1000M Sebring Red Flagged After Big Off For Lopez

The 2022 FIA WEC 1000 Miles of Sebring has been red flagged after 112 laps following a big off into the barriers for Jose Maria Lopez in the #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing GR010 HYBRID, which was an on the spot retirement. The incident occurred while Lopez was leading the race and trying to get past the #88 Dempsey Proton Porsche of Julien Andlauer at the hairpin. Lopez tagged the Porsche while going around the outside after the exit of Turn 7 and was sent into a spin into the barriers.

Lopez continued, thinking the damage wasn’t too bad and tried to nurse the car back to the pits. Unfortunately moments later the nose dropped shortly after he got up to speed, sending him head on into a set of tyre barriers and into a roll.

Thankfully Lopez was able to walk away unscathed. Toyota told DSC that Lopez is being checked out at the medical centre because the car’s G-Force impact light came on after the incident. ‘The doctors are with him and report he is fine’, a spokesperson said.

“First of all Jose is out of the car, he is ok with no pain. This is good news. This is what we see sometimes in WEC. He clipped the tail of the car, said on the radio it was ok to continue after his spin. He accelerated, the nose came down because of the impact, he couldn’t steer and he went straight into the tyre wall. Thank god he is ok and the safety of the car is good.” Said Toyota’s Alex Wurz.

This leaves Toyota with just one car left in the race, and makes the Le Mans Hypercar class a straight fight between three cars from three different teams.

Brendon Hartley, in an out of sync pit sequence, leads in the #8 Toyota, though the sole remaining GR010 will drop back behind the Alpine which has led from the start after its next stop.

Andre Negrao is currently aboard the leading Alpine, which had a lead of over a minute before the red flag, which is still on going as the race approaches its halfway point.

Third is the #708 Glickenhaus, which has struggled with tyre temperatures but has shown flashes of pace.

In LMP2 PREMA Orlen leads after leapfrogging the two United ORECA at the fifth round of stops. Louis Deletraz will lead the way in the class when the race restarts, ahead of Paul Di Resta in the #23 United ORECA and Will Owen in the sister #22 United entry. The two WRT ORECAs complete the top five with the #41 ahead of the #31.

In GTE Pro it’s been a fight between Corvette and Porsche thus far, with the #64 C8.R leading the way after Nick Tandy stormed into the lead in the opening stint of the race.

Nick Tandy having bossed worn tyres to hold off Michael Christensen, the Corvette’s C8.R’s GTE Pro lead consolidated as the second and third place Porsches took their 15 second penalties at the 2 hour stops. Michael Christensen double stinted and wrung out the #92 Porsche’s right hand tyres to reduce its gap in second in the third hour, but the Corvette maintains its lead at the red flag intermission. The #91 Porsche was half a lap off the lead in third, the top three posting comparable lap times. AF Corse’s Ferraris not figuring in this race so far, the #51 heads the #52 488 GTE, fourth and fifth, both just on the lead lap.

Having led from the start, Northwest AMR holds a grip on the GTE Am class, Paul Dalla Lana posting a sturdy triple stint, effectively exhausting his seat time. Ben Keating has also strung together solid stints, the #33 TF Sport car currently back into second. Aston Martin’s early dominance has been challenged though. Sebastian Priaulx has impressed on his WEC debut, hauling Dempsey Proton’s #77 Porsche to split the leading Aston Martin pairing at the three hour point, Christian Ried now back aboard the Porsche, now running third.

Sixth in class, Iron Dames have the highest placed Ferrari, the AF Corse entries unusually struggling further down the order.

Having recovered the troubled #46 Project 1 Porsche to seventh in class, Nic Leutwiler span its rear end into the tyres at the final turn, bodywork damage putting the car behind the wall for further repairs.

The #88 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche triggered the red flag sequence of events with the #7 Toyota clipping Julian Andlauer at Turn 7, this being further to earlier drama for the yellow car with a right rear puncture.

Originally the race was due to run to 238 laps, but this red flag has left the clock running, meaning it will now be a timed race. It is due to get back underway shortly.