#41 RealTeam by WRT Oreca Tops Times On Sunday Morning, #71 Ferrari Hits Trouble
The third session of the 2022 FIA WEC Prologue test got underway under clear skies but initially low temperatures with a stiff breeze sweeping through, thereafter the temperatures climbed steadily and are expected to remain warm for the remainder of the test, and the race meeting beyond.
There were three red flag stoppages, one coming out during a full course caution after the #44 ARC Bratislava Oreca spun at T17 during the caution in the hands of Tijmen van der Helm.
Another came for the recovery of the #92 Porsche stopped out at T8, the car later seen in the garage with attention being paid to its left rear corner – driveshaft failure later confirmed.
And yet another came after a big off for the #71 Spirit of Race Ferrari of Franck Dezoteux, the car suffering damage to the front, the left hand side and with minor damage to the rear too.
The Ferrari was recovered to the paddock with about an hour of the session remaining, initial visual assessments were that it is repairable today.
On track it was another session headed by an LMP2 car overall with the #41 Realteam by WRT Oreca topping the times in the hands of Ferdinand Habsburg, a 1:48.089 beating the second, #31 WRT car by three tenths.
Rounding out the top three overall was the only Hypercar in the top eight – the #36 Alpine four-tenths off the top time.
The #8 Toyota was ninth fastest and the #708 Glickenhaus 10th with the #7 Toyota down in 15th, 1.4 seconds off Habsburg.
In GTE Pro Michael Christensen topped the session in the #92 Porsche with a 1:55.315, a mark over a second faster than the next quickest – which was his team-mate Kevin Estre, this with the car delayed substantially in the session for a replacement driveshaft.
The #64 Corvette split the Porsche for the first time in the two day test thus far, Tommy Milner with a 1:56.409 ahead of Gimmi Bruni in the #91 Porsche.
Sebastien Priaulx topped his first session in the WEC with a 1:57.573 in the #77 Dempsey Proton Porsche, his mark matched to the thousandth a little later by Matteo Cairoli in the #46 Project 1 Porsche.
Julien Andlauer was third fastest in the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche before, remarkably, two other drivers also posted matched times, Ben Barnicoat (#56 Project 1) and Jan Heylen (#88 Dempsey Proton with 1:57.798 apiece!
First of the non-Porsches was Giancarlo Fisichella in the #60 Iron Lynx Ferrari (1:58.148) who was, in turn, just a single thousandth clear of Nikki Thiim in the #98 Northwest AMR Aston Martin.
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