The first qualifying session of the 2022 FIA World Endurance Championship season ended with the Alpine A480 driven by Nicolas Lapierre securing pole position for tomorrow’s 1000 Miles of Sebring.
The Alpine squad delivered on the promise that its car had shown in the Prologue tests and Free Practice sessions to set far and away the fastest WEC lap yet seen on the historic 6.019km Sebring International Raceway with a time of 1m47.407s.
Lapierre’s pole time was more than 1.3 seconds faster than Alpine’s nearest rival, the Glickenhaus 007 being qualified by Olivier Pla. Starting in third place will be the fastest of the LMP2 contenders, the Oreca 07-Gibson of AF Corse that was driven by Nicklas Nielsen.
“I was quite surprised actually that I was able to go that much quicker, but the car felt super nice and I was able to extract good pace,” said Lapierre, who will share the car with Matthieu Vaxivière and André Negrão on race day.
“The track conditions are changing a lot day to day so it is a nice challenge to find a good balance. The team gave us a great car and we have worked hard for this pole position so we are really very happy and looking forward to the race tomorrow now.”
The defending WEC champions in the number 7 Toyota GR010-Hybrid hypercar, with José María Lopez at the wheel, could muster only fourth fastest. The Japanese team’s best effort was just over two seconds away from Lapierre’s benchmark and the team, which never finished off the podium in 2021, will start the race with both LMP2 entries of United Autosports USA snapping at its heels.
A front row lock-out was achieved in LMGTE Pro by the Porsche GT Team with its pair of Porsche 911 RSR-19s. Kevin Estre urged the number 92 car to the fore in the dying moments of the session, taking the honours by a margin of just 0.13 seconds over the team’s sister entry driven by Gianmaria Bruni.
Third place was claimed by the works Corvette C8.R driven by Nick Tandy, with the two Ferrari F488 GTE Evos of AF Corse a further 1.5 seconds behind the American machine.
In the LMGTE Am class it was the Aston Martin Vantage AMR of TF Sport qualified by Ben Keating that set the pace, while the similar car of Northwest AMR completing another class lock-out. Team Project 1 claimed third place with its Porsche and the all-female Iron Dames team will start fourth in the 12-car field of contenders in the category.
The 1000 Miles of Sebring begins at 10:00 EST tomorrow, Friday March 18.