The pair of Toyotas, with Sebastien Buemi and Mike Conway at the wheel lead the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 1000 Miles of Sebring after an hour, but the race was put under safety car for a big crash involving Luis Perez Companc in the #83 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE Evo.
The Ferrari 499P Hypercar of Antonio Fuoco lead the field away at the green flag, retaining the lead from Conway and Buemi, but just a few laps into the race, Perez Companc lost the rear end of his Ferrari GTE-Am car at T1, with the car landing on its roof. He climbed out unhurt but the car looked considerably worse for wear.
At the restart the Toyotas kept the lead, with Buemi in the #8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid now leading Conway in the sister #7 Toyota. In third is the #6 Porsche 963 of Laurens Vanthoor, who inherited the position after Pier Guidi pitted alongside his teammate Fuoco, promoting Vanthoor from fifth to third.
Alex Lynn’s #2 Cadillac V.Series-R is next up in fourth, followed by Michael Christensen in the #5 Porsche. The #93 Peugeot 9X8 of Paul di Resta is sixth, but is without its stablemate after the #94 Peugeot, driven by Loic Duval, pitted even before the green flag.
Duval took the car back on track — now dead last overall — but the car was stuck in first gear. He trundled round and pitted again, with the car then spending the best part of half an hour in the pits before returning to the track nine laps down.
The #4 Vanwall Vandervell 680 of Tom Dillmann is eighth, followed by the former leader, Fuoco in the #50 Ferrari, catching back up after pitting under safety car. However, the car has received a drive-through penalty for overtaking under safety car.
In LMP2 the lead has just switched from the two WRT cars to the United Autosports entries. Oliver Jarvis in the #23 United Autosports Oreca 07-Gibson took the green flag and retained the lead, but like the Ferrari hypercars, pitted under safety car alongside his teammate Frederick Lubin in the #22 United Autosports car.
The two are now in 1-2 position. Daniil Kvyat in the #63 Prema Oreca 07-Gibson is third in class, just over a second back from Lubin.
Tomonobu Fuji leads GTE-Am in the #777 D’Station Aston Martin Vantage AMR. Polesitter Sarah Bovy, driving the #85 Iron Dames Porsche 911 RSR. She got overtaken by Ben Keating moments before the safety car was deployed for Perez Companc’s crash, but Fuji jumped the pair by not pitting once the pit lane opened under safety car. Keating is now nine seconds behind Fuji, with Bovy less than a second off Keating.
