Di Resta Leads Frijns as LMP2s Go 1-2-3 in Second Practice

United Autosports driver Paul di Resta beat Team WRT’s Robin Frijns by two hundredths of a second to lead the second Free Practice session for Sunday’s 8 Hours of Portimao.

Di Resta, who is filling in for Filipe Albuquerque at United this weekend, rose to the top of the overall leaderboard with a time of 1:31.984 that came with just over an hour of Saturday’s 90-minute morning session remaining.

At around the same time, Frijns rose to third before improving again to take second in the No. 31 Team WRT Oreca 07 Gibson.

The pair of Oreca drivers each beat the early benchmark set by Alex Brundle in the Inter Europol Competition Oreca, which ended up third in the order on a 1:32.051.

The fastest Hypercar entry was the Alpine A480 Gibson grandfathered LMP1 car with Nicolas Lapierre at the wheel.

Lapierre registered a time of 1:32.074 to end up just under a tenth off the outright pace, and over half a second clear of the best Toyota GR010 Hybrid driven by Sebastien Buemi.

Tom Blomqvist in the No. 28 JOTA Oreca and Ben Hanley in the DragonSpeed Oreca fitted separated Lapierre and Buemi. 

Toyota’s LMH cars finished seventh and ninth in FP2 as LMP2 machinery once again led overall following Antonio Felix da Costa’s table-topping effort during Friday practice.

The Glickenhaus SCG 007 LMH produced a best time of 1:33.875 in the hands of double 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Romain Dumas to go 13th, before the car stopped at Turn 13 to bring out of short Full Course Yellow period with 45 minutes left on the clock.

In GTE-Pro, Daniel Serra set the pace for the AF Corse Ferrari squad after Porsche’s Kevin Estre led on Friday.

Serra came through on a 1:38.901, beating Estre in Free Practice 2 by 0.129 seconds.

Frederic Makowiecki ended up third in the No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR-19, one position behind Matteo Cairoli who was the fastest driver in the GTE-Am category.

Nürburgring 24 winner Cairoli pedaled the No. 56 Team Project 1 Porsche to a time of 1:39.266, putting his car ahead of the Cetilar Racing Ferrari and the GR Racing Porsche.

RESULTS: Free Practice 2