Rain and cold have been the protagonists of the WEC Prologue in Sebring. A somewhat atypical scenario that has regularly left the LMP2 prototypes above the hypercars, something that does not seem likely to happen once the action begins at the 1,000 Miles of Sebring, the first round of the World Championship. Be that as it may, the reality is that Ferdinand Habsburg and the #41 Oreca of the RealTeam by WRT team set the fastest time in these two days of testing prior to the start of the season in the United States.
The WEC Prologue began with the more or less planned script, despite the rain. ‘Pechito’ López set the tone in the first of the four sessions of the official test of the championship at Sebring in the #7 Toyota. Despite the fact that this first contact with Sebring ended precipitously due to a storm, the Argentine set the pace with a final time of 1:51.223. Behind the Toyota finished the Oreca #41 of RealTeam by WRTwhile the Alpine was third almost half a second behind the Argentine’s time.
The second session of the test in Sebring was held in dry asphalt conditions, so the best partial and absolute time until that moment of Robert Kubica with the Oreca #9 of Prema It was a nice surprise. The Polish driver signed a time of 1: 49.084, a record with which he surpassed Alpine # 36, the first hypercar of the session, by just over a tenth. Charles Milesi placed Oreca #1 third in third positionwhile the best GTE was the #92 Porsche of Michael Christensen and Kévin Estre.
With everything, the absolute best time came in the morning on Sunday, in the third session of the four of the Prologue. In a session where the top three LMP2 prototypes were quicker than the first hypercar, the Austrian Ferdinand Habsburg set the tone with the Oreca #41 of RealTeam by WRT after signing a time of 1:48.049. The ‘double’ for WRT was completed by René Rast with the #31 when he finished second. Will Owen in the #22 United Autosports Oreca was third in the session.
If the third session had up to four red flags, the fourth and last closed its doors with another neutralization due to an accident of the Oreca #22 of United Autosports, with Phil Hanson at the wheel. Prototype that, in turn, minutes before and in the hands of Filipe Albuquerque was placed at the top of the time table with a record of 1:48.439, insufficient in any case to outshine Ferdinand Habsburg’s morning record. The Alpine #36 finished second in the hands of André Negrao. Among the GTEs, dominance of the #64 Corvette without eclipsing the best Prologue time set by Michael Christensen with the #92 Porsche in the morning.
Photos: Team WRT / Toyota Gazoo Racing