Sunny skies and temperatures of 23 degrees greeted the twenty-eight FIA World Endurance Championship cars in Brazil today.
The nr8 Toyota TS030 of Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi and Stephane Sarrazin set the fastest time in the first track session of the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo weekend at Interlagos. Davidson’s time of 1m21.881 was eight tenths faster than his closest rival, the nr1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of reigning world champions Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fassler. The sole LMP1 Privateer entry from Rebellion Racing was fourth fastest behind the nr2 Audi, 3.6 seconds adrift of the lead Toyota.
In LMP2 it was a very close session with the top six cars covered by just 1 second. It was a 1-2 for the Oak Racing team with the nr24 Morgan-Nissan of Olivier Pla, Alex Brundle and David Heinemeier-Hansson taking the top spot in the class, with Plasetting a 1m28.136 lap, just 0.124 ahead of his teammates in the nr35 car, with Martin Plowman setting the best time. The nr49 Pecom Racing Oreca Nissan of Luis Perez Companc, Nicolas Minassian and Pierre Kaffer was just 0.1 seconds behind the two Oak Racing Morgans and top four was rounded out by the nr26 G-Drive Racing Oreca, just 0.799 seconds behind the fastest car in the class.
The first 90 minutes of practice has now been and gone, and the many drivers new to the Interlagos track have had their first opportunity to find their way around. With warmer track conditions expected tomorrow and on race day, all the drivers and engineers will be anxious to work on their car set ups today as well as assessing the different tyre choices available.
Aston Martin Racing topped the time sheets for both the LMGTE Pro and Am classes, with Darren Turner’s No.97 Aston Martin Vantage V8 claiming the quickest lap for the marque in the Pro category. His time of 1:33.648 was half a second ahead of the No.92 Porsche AG Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR (1:34.160) which was in turn one tenth of a second in front of the No.51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia (1:34.298). It promises to be as close as always between world’s luxury car marques.
In the LMGTE Am category, there was a two-way fight for the top spot between the No.95 and No.96 Aston Martin Vantages of Jamie Campbell-Walter and newcomer to the Danish entry, Nicki Thiim. The Dane eventually finished on top with a best time of 1:35.287, just 0.05seconds ahead of the British driver. The fastest Ferrari 458, No.61 8Star Motorsports, ended the day in third place with a best time of 1:35.554.
The combined grid of FIA WEC cars will be back on track for a second 90 minutes of free practice this afternoon at 15:40h local time.
A full list of times can be found HERE
