Qualifying begins with GTE Pro and GTE Am cars, at night, at Sebring. Stefan Mucke, Ben Barker, Andy Priaulx, and others are out on track. Ben Barker sets the first fast lap of the GT session. Track records from the last time the WEC was here at Sebring, are being broken. 2:00.063 now is the fast time for the #61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari. Stefan Mucke in the #66 Ford was quickest in sector one for a while, but he's been eclipsed by the #95 Aston Martin Vantage of Alex Lynn. Now, the two Ford's are ashead. #67 cuts a 1:57.916. Marco Sorenson has split the Ford's. The sole Corvette, the #63 machine is down to eighth as now, Aston Martin #97 has gone to the top.
These are 15 minute qualifyi9ng sessions and this is the first session. Andy Priaulx is quicker through the third sector than he was in the first anhd the middle. Now, Michael Christensen gos second in the #92 Porsche, and Augusto Farfus in the BMW, and Davide Rigon in the Ferrari have now asserted themselves in the order. Christian Ried did not do a full flying lap in GTE Am as Pedro Lamy nopw goes to the top of GTE Am in Aston Martin #95. The #81 BMW M8 GTE goes sixth quickest. Richard Lietz has gone to third behind Michael Christensen. The two cars are Porsche's. No. Aston Martin. Now, the #82 BMW ducks for the pit lane. Michael Wainwright second fastest of all? No. Really? He is listed on a different scoring chart.
The #56 Project 1 Porsche team has a new car after their primary car was burned out in testing. Jan Magnussen is way up on the list of how many 12 Hours of Sebring races he's started. Paul Dalla Lana goes out in Aston Martin #98 to set a time as the Ford gets new tires. Magnussen has run the 12 Hours of Sebring, 20 times. Salih Yoluc, of Istanbul, Turkey, now at the wheel of the Aston Martin V8 Vantage #90 for TF Sport. Headlights piercing the pitch darkness here at Sebring. It's amazingly close across the first drivers in GTE Pro. No Balance of Performance changes in GTE Pro for this motor race, as Nicki Thiim goes to the top of the tree in GTE Pro. Antonio Felix Da Costa is making his lap in #82, the second BMW M8, as the V8 turbocharged engine, rumbles. Luis Perez Companc has slammed the wall in the #61 Clearwater Racing Ferrari! Oh dear!
This qualifying session has been red flagged. We'll wait a few minutes and get the track cleaned up. He hit the brakes in replay, turned hard left, and... bang!, straight into the barrier! That chassis will take a lot of damage. Driver Luis Perez Companc is OK. The Argentine driver's evening, is finished. The team will be up late to fix the car, and we don't start until 3PM tomorrow. The team will be exhausted. Perez-Companc's co-driver, Matt Griffin, consults with the team. Porsche #92 will not rush to get out on track. They can use fresh tires for their qualifying run to try to get to the top of the tree.
The driver's who started their laps, have had to cancel, and will have to restart their run when the clock starts again. Every team will have to watch their timing monitors. Race Director Edoardo Freitas calls for a ten minute wait. The speed, as we watch the replay of the Ferrari incident, is huge! When you smash a concrete wall, you're going to feel it. Ouch! The cranes are grabbing the cars to retrieve them instead of putting them on a flatbed truck. Harry Tincknell is set to take the wheel in Ford #67. So, we will need to wait for the Prototypes to come out and qualify, or rather, the Prototype teams and drivers in LMP1 and LMP2, have to wait longer. Christian Ried is set to go out in the #77 Dempsey Proton LM GTE Am Porsche 911 RSR he is sharing with Julien Andlauer and Matt Campbell.
Eleven drivers will be racing in both the 1,000 Miles of Sebring, and the 12 Hours of Sebring. Jose Maria Lopez raced the Sebring 12 Hours in 2007 in a Ferrari, getting to run half of the race. The marshals have to move the concrete wall back before were resume qualifying, here at Sebring. So, grab some dinner, or a beverage, and settle in while we wait. You'll have time. Matt Campbell won the Bathurst 12 Hours for Earl Bamber. We highlighted that motor race. That was a good one! The fans are loving the doubleheader. Pit exit opens, in 45 seconds. Tires are waiting to go on the cars. Pit exit open, now. Green flag. Qualifying resumes.
The last car in the field will be the Clearwater Ferrari. It will be the caboose on the train. Matt Campbell is flying at the moment, going right for it. He's on it! ...And, he goes into the pits. Matteo Cairoli in the sister car is also on a fdlyer at 1:58.832. Aston Martin #97 is still in the lane, and a hot lap for Porsche #92. Matteo Cairoli has unofficial GTE Am pole. Porsche #92 is targeting a 1:59.951 and the #67 Ford GT A 1:59.840. Portsche goes slower. 2:02.194. Ford #67 trirps the watches at 1:58.893. Antonio Garcia goes purple in Sector 3, fastest of all at 1:57.728 average. Kevin Estre has fastest first sector while now, Matt Campbell goes to the top in GTE Am, look.
1:58.4 for Campbell.
Ford and BMW now at the top of the pile and Kevin Estre slides in on top, now. It all changwes by the second here in qualifying as the clock is running down. Aston Martin #98 tries to go second, but now. Antonio Garcia is on a flier here as well, look. All the Am's will come through anhd the BMW's will be at the trunk of the tree in GTE Pro having to climb, but they might not be able to get out of the basement. Checkered flag is out, and Porsche #91 is first to take the flag. Easy there through turn 17, boys. The #63 Corvette is coming into the final turn, and how will he do? Antonio Garcia stops the clock only at fifth in class. The average time, counts. TF Sport is completing their lap. Jonny Adam tries to improve, but no.
Aston Martin Racing's ducks were not in a row. They got snookered. Had we not had the red flag, the first driver's into the cars, would have been able to go out and set quick times straight away. Michael Christensen and Kevin Estre have pole in GTE Pro! More points for this race because of the 1,000 mile distance. This race and the finale at Le Mans carry extra points. Christian Ried is on pole in LM GTE Am. He's very happy! Now, it's time for the Prototypes. Toyota #7 is being prepared in the pit lane. Mike Conway, the Brit, from Bromley, England, is ready to roll. Fernando Alonso, is in the sister car.
14 Prototypes will take to the track. In Free Practice, Rebellion was quicker than SMP, but the DragonSpeed Dallara had more pace in LMP1 non hybrid. Matthias Beche is will b starting the Rebellion. Pierre Thiriet from Epinal, France, will be in the #36 Signatech Alpine. 20 minutes for the session, and averages of 1:40 laps. So, this will be a quick session. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. LMP qualifying has started. Matthias Beche and Thomas Laurent have the Rebellion cars. Anthony Davidson in the #31 LMP2 car. Gunnar Jeanette is in the #50 Larbre Competition LMP2 car.
Screaming through turns 3, 4 and 5, the Rebellion is bouncing up and down. It's easy to overdrive the car and lock the front brakes. Be careful, chaps. Be careful. Mathias Beche, from Geneva, Switzerland, has no Toyota's to worry about at the moment. Neither of the Toyota's, and neither of the BR1's have left the lane yet. Check that, they are coming off pit lane now. This is a hot lap for both Rebellion's, and Renger van der Zande has the DragonSpeed machine. Fernando Alonso is on track. Outlaps are in the 1:47 range, but they will go faster.
Conway and Alonso are starting their hot laps as we watch the DragonSpeed and SMP BR01's. van der Zande will be spitting feathers as he is balked behind the SMP car, saying, "get out of my way, goofball!" Loic Duvals goes quickest, and now, Anthony Davidson displaces that time in LMP2. Will Stevens is in the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing car. Beche and Laurent are quicker in sector one now than they were on their first timed lap out of the pit lane. Will Stevens is officially fastest in class ahead of Stephane Richelmi. Gabriel Aubry will do the second qualifying lap. 1:42.746 for one of the Rebellion's. Sarrazin and Aleshin are on it, and the Toyota's have pre-charged their hybrid system. Fernando Alonso is on his hot lap, look. He runs at 1:40.124 and goes fastest. He smashes the qualifying lap record.
Mike Conway is half a second down on Alonso in Sector 1 and is down in Sector 2 as well. Alonso has chomped 3.8 seconds out of the qualifying record set by Marcel Fassler in the Audi in 2013. Will Stevens brings #37 into the lane. Watch the sand. That will be a huge factor in the race tomorrow. Stephane Sarrazin in the SMP car is fifth in LMP2, and he's being investigated by the stewards for holding up Renger van der Zande. Stephane Richelmi did an extras lap over Will Stevens. Gunnar Jeannette has done what he can do in the #50 Larbre Competition machine. Frits van Eerd is in the #29 Racing Team Nederland machine.
#38 has swapped their left and right side tires. The left side tires are loaded more than the right tires here at Sebring, like turn 17 for example. Stephane Sarrazin will hand over the car. Brendon Hartley is in the #11 SMP Racing car. Jenson Button is racing for the championship in Super GT in Japan. Ben Hanley is now in the #10 DragonSpeed car and Francois Perodo takes over the car. David Heinemeier Hanson, and Jordan King, will share with Will Stevens. This is Jordan King's first Prototype drive.
New tires for Toyota #8. Gustavo Menezes has taken over the top spot in the #3 Rebellion. Quicker first sector from Ben Hanley as well, but he isn't catching Hanley. Hanley raced for DragonSpeed in IndyCar at their season opener, last weekend. Nyck de Vries is now at the controls of thre Racing Team Nederland Dallara. Th targt is 1:43.888. Frits van Eerd has his work cut out for him. Francois Perrodo needs to find time as Nicolas Lapierre inserts himself between the Jackie Chan cars. Less than four minutes to go in this session. Toyota #7 is on a flyer as Ben Hanley hits pit lane. Build up the boost energy in the hybrid system, and Jose Maria Lopez was off the road, busting his lap. The hybrid energy is dissipating while Kazuki Nakajima sets his fastest lap at 1:40.1.
SMP #17 has gone up to second in the order, look. Toyota are racing each other. Fundamentally, you must beat your team mate. Egor Orudzhev is going quicker and so is Brendon Hartley. Rebellion #3 bails out, and Gustavo Menezes is finished with his run. Egor Orudzhev does not improve but he is second. 1:41.9. Jose Maria Lopez is way down the order, look. Ah. He's second now. So, he does improve. 1:39.5 is the target time for pole. Racing Team Nederland has been dinged for speeding twice in the lane already, and so has the Project 1 Porsche. Hartley is all in, and splits the Rebellion cars. It's an all Toyota front row.
Jackie Chan DC Racing locks out the front of LMP2. That's the closest we've seen the battle between SMP and Rebellion in LMP1 non hybrid. They are no closer to Toyota, but they are closer to each other. Wow. This will be a sizzling motor race, tomorrow afternoon. Fernando Alonso says traffic is going to be the biggest issue. Alonso is really understanding sports car racing. We have a thousand miles of racing, tomorrow, beginning at 3PM. Tune in to Motor Trend on TV and/or their app, to see the race.
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