James Calado (GBR) / Alessandro Pier Guidi (ITA) / Antonio Giovinazzi (ITA) #51 AF Corse Ferrari 499P. 16.03.2023. FIA World Endurance Championship, Round 1, 1000 Miles of Sebring, Sebring, Florida, USA. – www.xpbimages.com, EMail: [email protected] © Copyright: Price / XPB Images
Jose Maria Lopez leads the 1000 Miles of Sebring in the #7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, with a three second gap to his teammate Ryo Hirakawa in the sister #8 Toyota.
Around a minute and a half behind the Toyota pair, a great battle between the Ferraris, Porsches, and lone Cadillac rages, with all three manufacturers fairly equal on pace.
Toyota are running significantly longer stints than their competitors, as the GR010 is both using less fuel and lighter on tyres compared to the new machinery from Ferrari, Porsche and Toyota.
Richard Westbrook is third in the #2 Cadillac V.Series-R, with Antonio Fuoco 30 seconds back from the Briton, behind the wheel of the #50 Ferrari 499P. Porsche’s Laurens Vanthoor is a further 30 seconds back from Fuoco in fifth, while the other Ferrari, #51, driven by Alessandro Pier Guidi, is seventh.
However, while writing this, Pier Guidi made contact with the #56 Project 1 AO Porsche 911 RSR-19, and the #54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of Francesco Castellaci, and spun off at the end of the lap, with the contact puncturing the left rear tyre. While the two GTE cars seem undamaged, the Ferrari’s shredded rear tyre would obviously need replacing. The Italian managed to get the car back to the pits — slowly, as not to damage the bodywork, although considerable damage was still done — which caused an FCY, and is still classed as seventh, although this may change.
While Toyota do seem to have an advantage on race pace, the gap between the Japanese-German team and the Ferraris, of which the #50 499P took pole yesterday, is not huge. Ferrari attempted to go off strategy with both cars early in the race during a safety car, but this did work out for the Italian manufacturer, as the Toyotas can go longer on a stint and therefore stop less.
Jacques Villenueve, in the #4 Vanwall Vandervell 680, is eighth in class but 15th overall, as a result of the car spending time in the garage for repairs earlier in the race due to a coming together with Mikkel Jensen’s Peugeot.
Speaking of Peugeot, both 9X8s are still in the race, but have spent significant time in the pits and are towards the back of the field, in the case of the #93 Peugeot of Paul di Resta, or dead last for the #94 Peugeot, with Gustavo Menezes behind the wheel.
The #708 Glickenhaus is out after stopping on track earlier.
In LMP2, Will Stevens leads in the #48 JOTA Oreca 07-Gibson, with a gap of around 22 seconds to Daniil Kvyat’s #63 Prema Oreca 07-Gibson. Third in class is the #31 WRT Oreca 07-Gibson of Robert Kubica, a further 15 seconds back.
Nicky Catsburg leads the way in the #33 Corvette C8.R, 40 seconds to the good over Julien Andlauer in the #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche 911 RSR-19. Third in class is Scott Huffaker in the #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, 18 seconds back from Andlauer.
Keyword: #51 Ferrari spins off as Toyotas lead with two hours to go at Sebring