Porsche Penske’s Kevin Estre posted the fastest lap time in second free practice running for the FIA World Endurance Championship season-opener in Qatar.
Much like the opening free practice session which saw all Hypercars within two seconds of each other, the closely packed field continued their preparations with another 90-minute session from late afternoon to evening time.
Porsche continued their encouraging pace with both Porsche Penske factory cars and their three customer entrants.
It was Kevin Estre who went fastest, although teams were evidently conducting longer runs in order to learn and prepare for tyre management in the 1812 km race on Saturday.
Three out of the five top Hypercars were Porsche 963s, and the top-five order was separated once again by close margins.
First of all, Isotta Fraschini’s Jean-Karl Vernay completed four laps before he got his #11 Tipo 6-C stuck in the gravel trap at the Turn 6 hairpin.
A red flag was deployed in order to retrieve the stricken Hypercar, as the session resumed with over an hour remaining.
After Porsche Penske topped FP1, they continued their promising pace in FP2, as #6 Porsche 963 driver Kevin Estre was the first and only to dip under the 1-minute 40-second lap time barrier.
A full-course-yellow was momentarily deployed with under 15 minutes to go to remove debris at T14.
The debris was supposedly after Earl Bamber’s #2 Cadillac Racing V-Series.R and Joel Sturm’s #92 Porsche PureRxcing 911 R LMGT3 made contact with one another.
With nine minutes remaining Mirko Bortolotti’s #63 Lamborghini SC63 came to a halt on track at Turn 7, prompting another red flag and four minutes later race control made the decision to end the session early after he suffered a mechanical failure which stuck the gearbox in third gear.
Estre’s time of 1:39.990 retained the top spot for the #6 963 from earlier on in the session – Jean-Eric Vergne set a late 1:40.772 in the #93 Peugeot 9X8 for second place.
Third position was claimed by Jenson Button in the #38 JOTA Porsche 963 just one-tenth behind the #93.
In fourth was the #2 V-Series.R in which Alex Lynn set a 1:40.986, as Matt Campbell’s 1:41.173 rounded the top-five order in his #5 963, all of whom resided within little over 1 second.
Unfortunately since Isotta Fraschini’s gravel trap moment, they did not complete any further lap times and so tomorrow’s 1-hour FP3 session will be their next chance for more laps before qualifying.
As seen in FP1, the LMGT3 outfits of D’station Racing, United Autosports and AF Corse continued their quick form whilst gaining valuable laps ahead of qualifying tomorrow.
MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi of the #46 WRT BMW M4 LMGT3 briefly jumped up to third in the order with 50 minutes remaining, as he enters his second year as a GT works driver for the Bavarian marque.
During the second half of the session, track limits violations occured as TF Sport’s #82 Corvette Z06 driver Sebastien Baud was given a five-minute stop-and-go penalty for abusing the ruling.
Takeshi Kimura was awarded the same penalty shortly afterwards in the #87 Akkodis ASP Lexus RC F for the same reason.
AF Corse knocked out a 1-2 finish, with the #55 car at the front owing to a 1:55.190 lap time by Simon Mann.
The sibling #54 Ferrari 296 was in second place from a 1:55.445 set by Francesco Castellacci, as Team WRT’s #31 BMW occupied third after Sean Gelael set a 1:55.515.
Fourth position was taken by the #777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage, after Erwan Bastard posted their fastest time of 1:55.549.
United Autosports’ #95 rounded out the top-five in LMGT3 as Marino Sato put in a time of 1:55.563.
FP3 will continue the proceedings tomorrow morning with a 1-hour session scheduled to broadcast on the FIA WEC YouTube channel, from 8am GMT or 11am local time.
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