Antonio Giovinazzi headed a Ferrari AF Corse 1-2 in the second FIA World Endurance Championship free practice session as part of this Sunday’s Lone Star Le Mans.
During the second 90-minute session at the Circuit of the Americas, Antonio Giovinazzi emerged as the fastest driver over the 36-car field having set the pace in the #51 Ferrari 499P, as Ferrari also set promising pace in the LMGT3 category
It was hot and humid underneath the Texan sun with track temperatures hitting 48 degrees Celsius and 34 in the air, combined with a 50% humidity count.
The first disruption came soon after the halfway point when the #20 WRT BMW M Hybrid V8, which was running strongly at the sharper end of the Hypercar field in P3, stopped at Turn 15 with Sheldon van der Linde at the wheel, causing a red flag to be declared after losing his rear-right wheel.
Despite being third, Robin Frijns’ fastest lap time of 1:52.383 was just 0.115 seconds away from the quicker of the two factory Ferrari 499Ps – the #51 of Antonio Giovinazzi.
COTA returned to green flag running with 38 minutes remaining as the #20 did not carry out any more laps as it was returned to their garage.
Track limits excursions were a feature on the timing screens, with drivers carrying out their race preparations whilst also pushing to the limits around the twists of COTA.
It was Jean-Eric Vergne who strayed too often so that the #93 Peugeot 9X8 will serve a five-minute stop-and-hold penalty in FP3 for abusing track limits in FP2.
Ferrari finished 1-2 in the end with Giovinazzi’s 1:52.268 and Antonio Fuoco (#50 Ferrari 499P) in second position with a 1:52.320 time.
BMW WRT claimed an impressive third place, having set the outright pace prior to the Ferraris topping the time sheets, as the issue was pinpointed to a problem at the previous pit stop.
Fourth was taken by Alex Lynn in the #2 Cadillac V-Series.R as he drove a 1:52.533, followed by the fifth-placed #83 AF Corse Ferrari in which Robert Kubica completed a fastest time of 1:52.705.
In LMGT3, the top-10 of the 18-car grid was closely covered by just under eight-hundredths of a second.
At the end, the top-three cars were separated by just 0.078 seconds with WEC season rookie Sebastian Baud putting the #82 TF Sport Corvette Z06 GT3.R at the top with a 2:05.630 lap time.
Alessio Rovera followed second-quickest in the #55 AF Corse Ferrari 296 LMGT3 at just 0.043 away, as Davide Rigon set the other #54 AF Corse Ferrari in third place with a 2:05.708.
Fourth position was taken by the #87 Akoddis ASP Lexus RC F LMGT3 and Esteban Masson, after setting a 2:05.868.
The #60 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan LMGT3 EVO2 rounded out the top-five owning to the efforts of Frank Perrera’s 2:06.141.
Free practice 3 is set to take place tomorrow at 11am local time, 5pm BST/UK time.
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