It was a day of fastest laps for the LMP2 class, with Team WRT setting the fastest time in the morning and Untied Autosports taking the glory in the afternoon. But it was Team WRT who left the FIA World Endurance Championship Prologue with the fastest time of the two-days.
The 1:48.089, set by Ferdinand Habsburg in the morning session was four tenths up on the quickest time of the afternoon (1:48.439). Team WRT were the team to beat when the grid came into the afternoon as the duo of cars had dominated the timing screen this morning, taking overall one-two.
It was the LMP1 Alpine Elf Matmut that performed best in the Hypercar class on the timing board, taking third and second respectively in the day’s sessions, finishing 0.4s off of Habsburg’s time and 0.2s off the time set in the afternoon. One of the biggest talking points of the Hypercar class is the new Balance of Performance (BoP) effect, which Toyota Gazoo Racing claim is having a noticeable impact on their cars.
Due to the LMP1 versus Hypercar entries in the Hypercar class, a BoP system came into place last year to assist in evening out the field. These balances have been changed ahead of 2022, one element of which means the Toyota can no longer deploy hybrid power until the car is travelling at 190kph. In comparison to last year, this speed was 150kph and the Japanese team could utilise their hybrid power more during a lap.
“It is true that at 190 the functionality of four-wheel-drive is obviously hurting,” the team’s technical director Pascal Vasselon told Motorsport.com. “It is a big hit in terms of performance, it has a big effect. I cannot say we were expecting it, but we were fearing it could happen.”
Whether this will be as big of an effect on the two Toyota Gazoo Racing entries remains to be seen when the cars change to full race trim this weekend.
Corvette Racing stole the final headlines in LMGTE Pro, taking the afternoon’s quickest lap. Although it has competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans over 20 times, this will be the first full season entry into the WEC that the American outfit have run. Knowing at the start of the season they look to be able to take the fight to Porsche and Ferrari will give them great confidence going into their home race.
The 1:56.476 set by Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy wasn’t fast enough to beat Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen from the morning – a 1:55.315, the fastest time of the Pro class during the Prologue – but they did stop Porsche GT Team taking ‘four for four’ fastest laps during the test.
Ferrari struggled a little over the last two days, unable to break into the top three and have to settle for fourth and fifth in the class, however their pace wasn’t too far off the mark so they should still be in a good place to challenge over the season.
#77 Dempsey-Proton Racing took the fastest lap in the morning and afternoon in GTE Am, taking a clean sweep for the day. The morning session, or session three, was the breeding place for fastest overall lap times in class as the fastest GTE Am lap also came from day two’s morning session. 1:57.573 was the time to beat in the afternoon, but the team fell short of their own time by two tenths at the final chequered flag.
Dempsey-Proton have been front runners throughout the Prologue, along with Team Project 1 with their sole Porsche entry. The German team brought out a brief red flag in the afternoon after the car had to be recovered from the track, but still stayed within the top two throughout all session at the Prologue.
The first look at the 2022 grid is complete, and next time the cars are back on track it will be for the opening round of the season: 1,000 Miles of Sebring. First practice gets underway 15:05 GMT 16th March (Wednesday), 2022.
