24h Le Mans
Ferrari celebrates its return to the top class of endurance by clocking the fastest qualifying time at the 1000 Miles of Sebring, the opening round of the 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship.
Antonio Fuoco, at the wheel of the #50 Ferrari 499P, lapped the Sebring International Raceway course in a time of 1:45.067 to earn the season’s first pole position. Ferrari thus becomes the seventh manufacturer to start a FIA WEC race from pole since the championship began in 2012. “Taking pole position is truly unbelievable,” Fuoco said. “I want to thank the entire team involved here and at Maranello for the extraordinary effort of the last eight months. I am proud of all of them, and I can’t wait to compete. Tomorrow, we will set off from pole position and try to do our best, knowing that the race will be long and will run on a track like Sebring that is very demanding for the car. Given the high afternoon temperatures, tyre management will be a crucial factor in the race.”
Toyota Gazoo Racing, showing good form since last weekend’s Prologue, will start from second and third positions on the grid with the #8 GR010 Hybrid edging out the #7 car. “Today we did our best but Ferrari were a bit quicker in qualifying; they did a great job,” admitted team principal Kamui Kobayashi, who took the wheel of the #7 car. “We knew they were competitive after the Prologue and free practice sessions, and everyone could see their performance in qualifying. We are definitely part of a fight, and I am enjoying it. We have worked hard over the past days to get our cars set up for the race, because obviously this is endurance racing so Friday is the most important day for us. I think we have prepared well and we’re in a promising starting position so we have a great chance. It is going to be an exciting race.” Two-tenths of a second separated the #50 Ferrari and the #8 Toyota.
The #51 Ferrari 499P finished in fourth position ahead of Cadillac Racing’s #2 V-Series.R. The #6 and #5 Porsche 963s entered by Porsche Penske Motorsport take the sixth and seventh positions respectively, followed by the pair of Peugeot 9X8s fielded by Peugeot TotalEnergies. The #708 Glickenhaus 007 of Glickenhaus Racing rounded out the top ten with Floyd Vanwall Racing Team’s #4 Vanwall Vandervell 680 back in 11th spot on the grid.
In LMP2, the #23 Oreca 07-Gibson of United Autosports clinched pole position in 1:49.974 ahead of the #28 Oreca of JOTA (1:50.067) and Team WRT’s #31 Oreca (1:50.155).
Iron Dame Sarah Bovy at the wheel of the #85 Porsche 911 RSR-19 took the LMGTE Am pole after an exciting battle with Corvette Racing’s Chevrolet Corvette C8.R driven by Ben Keating. The #25 Aston Martin Vantage AMR of ORT by TF was third.
The 1000 Miles of Sebring starts today at 12:00 local time (UTC-4). Whet your appetite for the race with this selection of highlights from qualifying.
