SEBRING — After Ferrari grabbed the pole position for Friday’s 1000 Miles of Sebring, some people may have thought there might be an upset in the World Endurance Championship event. But TOYOTA GAZOO Racing wasn’t one of them, as the two Toyota GR010 HYBRID cars took over the top two spots in the first hour and never looked back.
The pole-sitting No. 50 AF Corse Ferrari 499P decided to make an early pit stop under a caution, which sent the Toyota tandem into the lead and they cruised to the victory.
When the checkered flag dropped, it was the No. 7 TOYOTA GAZOO Racing entry that crossed the finish line 2.168 seconds in front of the No. 8 Toyota car.
“A 1-2 was the best result we could hope for, but this is just the start of a big fight this season,” said Kamui Kobayashi, team principal and driver of the No. 7 car, along with Mike Conway and José María López. “We deserved to win but we do not underestimate the other manufacturers; today our experience helped us but we will face a big challenge this season, so we have to get stronger and fight even harder. This championship is getting really exciting, and I am happy to be part of it.”
The No. 50 Ferrari did round out the podium with a third-place finish but the day belonged to Toyota.
“It’s an amazing result for the whole team and I am incredibly happy for everyone who has worked so hard for this,” said Brendon Hartley, who shares the No. 8 car with Sébastien Buemi and Ryo Hirakawa. “I’m also a bit disappointed for the No. 8 car to be second because it was such a close race, and we led for so much of it. We got a bit unlucky but congratulations to the No. 7 crew for the win. At the end there was only two seconds between the two cars after such a hard race which shows what a great job the team has done here.”
No. 2 Cadillac-V-Series.R co-driven by Alex Lynn, Earl Bamber and Richard Westbrook, placed fourth.
“No doubt it’s a strong and positive day for Cadillac Racing,” Lynn said. “We started our WEC campaign with a fourth place and I think we would have taken that at the start of the weekend. This is the first time everyone has worked together on a brand new program, and to come 10 seconds within a podium with a team as strong as Ferrari is just a fantastic start with so much more to improve on.”
LMP2
Prema Racing tried to steal a class win in LMP2 and it almost paid off. Almost.
The No. 63 Prema Racing Oreca took the class lead with about 12 minutes remaining in the race, but driver Mirko Bortolotti had to stop for fuel with roughly three minutes remaining and settled for a third-place finish. The win went to the No. 48 Hertz Team JOTA car, driven by the trio of Will Stevens, Yifei Ye and David Beckmann, while the No. 22 United Autosports entry, driven by Filipe Albuquerque, Phil Hanson and Frederick Lubin managed to take second place.
In the final 15 minutes, the Hertz Team JOTA car was forced into the pits for a quick splash of fuel while racing in the lead, which gave first place to the Prema Racing team. But the team didn’t have quite enough fuel to get them to the finish line, and when they went to the pits, the Hertz Team JOTA car moved back in front and managed to hold onto first place.
Corvette Racing ran away with the LMGTE Am class victory and it wasn’t lost on the team they won the only WEC race that will be held on U.S. soil this season.
“This is the only WEC race in the United States, so it’s really special here,” said Ben Keating, who was making his first Corvette Racing start. “The guys, the team did a great job. All the drivers just didn’t make any mistakes, which is pretty tough to do with all that traffic out there.”
What was expected to be a battle between Corvette Racing and the pole-sitting Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR 19 become a one-horse race when the No. 85 Iron Dames Porsche went wide at Turn 1 and dislodged some of the rear bodywork on the car. The team finished in eighth place.
Second place went to the No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche, while the No. 57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo placed third, ahead of the No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari.
For Corvette Racing, winning at Sebring with two new drivers was the ideal scenario.
“There’s so much to say about today,” said Nicky Catsburg, who shares the car with Keating and Nico Carrone. “If you look at the execution, it’s not like we were out-pacing everyone by so much. We just made zero mistakes. In the pitlane, I feel like we were by far the fastest team, which is a big credit to the guys. It’s super-nice to start the season off like this. Those guys (Keating and Varrone) in their first race for Corvette and their first win, I think that’s pretty cool.”
The WEC returns to action next month with the 6 Hours of Portimão in Portugal.
