Estre keeps Porsche on top in second Qatar practice session

Porsche’s stranglehold on the top of the timing screens in Qatar continued during Free Practice 2 this evening, with Kevin Estre becoming the first driver to set a sub-1m40 lap of the Losail International Circuit this week.

The Frenchman’s best time was a 1m39.990s in the No. 6 963, almost 0.8s clear of the rest of the runners on a circuit which that is evolving with each session.

After the rest day between the Prologue and Free Practice 1, the track surface became dirty, covered in sand once again. That plus strong winds left many drivers drivers struggling for pace. The times, as a result, were slower across the board than the two-day test. But, in Free Practice 2 this evening, after plenty of track action throughout the day from the FIA WEC and support bill runners, times began to tumble as teams began to think ahead to Qualifying tomorrow.

Second fastest in the times was the No. 93 Peugeot TotalEnergies 9X8 after a 1m40.772s from Jean-Eric Vergne, 0.010s up on the No. 38 Hertz Team Jota 963, which made it two 963s and three teams in the top three.

The No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R’s promising week in Qatar continued with the fourth-best time set by Alex Lynn, who lapped within a second of Estre. The No. 6 Porsche, meanwhile, book-ended the top five for Team Penske with a 1m41.173s.

Lower down the order, Toyota and Ferrari had a quiet evening under the floodlights in terms of outright pace. The No.51 was the quickest 499P and ended up seventh, while the No. 7 Toyota ended the night eighth, the pair 1.4 and 1.5 seconds off Estre’s hot lap respectively.

There were two notable incidents involving Hypercars in the session that brought out red flags. The first was for an off for Isotta Fraschini’s Jean Karl Vernay into the Gravel at Turn 6. The second came with just six minutes left in the 90-minute run when Mirko Bortolotti stopped at Turn 7 in the No. 63 Lamborghini SC63.

The No. 20 BMW Team WRT M Hybrid V8 also hit trouble. The Belgian team was forced to change the car’s battery pack, limiting the car to just 15 laps.

LMGT3 saw Vista AF Corse’s Ferrari 296 LMGT3s finish up one-two in the times with Simon Mann’s 1m55.190s in the No. 55 the quickest tour in the session. While undoubtedly a quick time, it was still more than half a second off the best LMGT3 time from the Prologue (1m54.480s) set by United Autosports’ Gregoire Saucy.

Best of the rest was the No. 31 WRT BMW M4 GT3, which was just three-tenths off the No. 55 Ferrari. The No. 777 Aston Martin finished up fourth ahead of the No. 95 United Autosports McLaren. On this occasion the top 12 LMGT3 cars all finished within a second of the pace-setting car.

Free Practice 3 is next up at 11:00am local time Friday.

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