Sebring tests – Toyota breaks the record

It was expected and even if it's still unofficial, Toyota broke the Sebring Raceway record today, during the first of two days of collective testing organized on the Florida track. And this a little less than a week with the 1000 miles of Sebring, antepenultimate round of the WEC 2018-2019.

Already credited with the best time this morning, Mike conway hit the nail on the head this afternoon by completing a lap in 1'41"211. If this time is unofficial, the Briton did better than the track record, owned since 2009 by Sébastien Bourdais (Peugeot 908 HDi FAP) since 2009: 1'43 »274. A mark which should even be lowered next Thursday in qualifying.

In second place, at 0”926, we find the second TS050 Hybrid, led by Fernando Alonso et Kazuki Nakajima. As a reminder, Sébastien Buemi and José-Maria Lopez are absent since they are in Hong Kong for the Formula E.

The Non-Hybrid LM P1s are pushed back to 2”8! The best of them is the Rebellion R13-Gibson n°3 of Thomas Laurent-Gustavo Menezes-Nathanäel Berthon. It precedes the BR0-AER n°367 of SMP Racing entrusted to Mikhail Aleshin, Vitaly Petrov and Sergey Sirotkin by 1.

Thanks to a Loïc duval which feels at home in Sebring, the No. 07 Oreca 28 of TDS Racing achieved the best performance in LM P2 in 1'47"869. The Var, which he shares with François Perrodo and Matthieu Vaxivière, was ahead of theAlpine A470 n°36 and 0 »881 the Dallara P217 of Racing Team Nederland.

Ford confirmed its morning performance in GTE Pro. At the wheel of the No. 67, freelancer Jonathan Bomarito was the fastest in 1'58"318. Followed by n°66, both Porsche, (+0 »2) both Ferrari (+0 »5), while BMW and Aston Martin are pushed back more than a second.

Finally, the #98 Aston Martin of Dalla Lana-Lamy-Lauda took the lead in GTE Am.

The competitors will return to the track tomorrow for the second and final day of collective testing before the first two free practice sessions, scheduled for Wednesday.