Porsche leads the dance on the Ricard
For the resumption of hostilities in FIA WEC at the Paul Ricard circuit, Porsche dominated the first morning of the Prologue thanks to the trio Romain Dumas-Neel Jani-Marc Lieb.
The Porsche 919 Hybrid No. 18 set its best of 68 laps in 1:39.292 to surpass the Toyota TS 040 – Hybrid No. 1 driven by Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi, and Kazuki Nakajima by 0.657 seconds. Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, and Brendon Hartley complete the Top 3 at just under eight-tenths.
The two Audi R18 e-tron quattros are ahead of the second Toyota. The CLM P1/01-AER of Team Bykolles is relegated to the 11th position behind several LMP2s.
KCMG and Oreca lead the way in LMP2
In the LMP2 category, KCMG posted the best time with 1:48.924 thanks to the trio Howson-Bradley-Tandy. For its return to LMP2, Strakka Racing took second place just ahead of the reigning ELMS Champions from Signatech Alpine (Panciatici-Chatin-Capillaire).
Ferrari and Aston at the forefront in GTE
Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander achieved the best time in the LMGTE Pro category with 1:58.514 in their Ferrari F458 Italia. The two Porsche 911 RSRs from the Prosche Team Manthey follow less than a tenth behind.
On the LMGTE Am side, it was Aston Martin that clocked the best time at 1:59.198 thanks to the trio Castelacci/Goethe/Hall. Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing follows in second position, just ahead of the Ferrari F458 Italia No. 83 of Team AF Corse.
Find the times for this first practice session by clicking on this link: Morning times.
