LMP2s are back on top for the FIA World Endurance Championship 8 Hours of Portimao, stealing the fastest lap of the second practice session. This time honours went to Paul di Resta in the United Autosport as LMP2s locked out the top three.
It was a moment of concern for the Hypercar class this morning as they didn’t seem to have anything to answer the pace of the LMP2 entries. Following on from Da Costa going fastest yesterday, the highest placed Hypercar entry was fourth, and it wasn’t even a Hypercar. Both Toyota Gazoo Racing Hypercars were outperformed by LMP2s and the grandfather LMP1 car run by Alpine Elf Matmut (taking fourth on the timing screens).
Di Resta led the field with a 1:31.984, beating out Robin Frijns in the Team WRT by 0.020s. Rounding off the top three, Alex Brundle also set a lap time within a tenth of Di Resta. The improvement was an astonishing 1.8s faster that first practice’s pace showing that track evolution could be a major factor in qualifying later today.
The Alpine LMP1 was fourth as the final car to set a lap time within a tenth of Di Resta’s 1m31s, with Di Resta being the first and only driver to break into the 1m31s lap times. Tom Blomqvist and Ben Hanley made it a miserable session for the Toyotas, leaving the fastest car from the Japanese manufacturer able to go no higher than seventh. Sebastien Buemi‘s 1:32.669 was six tenths off the pace of the Alpine and leading Di Resta in a session that had the crew scratching their heads.
The second JOTA and pace setter from yesterday split the two Toyotas, leaving Mike Conway – the initial pace setter of the session – a lowly ninth on the final timing screen. The High Class Racing entry rounded off the top ten.
Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus was unable to go any better than 13th in this morning’s practice session, 1.9s off the pace of Di Resta and 1.3s off the slowest Hypercar. From their practice pace it looks like the team will be fighting with the LMP2 cars in tomorrow’s race.
After Fabio Scherer tested positive for COVID-19, Wayne Boyd was brought in to replace him in the United Autosport. Boyd took this morning’s practice session to get his first laps in the car and get a feel for the LMP2 machine.
Ferrari jumped Porsche as the team to watch with Daniel Serra setting the fastest GTE lap of the morning. His 1:38.901 was a major improvement on the Ferrari lap times from yesterday, putting them in good sted to take the fight to Porsche for the eight hour race tomorrow. Porsche GT Team did split the Ferraris, holding onto second and third in class, but only the top two Pro cars out paced the GTE Ams. Kevin Estre set a lap time a tenth off Serra’s pace, but it was Matteo Cairoli who took third fastest GTE lap in the sole Team Project 1 GTE Am Porsche.
Splitting James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi from the other Pro cars was the remainder of the Am top three: Cetilar Racing #47 and GR Racing #86.
Final practice comes later this afternoon ahead of qualifying for tomorrow’s eight-hour race. Will the Hypercar class be able to get back on top or will LMP2s lead the way once again.
