Yahoo Autos Toyota to the fore in second Brazil WEC practice
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s pair of GR010 HYBRIDs finished Free Practice 2 at Interlagos circuit 1-2 at the top of the times this afternoon.
Sebastien Buemi set the best lap in the team’s No. 8 car early in the session, which was extended to two hours and 15 minutes to make up for the time lost to barrier repairs in Free Practice 1.
It was extremely tight at the top in Hypercar. A late improvement from Kamui Kobayashi put the No. 7 second in the times with a 1m25.760s, while Alessandro Pier Guidi went third with a 1m25.770s — the top three drivers therefore setting times within a tenth.
The top five was completed by the sister factory Ferrari (with Antonio Fuoco setting the No. 50’s best time) and the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R.
Cadillac driver Alex Lynn feels encouraged by the team’s performance.
“I’d say it was a successful day. We loaded off the truck good and showed good pace,” he said. “We have some homework to do tonight to improve, but all in all, I’m pleased with how quickly we’ve adapted to the circuit and the variable weather conditions.”
Unlike FP1, Free Practice 2 was held in fully dry conditions. This will have come as a relief to the teams, who are still getting up to speed with the tricky, technical Brazilian circuit.
Further down the order, it was a better session for Hertz Team JOTA, its two Porsche 963s finishing up sixth and seventh. The No. 38 had a far more productive run in the second session. After a technical issue reduced its lap count to seven in FP1, the car completed 76 tours this afternoon.
On this occasion, the No. 36 Alpine completed the fewest laps in Hypercar, the A424 spending much of the session in the garage and completing just 41 laps with a best time of 1m27.295s to go 17th.
In LMGT3 AKKODIS ASP’s #87 Lexus RC F LMGT3 set the best time, with Jose Maria Lopez the only driver in the field to set a sub-1m36s lap.
His 1m35.725s will serve as a morale boost for the team, which is down to a single car for the remainder of the weekend after it was forced to withdraw the sister car from the meeting following its Free Practice 1 shunt.
Lopez’s time was 0.3s up on the rest of the field. The Iron Lynx Lamborghini slotted in second after a flying lap from Franck Perera, while the No. 55 AF Corse Ferrari took third with a 1m36.201s.
Free Practice 3 is up next. It will get underway tomorrow morning at 10:30 local time.
