The first WEC session of the weekend and year was greeted with damp conditions from rain earlier in the day and grey skies. With Silverstone being the opening to the World Endurance Championship this season, this would be the first competitive session for the new 2013 cars in the series; the GTE Pro factory Porsche 991’s, Ferrari 458s and Aston Martin V8 Vantages, as well as the Lotus T128’s in LMP2.
Here is the account of the session:
12:30: First time of the session set by Christoffer Nygaard in the #95 Aston Martin with a time of 2:20.9
12:31: First GTE Pro time was set by Gianmaria Bruni with a 2:33.7
12:32: The first LMP2 time of the session was set by Martin Plowman in the #35 Oak Racing Morgan Nissan with a 2:21 lap.
12:33: The new fastest time in GTE Pro set by Toni Vilander in the #71 Ferrari, 2:19.1.
12:34: Plowman betters his time and tops the timings overall with a 2:13 lap.
12:35: Alexandre Impertori in the #47 Morgan Nissan sets the fastest time in LMP2 with a 2:12.5.
12:37: First time set by a Lmp2 Oreca Nissan this season is Nic Minassian for Pecom Racing, taking top spot on the timing screens with a 2:08.4.
12:37: The first time in LMP1 this season is set by the #8 Toyota TS030, Stephane Sarrazin sets a 2:08.9.
12:38: The #2 Audi set a time with McNish going 2nd in LMP1, however the #7 Toyota of Alex Wurz takes top spot in P1 and overall with a 2:02.3.
12:39: GTE Pro’s top time is beaten by Ricard Lietz in the factory #92 Porsche 991.
12:39: Strakka Racing’s Jonny Kane splits up the factory cars on the P1 timing and goes 2nd with a 2:06.2
12:42: The #97 Aston Martin will not take part in the session due to a rebuild. Aston Martin Team Principle John Gaw explained that it was “something we noticed on shakedown which we thought was fine, but it’s not, so we will not take the chance. We won’t miss much, we are changing the engine”.
12:44: It’s 20 Minutes into the session and neither Lotus T128 LMP2 has set a flying lap, the #32 has done an outlap, but the #31 Lotus hasn’t yet emerged from the garage.
12:45: The GTE Am standings are now lead by the #95 and #96 Aston Martin respectively.
12:46: Andrea Bellichi goes third fastest overall in the #13 Rebellion 2:03.026.
12:46: Toni Vilander in the #71 AF Corse 458 goes quickest in GTE Pro, with a 2:17.793.
12:48: Phillip Peter goes second fastest in GTE Am and splits the Astons in the #81 AF Corse Ferrari.
12:49: Time improvements are coming slowly as the track dries out a bit. Stephane Sarrrazin goes third in LMP1 with a 2:02.2 in the #8 Toyota.
12:52: Toni Vilander improves his time by over one second with a 2:16.2. The first sector is where the quicker cars are finding the time at the moment.
12:53: Stephane Sarrazin has improved his time on three consecutive laps but stays third.
12:53: Paulo Ruberti goes quickest in GTE Am in the #88 Porsche with a time of 2:19.215
12:55: Ruberti goes quicker again and goes second quickest among all GTE cars with a time of 2:16.989, only Vilander in the #71 AF Corse Ferrari is faster.
12:57: Ruberti improves again by Ricard Lietz takes the overall lead in GTE, leapfrogging Vilander with a time of 2:15.289. Ruberti’s time is a 2:16.251. Kobayashi takes over in the #71
12:58 Mike Conway goes second quickest in LMP2 in the #26 G-Drive Oreca Nissan with a 2:05.949
12:59: Nick Hiedfeld improves to fifth in LMP1, with a 2:03.407 in the #12, full season Rebellion.
13:00: Loic Duval in the #2 Audi goes quickest overall with a 1:58.682, but only improved in the third sector doing so.
13:01: Offline on the track is still very wet. Marcel Fassler sets the third quickest time in LMP1 with a 2:00.337, which is the first flying lap from the #1 Audi.
13:02: Alex Wurz takes the top spot in LMP1 once again, with an improvement in sectors 1 and 2 with a time of 1:56.549.
13:03 Marcel Fassler improves again but stays third in LMP1 with a time of 1:58.811.
13:03: Andrea Belicchi goes fourth in the #13 Rebellion Lola with a 2:00.785.
13:04: Alex Brundle sets LMP2’s fastest time in the #24 Oak Morgan Nissan with a 2:03.226.
13:05: Julien Canal in the #50 Larbre Corvette moves up to second in GTE Am.
13:05: Marcel Fassler takes 2nd in LMP1 with a 1:57.841.
13:06: Loic Duval goes fastest overall once again in the #2 Audi with a 1:56.071.
13:06: Alex Wurz puts in the fastest 1st and 3rd sectors of the session, but doesn’t improve his time, and stays 2nd in LMP1.
13:07: Alex Brundle improves again in the #24 Oak Morgan Nissan, with a 2:01.685, which gives him a 2 second advantage over the 2nd placed Pecom Oreca and puts him ahead of two LMP1’s, now sixth overall.
13:09: The #31 Lotus T128 emerges from the garage, but goes back in after one outlap. The #32 Lotus has done the same twice as of now.
13:12: Nick Hiedfeld improves his time in the #12 Rebellion Lola and puts the car up to 6th in LMP1 with a time of 2:01.561. Strakka’s HPD is now 6th in LMP1.
13:16: Stephane Sarrazin improves his time and puts in a 1:58.907, but stays the last of the factory LMP1’s.
13:20: Giancarlo Fisichella moves up into second in GTE Pro with a 2:16.187, the #92 factory Porsche 991.
13:24: Ramond Narac in the #76 IMSA Performance Porsche moves up into second in GTE Am, with a time of 2:16.757. It’s now a Porsche 1 -2 in Am.
13:26: The lead in GTE Pro changes, with Kobayashi taking top spot in the #71 AF Corse 458, putting in a 2:13.909, almost a second quicker than the second place #92 Factory 991.
13:27: Giancarlo Fisichella, with a 2:14.703 puts the #51 AF Corse 458 into 2nd in GTE Pro, making it an AF Corse 1-2 at the top of the GTE standings.
13:29: Romain Dumas answers AF Corse putting the #92 Porsche 991 second quickest in GTE Pro, with a 2:14.513.
13:31: Both Lotus’ have completed flying laps, with the #32 going 2:18.283 with Thomas Holzer at the wheel and the #31 with Christophe Bouchut putting in a 2:21.803. They are 20 seconds off the lead time of the #24 Morgan Nissan of David Heinemeier-Hanson though.
13:38: Anthony Davidson in the #8 Toyota moves above Andre Lotterer in the #1 Audi, and takes 3rd in LMP1.
13:43 Giancarlo Fisichella in the #51 AF Corse has been black and white flagged out on track for driving standards.
13:44: Andre Lotterer improves on his previous best in the session with a 1:57.195, but stays 4th in LMP1.
13:45: Kamui Kobayashi in the #71 AF Corse moves up to top spot in GTE Pro, taking the top time from his team mate with a 2:12.965.
13:46: Christophe Nygaard goes quickest in GTE Am in the factory #95 Aston Martin with a time of 2:14.991, just over a second faster than the 2nd place #76 IMSA Porsche.
13:48: Fernando Rees moves up to 2nd in GTE Am briefly in the #50 Larbre Corvette, but immediately gets bettered by Stuart Hall in the #96 Aston, who goes second with a 2:15.231.
13:48: The fastest time in LMP2 now goes to Mike Conway in the #26 Oreca Nissan who manages a 1:58.866, which puts him 6th fastest overall!
13:50: Fernando Rees now goes quickest in GTE Am in the #50, with a time of 2:14.154.
13:51: Andre Lotterer goes fastest overall in the #1 Audi, with a time of 1:55.669, it is now an Audi 1 -2 at the top.
13:51 Tom Kristensen goes to the top once again in the #2 Audi posting a time of 1:55.130, with 3 minutes to go in the session.
13:52: Andre Lotterer goes quicker again in the middle sector, and sets a personal best, but doesn’t take top spot, with a 1:55.156.
Session end.
It was an interesting session at the top of each class with the main headline being Audi taking the top two spots in LMP1. Toyota though, who are running 2012 spec TS030’s this weekend, were very close behind the new 2013 e-tron Quattros at this early stage of the weekend. The privateers in LMP1 however, have once again started the season multiple seconds off the pace of the factory cars even after receiving performance breaks prior to the start of the this weekend.
In LMP2 it’s a promising start to the season for G-Drive Racing, with their #26 Oreca piloted by Romain Rusinov being over 2 seconds quicker than the 2nd place #24 Oak Racing Morgan Nissan. At the bottom of the class though, were the new Lotus T128’s, which had a shaky start to the session, but finished it close to the other teams in class, with Bouchut’s best time being just five tenths slower than the nearest competitor.
Another promising start to the season was the brand new factory Porsche 991’s in GTE Pro, which ran competitively in the wet conditions all session, and even leading the class early on. The main story though is AF Corse’s start to 2013 topping the time sheets, with the debuting Kamui Kobayashi having a very strong run throughout the session in tricky conditions. Giancarlo Fisichella in AF Corse’s #51 car however was eventually black flagged for driving standards, and therefore had the lap times in the session nullified after finishing un-officially 2nd in class.
GTE Am looks to be a very close class once again this season, after multiple changes at the top of the class finished with Fernando Rees’ fastest time in the #50 Larbre Competition Corvette C6.R first. Aston Martin also bookended the session very strongly, with a 1-2 early on and finishing 2nd and 3rd, with the all Danish #95 car with Christophe Nygaard leading the charge.
Stephen Kilbey
