Connect with us

FIA WEC

Hirakawa Beats Calado to Top Spot in Sebring FP1

Toyota’s Ryo Hirakawa beats Ferrari’s James Calado to lead Sebring opening practice…

Photo: MPS Agency

Toyota driver Ryo Hirakawa made a late improvement to beat Ferrari AF Corse’s James Calado to the top spot in the first Free Practice session for the 1000 Miles of Sebring.

Calado, driving the No. 51 Ferrari 499P, let most of Wednesday morning’s 60-minute session until Hirakawa burst through with a time of 1:47.649 two minutes from the end.

The reigning FIA World Endurance champion put his No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid just under three-tenths above the Ferrari in the 11-car Hypercar leaderboard after earlier stints from co-drivers Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley.

Calado settled for second on a time of 1:47.935, while Miguel Molina squeezed into third on his final lap with a 1:48.039 behind the wheel of the No. 50 Ferrari.

While Toyota led the way again after setting the pace during last weekend’s Prologue test at Sebring, Ferrari was notably closer to the Japanese manufacturer during FP1.

The Italian manufacturer took 1.4 seconds off its previous best around the Floridian circuit, as Hirakawa went half a second quicker than his teammate Jose Maria Lopez’s leading Prologue number.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Earl Bamber set the fourth-fastest time in his team’s Cadillac V-Series.R which was the highest-placed of the LMDh prototypes.

Bamber registered a 1:48.090, putting the American manufacturer within half a second of the Toyota benchmark.

Lopez completed the top five in the No. 7 Toyota, ahead of the two Penske-run Porsche 963s which lapped just over a second off the pace.

The best single-lap run from a Peugeot 9X8 was the 1:49.315 produced by Loic Duval in the No. 94 car, while the non-hybrid LMH cars from Glickenhaus and Floyd Vanwall Racing Team propped up the Hypercar order.

Mirko Bortolotti set the pace in the LMP2 class, posting a 1:50.074 benchmark in the No. 63 Prema Oreca 07 Gibson.

The Lamborghini factory driver ended up almost a quarter of a second ahead of Team WRT’s Robin Frijns, while the other Prema Oreca driven by Andrea Caldarelli was third.

Michelle Gatting set the GTE-Am pace with a last-ditch improvement in the Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR-19.

The Danish driver leapfrogged the No. 54 NAF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo of Francesco Castellacci with her 1:59.028 marker.

Nicky Catsburg came through in third for Corvette Racing, while the best Aston Martin Vantage GTE finished 11th in class.

Another 60-minute WEC practice session is scheduled for 4:35 p.m. EST.

RESULTS: Free Practice 1

Daniel Lloyd is a UK-based reporter for Sportscar365, covering the FIA World Endurance Championship, Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS and the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, among other series.

Click to comment
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

More in FIA WEC