The 2019 1,000 Miles of Sebring was an Endurance sportscar racing event held on the 15th of March 2019, as the sixth round of the 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship. This was the inaugural running of the

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

, a 268-lap event, and the first FIA WEC race to be held at

Sebring International Raceway Sebring International Raceway is a road course auto racing facility in the southeastern United States, located near Sebring, Florida. Sebring Raceway is one of the oldest continuously operating race tracks in the U.S., its first race being run i ...

since the 2012 12 Hours of Sebring.

Background

The provisional calendar for the 2018-19 FIA World Endurance Championship, released on the 1st of September 2017 saw a raft of changes, with several races dropped, but included a return to Sebring for the first time since 2012. In the provisional calendar issued, the race was originally planned to be run as a second 12-hour race after the IMSA Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring on the same weekend, and would start at midnight after the conclusion of the IMSA 12 hours. On 21 September 2017, the race became known as the 1500 Miles of Sebring, to avoid confusion between the 2 events, at the

FIA World Motor Sport Council The World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) is a major organ within the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile's governance structure. Its primary role is amending current regulations and drafting new regulations for all of international motor spo ...

meeting in Paris. However, on 4 April 2018, it was announced that the race would become shortened to 1000 Miles or 268 laps, have a time limit of 8 Hours, and would take place on March 15 instead, prior to the start of the 12 Hours of Sebring, rather than after the race. In addition, it was also announced that there would be a new pitlane built to accommodate the WEC teams, located on the Ulman Straight.

Entry list

The entry list released on the 8th of February 2019 saw a number of changes, with the #4 ByKolles Racing Team ENSO CLM P1/01 removed, after the team announced they would not compete due to an engine supply dispute with

NISMO , abbreviated as Nismo, is a division of Nissan Motorsports & Customizing focused in motorsport and performance-oriented car models for Nissan. Nismo was initially a company, , formed in 1984 as a result of a merger of two motorsport departmen ...

, and an additional Entry from the

Corvette Racing Corvette Racing is an American auto racing team established in 1999 by General Motors and Pratt & Miller for the purposes of competing in sports car racing internationally. Corvette Racing is an official racing program for General Motors and t ...

team. Nathanael Berthon was added to the #3

Rebellion Racing Rebellion Racing is a Swiss racing team that competes in endurance racing. The team competed in the 2011 Intercontinental Le Mans Cup season and won the LMP1 teams' title in the 2011 Le Mans Series season. The team started as an association ...

Rebellion R13 The Rebellion R13 is a sports prototype racing car built by French constructor Oreca on behalf of Swiss-based team Rebellion Racing. It is a variation of the Oreca 07, created to compete in the LMP1 class. It would later be renamed by Alpine to A ...

, while

Mathias Beche Mathias Beche (born 28 June 1986 in Geneva) is a Swiss professional racing driver. He finished eighth overall and second in the LMP2 class of the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans and is the reigning champion of the European Le Mans Series in the LMP2 clas ...

moved to the #1, replacing Andre Lotterer, who was unable to attend due to a clashing simulator test for the DS Techeetah Formula E team.

Jenson Button Jenson Alexander Lyons Button (born 19 January 1980) is a British racing driver. He won the 2009 Formula One World Championship when he drove for the Brawn GP team. After his F1 career, he became champion of the 2018 season of the Super GT ...

and

Matevos Isaakyan Matevos "Matos" Isaakyan (russian: Матевос "Матос" Исаакян; born 17 April 1998) is a Russian racing driver. He is a current member of the SMP Racing driver programme. Career Karting Born in Moscow, Isaakyan began karting in h ...

were replaced in the #11 and #17

SMP Racing SMP Racing is the motor sport endurance racing team and also motorsport management created in 2013 by Boris Rotenberg, founder of the SMP Bank of Russia. Description The goal of SMP Racing is to train and unveil new talents. The team's training ...

BR Engineering BR1s by Brendon Hartley and Sergey Sirotkin respectively.

Qualifying

Qualifying Results

Pole position winners in each class are marked in bold – Stephane Sarrazin had his best lap time deleted for ignoring blue flags.
– Thomas Flohr and Motoaki Ishakawa both had their fastest lap times deleted for speeding under the red flag.
– Only one driver of the No. 61 Clearwater Racing set a lap time.
– The No. 61 Clearwater Racing withdrew due to Perez-Companc's crash in qualifying.
– Michael Wainwright had his fastest lap time deleted for speeding under the red flag, resulting in only one driver of the No. 86 Gulf Racing UK being classified as setting a lap time.
– All of 's and Nyck de Vries' lap times were deleted for speeding in the pit lane, resulting in the No. 29 Racing Team Nederland having no times.

Race

Race Result

The minimum number of laps for classification (70% of the overall winning car's distance was 178 laps. Class winners are in bold.

Standings after the race

;2018–2019 LMP World Endurance Drivers' Championship ;2018–2019 LMP1 World Endurance Championship * Note: Only the top five positions are included for the Drivers' Championship standings. ;2018–2019 World Endurance GTE Drivers' Championship ;2018–2019 World Endurance GTE Manufacturers' Championship * Note: Only the top five positions are included for the Drivers' Championship standings.

References

External links

* {{WEC Rounds 1000 Miles of Sebring 2018–19 FIA World Endurance Championship season 2019 in sports in Florida 2019 in American motorsport March 2019 sports events in the United States