Buemi Leads Toyota 1-2 in Second Sao Paulo Practice

Toyota Gazoo Racing locked out the top two positions in second practice for this weekend’s 6 Hours of Sao Paulo, as Sebastien Buemi topped the timesheets aboard the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.

Buemi set the fastest time of the day, a 1:25.727, a little over 30 minutes into the extended two hour, 15 minute session that had 45 minutes added to it following the curtailment of FP1 earlier on Friday.

A relatively late improvement for Kamui Kobayashi made it a Toyota 1-2 as the Japanese set a 1:25.760 effort in the No. 7 car.

Making a similar jump up the order was the No. 51 Ferrari 499P of Alessandro Pier Guidi, who went third-fastest with a time just 0.010 seconds slower than Kobayashi.

Antonio Fuoco was fourth in the second of the newly-upgraded Ferraris, the No. 50 car, just seven thousandths of a second behind Pier Guidi.

Cadillac’s solo V-Series.R was fifth-fastest in the hands of Alex Lynn on a 1:25.869 amid a flurry of improvements that came just after the one-hour mark.

Next up were the two Hertz Team JOTA Porsche 963s, with the No. 12 car of Callum Ilott in sixth ahead of the No. 38 machine in which Jenson Button set the best time.

Completing the top ten were the third-string No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari with Robert Shwartzman at the wheel, the No. 99 Proton Competition Porsche of Julien Andlauer and the best of the BMW M Hybrid V8s, the No. 20 car of Robin Frijns.

Porsche Penske Motorsport endured a low-key session with its two cars only 13th- and 14th-fastest.

Laurens Vanthoor set the best time for the works Porsche squad, 1.274 seconds off the pace of Buemi, in the No. 6 car, narrowly beating Michael Christensen in the sister No. 5 machine.

Alpine’s No. 36 car also appeared to suffer engine-related issues that kept it in the garage for a large portion of the session, with the car completing a field-low 41 laps on its way to 17th place.

In LMGT3, Jose Maria Lopez set the pace aboard the sole remaining Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F GT3 after the withdrawal of the team’s No. 78 car following Arnold Robin’s FP1 crash.

Lopez set a best time of 1:35.725 to go 0.325 seconds clear of the opposition, led by the No. 60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2 of Franck Perera.

Third-fastest was the No. 55 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Alessio Rovera, two thousandths of a second quicker than the No. 82 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R in which Daniel Juncadella set the best time early on.

Ian James put the No. 27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo in fifth place.

Practice for the 6 Hours Sao Paulo continues on Saturday morning at 10:30 a.m. local time (9:30 a.m. EDT), with qualifying following later in the day at 2:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. EDT).

RESULTS: Free Practice 2