WEC Prologue Concluded at Sebring … Useful Information for Ferrari

Sebring, 14 March 2022

A few days before the official start of Season 10 of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the two-day prologue at the Sebring track concluded after four valuable sessions to test the cars ahead of Friday’s race. Two 488 GTEs competed in the LMGTE Pro class and five in the LMGTE Am on the 6,019-metre Florida circuit.

Day 1
The first day of practice, marked by frigid temperatures and the passing of a typhoon front, was interrupted in the morning. As the track conditions gradually improved, the times became increasingly meaningful, and the teams successfully completed the planned work. In the LMGTE Pro class, the Ferraris closed the sessions in fourth and fifth position, just over a second behind the Porsches, which clocked the best lap times. In the LMGTE Am class, Giancarlo Fisichella in the 488 GTE of Iron Lynx set the fastest lap of the day, 1:58.227. His teammates this season will be Claudio Schiavoni and Matteo Cressoni. The Iron Dames Frey-Gatting-Bovy turned in the third fastest time, with the other Maranello cars further back. The first of the two AF Corse Ferraris, the number 21 of Mann-Ulrich-Vilander, finished seventh. The Spirit of Race 488 GTE of Dezoteux-Ragues-Aubry came eighth and the Piacenza-based team’s second entry, crewed by Flohr-Castellacci-Cassidy, was eleventh.

Day 2
Without the vagaries of the weather and with more information about the cars’ set-up, day two provided valuable indications for the race. After covering a total of 208 laps on day one, the AF Corse 488 GTEs racked up another 200 laps at the end of the fourth and final session, despite Sunday’s six red flag periods. The number 51 and 52 Ferraris set the fourth and fifth fastest times, both in the morning and afternoon. In the LMGTE Am class, the AF Corse cars took a step forward, with Simon Mann, Christoph Ulrich and Toni Vilander setting the third fastest time and Thomas Flohr, Francesco Castellacci and Nick Cassidy fifth in session four. The two Iron Lynx 488 GTEs took sixth and ninth place, with the 85 driven by Frey-Gatting-Bovy ahead of the twin number 60 of Fisichella-Schiavoni-Cressoni. Spirit of Race’s Ferrari set the tenth fastest time, having been involved in an accident earlier in the morning, with the driver escaping unscathed. After the 488 GTE was restored to working order, the trio of Dezoteux-Ragues-Aubry returned on the track to complete the session.