Lopez Leads Toyota 1-2 in Opening Prologue Session

Jose Maria Lopez led a 1-2 for Toyota Gazoo Racing in the opening session of the FIA World Endurance Championship Prologue pre-season test at Sebring.

The Argentinean driver steered the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid to a time of 1:48.208 in the three-hour session, beating his teammate Ryo Hirakawa in the title-defending No. 8 car by 0.085 seconds.

Toyota made a strong start to the Prologue, where fellow LMH constructors Ferrari and Vanwall ran their new cars in an official WEC session for the first time.

The Japanese manufacturer finished a second clear at the head of the Hypercar class, as Cadillac Racing ended up third courtesy of Richard Westbrook’s 1:49.253 effort in the Chip Ganassi Racing-prepared Cadillac V-Series.R.

Frederic Makowiecki was fourth in the No. 5 Porsche 963, while Alessandro Pier Guidi clocked an early 1:49.724 in the best of the AF Corse Ferrari 499Ps to rank fifth.

Makowiecki’s No. 5 Porsche completed 69 laps to accrue the most mileage out of the 11 entries in Hypercar so far.

The Peugeot 9X8s propped up the list of hybrid-powered cars, with the French manufacturer’s No. 93 car driven by Mikkel Jensen coming through just under 2.5 seconds off the overall pace.

Non-hybrid LMH teams Glickenhaus Racing and Floyd Vanwall Racing Team completed the order, with both running just over four seconds behind Lopez’s benchmark.

Saturday’s opening test was interrupted by a short red flag in the early stages and a safety car period towards the end, however these were simulations organized by the WEC rather than being incident-related.

Phil Hanson set the pace in the LMP2 class by turning in a time of 1:51.722 behind the wheel of the No. 22 United Autosports Oreca 07 Gibson.

The Englishman beat Robert Kubica in the No. 41 WRT Oreca, which completed the most laps of any car with 77 under its belt.

In GTE-Am, Iron Lynx finished first and second in the class leaderboard in its first official session running Porsche 911 RSR-19s.

Michelle Gatting went quickest with a 1:59.913 in the No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche, with Alessio Picariello in second for the No. 60 Iron Lynx entry.

They were followed by Davide Rigon in the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo, which was the only other GTE car to lap under two minutes, and the Chevrolet Corvette C8.R run by Corvette Racing.

RESULTS: Session 1