Toyota move a lap ahead of Ferrari at halfway mark of Sebring 1000 Miles

Toyota continue to lead the way in the Sebring 1000 Miles going into the second half of the World Endurance Championship’s season-opening race.

The two GR010 Hybrids were split by half a second after a quarter of the race had passed, and now there is 4.7 seconds between the leading number seven car of Jose Maria Lopez, Mike Conway and Kamui Kobayashi and the chasing number eight crew of Ryo Hirakawa, Sebastien Buemi and Brendon Hartley.

The number eight led after 67 laps, the quarter-distance point, and had less than a second in hand over the sister car until lap 92. The lead then grew significantly for Hartley, who was at the wheel during that stint, and Toyota responded to the drop in pace for the second-placed car by pitting it a few laps later.

Hartley went for the overcut, but when lap 97 was put under Full Course Yellow conditions he had to dive in during the countdown to the FCY period’s stats as stops are not allowed in the first three laps of such periods. The pit lane entry light was already red at that point, but Toyota avoided a penalty by only performing a quick refuelling stop and then completing the rest of the service two laps later once the FCY was over.

That did not cost Hartley the lead, as doing the first stop under FCY conditions meant the cars still on track were racing at lower speeds than usual, and when he completed the second part of his stop he was 3.25s up on Kobayashi.

A lap down, the pole-winning number 50 Ferrari driven by Miguel Molina took third place from the Team Penske-run number six Porsche driven by Kevin Estre with a pass at the restart. The gap between the top two fluctuated, while Estre kept within half a second of the Ferrari until it began to suffer from rear tyre degradation and he started to hassle Molina as they lapped cars from the lower classes before finally finding a way past following several laps of battling with an impressive move at turn 16.

Estre was already 2.3s clear just one lap after making the move, with that gap growing and growing while Cadillac’s Earl Bamber started to close in on the struggling Molina.

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Ferrari pitted Molina to hand over to Nicklas Nielsen before Bamber could get too close, and at the same time there was a change of position on the top step of the podium as Kobayashi took the lead of the race.

Nielsen showed the Ferrari 499P’s pace once on fresh tyres as he passed Andre Lotterer in the number six Porsche, but the sister Ferrari continued with the degradation struggles. After a costly off Nielsen pitted and left Bamber with a big gap in third place.

When Bamber eventually pitted it was Nielsen who then moved into third, but the car was a lap down and so Nielsen did not benefit when the leading Toyota also pitted.

Ryo Hirakawa took over the number eight Toyota and emerged 3.5s behind team mate Jose Maria Lopez. On colder tyres he could not sustain the pace, and Hirakawa later complained of traction trouble as he watched the other Toyota pull away. Nielsen also drew away from Lotterer as the race reached its halfway point, and Antonio Giovinazzi took on driving duties in the number 51 Ferrari in fifth.

Far further back in the overall classification was Jacques Villeneuve in the sole Vanwall hypercar. He found it difficult to lap cars from lower classes once he got in the ByKolles-run machine, and consistently lost time to the other hypercars in the field.

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Pos	No.	Class	Team	Car	Drivers
1	7	Hypercar (Hybrid)	Toyota	Toyota GR010 Hybrid	Mike Conway/Kamui Kobayashi/Jose Maria Lopez
2	8	Hypercar (Hybrid)	Toyota	Toyota GR010 Hybrid	Sébastien Buemi/Brendon Hartley/Ryo Hirakawa
3	50	Hypercar (Hybrid)	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Antonio Fuoco/Miguel Molina/Nicklas Nielsen
4	6	Hypercar (Hybrid)	Porsche Penske	Porsche 963	Kévin Estre/André Lotterer/Laurens Vanthoor
5	51	Hypercar (Hybrid)	Ferrari AF Corse	Ferrari 499P	Alessandro Pier Guidi/James Calado/Antonio Giovinazzi
6	2	Hypercar (Hybrid)	Cadillac	Cadillac V-Series.R	Earl Bamber/Alex Lynn/Richard Westbrook
7	5	Hypercar (Hybrid)	Porsche Penske	Porsche 963	Dane Cameron/Michael Christensen/Frédéric Makowiecki
8	48	LMP2	Jota	Oreca 07 – Gibson	David Beckmann/Yifei Ye/William Stevens
9	63	LMP2	Prema	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Doriane Pin/Mirko Bortolotti/Daniil Kvyat
10	4	Hypercar (Hybrid)	Floyd Vanwall	Vanwall Vandervell 680	Tom Dillmann/Esteban Guerrieri/Jacques Villeneuve
11	41	LMP2	Team WRT	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Rui Andrade/Robert Kubica/Louis Delétraz
12	22	LMP2	United Autosports	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Frederick Lubin/Philip Hanson/Filipe Albuquerque
13	31	LMP2	Team WRT	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Sean Gelael/Ferdinand Habsburg/Robin Frijns
14	34	LMP2	Inter Europol	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Jakub Smiechowski/Fabio Scherer/Albert Costa
15	35	LMP2	Alpine	Oreca 07 – Gibson	André Negrão/Memo Rojas/Oliver Caldwell
16	28	LMP2	Jota	Oreca 07 – Gibson	David Heinemeier Hansson/Pietro Fittipaldi/Oliver Rasmussen
17	9	LMP2	Prema	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Filip Ugran/Bent Viscaal/Andrea Caldarelli
18	36	LMP2	Alpine	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Matthieu Vaxiviere/Julien Canal/Charles Milesi
19	33	LMGTE Am	Corvette	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	Ben Keating/Nicolas Varrone/Nicky Catsburg
20	86	LMGTE Am	GR	Porsche 911 RSR 19	Michael Wainwright/Riccardo Pera/Benjamin Barker
21	77	LMGTE Am	Dempsey-Proton	Porsche 911 RSR 19	Christian Ried/Mikkel Pedersen/Julien Andlauer
22	21	LMGTE Am	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	Stefano Costantini/Simon Mann/Ulysse de Pauw
23	54	LMGTE Am	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	Thomas Flohr/Francesco Castellacci/Davide Rigon
24	57	LMGTE Am	Kessel	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	Takeshi Kimura/Scott Huffaker/Daniel Serra
25	60	LMGTE Am	Iron Lynx	Porsche 911 RSR 19	Claudio Schiavoni/Matteo Cressoni/Alessio Picariello
26	777	LMGTE Am	D’Station	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Satoshi Hoshino/Casper Stevenson/Tomonobu Fujii
27	85	LMGTE Am	Iron Dames	Porsche 911 RSR 19	Sarah Bovy/Michelle Gatting/Rahel Frey
28	25	LMGTE Am	ORT by TF	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Ahmad Al Harthy/Michael Dinan/Charlie Eastwood
29	56	LMGTE Am	Project 1 AO	Porsche 911 RSR 19	PJ Hyett/Gunnar Jeannette/Matteo Cairoli
30	98	LMGTE Am	Northwest AMR	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	Paul Dalla Lana/Nicki Thiim/Axcil Jeffries
31	93	Hypercar (Hybrid)	Peugeot	Peugeot 9X8	Paul Di Resta/Mikkel Jensen/Jean-Éric Vergne
32	10	LMP2	Vector Sport	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Ryan Cullen/Matthias Kaiser/Gabriel Aubry
33	23	LMP2	United Autosports	Oreca 07 – Gibson	Joshua Pierson/Tom Blomqvist/Oliver Jarvis
34	708	Hypercar (Hybrid)	Glickenhaus	Glickenhaus 007	Romain Dumas/Ryan Briscoe/Olivier Pla
35	94	Hypercar (Hybrid)	Peugeot	Peugeot 9X8	Loic Duval/Gustavo Menezes/Nico Müller
36	83	LMGTE Am	AF Corse	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	Luis Perez Companc/Lilou Wadoux/Alessio Rovera

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