Image: Prema/Drew Gibson
Robert Kubica set the fastest time in the second session at the FIA World Endurance Championship Prologue session at Sebring International Raceway, leading Alpine’s Matthieu Vaxiviere.
The Polish former F1 driver led the way in Prema’s #9 ORECA 07-Gibson with a best lap of 1m 49.084s, which was posted around the two-hour mark of a session that was three hours in length.
Vaxiviere was second overall and fastest in the Hypercar class with a best lap of 1m 49.210s, 0.126s behind Kubica.
Both times were significantly quicker than the time of 1m 51.223s that Toyota Hypercar driver Jose Maria Lopez set in the morning session, as times in the afternoon were quicker across the board in all four classes.
Kubica led LMP2 ahead of Richard Mille Racing Team’s Charles Milesi in second place, with AF Corse’s Nicklas Nielsen third. Nielsen’s #83 ORECA returned to the track after completing just two laps in the hands of Francois Perrodo in the morning session.
Glickenhaus Racing’s Romain Dumas ended fifth on the timesheets and second in Hypercar. The Frenchman ended the day 0.352s down on Kubica, but notably just two-tenths of a second behind Alpine and ahead of both Toyotas.
Jose Maria Lopez was third in class in the #7 Toyota, with the #31 Team WRT ORECA separating the two cars on the leaderboard. Sebastien Buemi was tenth overall in the #8 sister Toyota, behind United Autosports’ #22 car and Team Penske.
Much like the first session, Porsche ended the day in one-two in GTE Pro. Kevin Estre led the way with a 1m 56.494 in the #92 911 RSR-19, a time two seconds faster than the lap team-mate Michael Christensen posted this morning.
Estre led the #91 sister Porsche of Gianmaria Bruni, with the #64 Corvette C8.R once again third ahead of the two AF Corse Ferraris.
Iron Lynx topped the timesheets in GTE Am as Giancarlo Fisichella reeled off a 1m 58.227s in the #60 Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, just 0.014s ahead of the #56 Team Project 1 Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Ben Barnicoat.
Keyword: Kubica tops second session in Prema LMP2 as opening Prologue day ends