #22 United Autosports Oreca on top of the second Free Practice session ahead of tomorrow’s 8 Hours of Portimao with a lap in 1:31.984.
The United car, which saw Wayne Boyd get his first laps after clearing event health protocols last night to allow him to substitute for the absent Fabio Scherer, headed a trio of LMP2s at the head of the field, Alex Brundle’s initially session-topping 1:32.051 in the #34 Inter Europol Competition car bettered initially by di Resta and the later in the session by Team WRT’s Robin Frijns.
The trio though were separated by just 67 thousandths of a second in a session held in much lower temperatures than yesterday, with a further significant weather change set for tomorrow, High winds expected in the area.
Fourth fastest was the quickest Hypercar in the session, the #36 Alpine of Nicolas Lapierre just two hundredths off Brindle’s best time, all three Alpine drivers beating the best mark from a Toyota, that coming from Sebastien Buemi in the #8 Toyota Gazoo racing GR 010 Hybrid, a 1:32.669 putting the car seventh behind the #28 Jota and #21 DragonSpeed Orecas.
Indeed all three drivers in the #8 lapped quicker than the fastest driver in the session in the sister #7 GR010, a 1:32.771 from Mike Conway only good enough for 9th, again though the margins were tiny.
The #709 Glickenhaus had a troubled session, Romain Dumas chipping away at the times and position a sub 1:34 time just before an off-track moment in traffic, followed soon afterwards by the car stopping on track with an apparent gearshift issue.
That brought out a Full Course Yellow to allow recovery of the car, Ryan Briscoe re-emerging after a short spell in the garage, only for the car to stop again out of T4 bringing out another FCY.
GTE Pro saw Daniel Serra put the #52 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE on top with a 1:38.901, a tenth up on Kevin Estre’s best in the #92 Porsche with Fred Makowieicki completing the top three in the #91.
The time from Mako though was behind the fastest GTE Am run, that coming again from a fired up Matteo Cairoli, the Italian on a roll it seems after his N24 win, his 1:39.266 in the #56 team Project 1 Porsche a couple of tenths clear of the #47 Cetilar Racing Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco with Ben Barker a further tenth back in the #86 GR Racing Porsche.
Pics FIA WEC
