The first day of the FIA WEC’s official testing in Florida has ended with the new LMP2 entry of Prema Orlen at the top of the timing screens. The team’s Oreca 07 – Gibson, shared by drivers Robert Kubica, Louis Deletraz and Lorenzo Colombo, recorded a best time of 1m 49.084s around the 6.19km circuit.

The morning session was interrupted by a storm that combined high winds, driving rain and the threat of lightning strikes but the inclement weather passed rapidly, allowing the teams to continue their programmes in cool but sunny conditions.

Among the senior Hypercar entries, the Alpine A480 shared by Andre Nagrão, Nicolas Lapierre and Matthieu Vaxivierre was fastest in second overall, recording a time 0.126s shy of Prema Orlen. The American-flagged Glickenhaus 007 LMH shared by Olivier Pla, Romain Dumas and Ryan Briscoe was a further 0.126s behind in fifth place overall.

In total 11 cars among the 36-strong entry for next week’s 1000 Miles of Sebring race were within one second of the fastest time after the first day of testing. The fastest of the Toyota GR010 Hybrids ended the sessions in seventh place for defending WEC champions Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and José María Lopez. The sister car of Sébastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa set the tenth fastest time.

The fastest of the LMGTE Pro contenders were the two Porsche 911 RSR–19 entries from the Porsche GT Team in 20th and 21st overall. Just 0.02s behind them was the works Corvette C8.R in which Tommy Milner and Nick Tandy will contest the American brand’s first full WEC season.

In the LMGTE Am category, it was the Iron Lynx-run Ferrari 488 GTE Evo which set the best time in 25th place overall just 0.014s faster than the Porsche of Team Project 1 and the all-female crew of Iron Dames third in their Ferrari.

The Prologue continues on Sunday (March 13). The 1000 Miles of Sebring, Round 1 of the 2022 FIA WEC season, takes place on Friday, March 18.