Conway Quickest on Sunday Morning as Calado Crashes

Photo: Jamey Price/Toyota

Mike Conway set the pace in the third session in the FIA World Endurance Championship Prologue pre-season test at Sebring International Raceway, putting Toyota Gazoo Racing 1-2 on the time charts once again.

The Englishman reeled off a best lap of 1:48.473 in his No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid to go quickest in the three-and-a-half hour session, which saw multiple stoppages and a delayed start due to track cleanup.

It included an accident for the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 499P of James Calado, who lost control of the hybrid-powered LMH car over the bumps in Turn 1 on his out lap.

While Calado escaped injury, the car took no further part in the session after sustaining front-end and right-side damage, with Dallara staff also seen examining the floor of prototype.

Conway’s pace-setting lap was 0.008 seconds faster than teammate Sebastien Buemi in the No. 8 Toyota, although both times were slower than Jose Maria Lopez’s benchmark 1:48.208 from the opening session on Saturday.

The No. 5 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 of Michael Christensen was third with a 1:48.957 lap time, followed by Alex Lynn’s No. 2 Chip Ganassi Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, which was fourth.

Kevin Estre completed the top five in the No. 5 Porsche, with the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 of Nico Mueller also within one second of Conway’s pace-setting lap from the session.

Improvements were seen by both Vanwall and Glickenhaus, with the two non-hybrid LMH cars picking up the pace compared to Saturday’s running.

LMP2 was led by the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson of Filipe Albuquerque, thanks to a new 1:50.577 benchmark lap time.

The No. 63 Prema Racing and No. 48 Hertz Team JOTA entries were second and third in class.

Porsche continued to lead the way in GTE-Am, with Porsche 911 RSR-19s occupying the top five positions, led by Matteo Cairoli in the No. 56 Project 1 – AO entry.

The session had three red flags and a Full Course Yellow, the most notable due to Calado’s crash, although an accident for Takeshi Kimura in the No. 57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo in Turn 17 led to the lone FCY session due to debris from the GTE-Am car’s shunt.

Kimura’s Ferrari sustained significant left-side damage, while the two additional reds were for debris and an unidentified incident in Turn 17.

The fourth and final Prologue session is set to get underway at 2:30 p.m. ET and will run for three hours.

RESULTS: Session 3

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John