Neel Jani’s time of 1:37.487 – the quickest time of the day – put Porsche on top for the third and final session of day one, as the cars ran into the darkness at Ricard. It capped off a day in which the German marque topped the times for practically every minute of every session.
Second this time round was Toyota, with Kazuki Nakajima setting the #5’s quickest time – a 1:38.347 in the closing minutes. It put the TS050 1.3 seconds quicker than the third-placed #7 Audi R18, which managed a time of 1:39.679.
The Audi once again suffered niggles though, managing just four laps total in the final two hours of track running. Andre Lotterer stopped out on track early in the session, before returning the car to the garage under its own power. But the car didn’t emerge from the pits after that.
4.6 seconds off the quickest time was the first of the P1 privateer runners, the #12 Rebellion Racing R-One.
Gustavo Menezes topped the times in LMP2 with a lap of 1:47.792 capping off a very promising day for the Alpine team which has been consistently quick all day.
“I first drove this car two weeks ago in Motorland, for a shakedown session,” Menezes said to DSC’s Mat Fernandez during the session. “It is obviously very different from driving a Formula 3 car! My work here is not about trying to reach the car’s limits. it is really about optimizing a package.
“So far, I am amazed by the reliability of the car: our Alpine has run almost flawlessly. We only had one minor glitch with the headlights. I hope we can keep it that way throughout the season. The traffic on the track was not a problem: I am used to managing much worse in Tudor. We have a great driver line-up this season. I am really looking forward to taking advantage of Nico Lapierre’s huge experience.”
RGR Sport by Morand finished up the day second in the class, a best time of 1:47.821, with the #31 ESM Ligier less than a tenth back in third.
Down in GTE Pro is was another good outing for the new 488, which again went quickest of the GTE runners. Gianmaria Bruni once again set the best time in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari, a 1:58.109.
Aston Martin Racing, after a quiet day overall finished up fastest of the GTE Am runners with Pedro Lamy reeling off a 2:01.754. The Larbre Corvette – which led the first two sessions of the Prologue in Am, didn’t take part in the session however.
Stephen Kilbey
(Mat Fernandez contributed to this report)
