Oliver Jarvis put Audi on top in Free Practice 1 to kick off the Lone Star Le Mans weekend in the #8 R18 with a 1:48.453 late in the session, to push the #2 Porsche of Neel Jani and the sister Audi down to second and third.
Audi’s pair of R18s were fast throughout the session, with Jani in the #2 Porsche the only other car to challenge on pace once the session settled down. Jani reeled of a 1:48.500 in the closing minutes to take the top spot, but Jarvis climbed aboard the #8 and set the best time of the Hybrids shortly after, just before the end of the running.
Third was the #7 Audi, four tenths off Jarvis’ flyer, with the #1 Porsche fourth a further three tenths back. Rounding out the top five was the first of the Toyotas; the #6 TS050 with a 1:49.361. Rebellion went quickest in LMP1 L down in seventh place, behind the second of the two Toyotas.
In LMP2, it was an Oreca/Alpine washout at the top, with Rene Rast setting the fastest time of the afternoon session. The German managed a 1:57.000 with just under an hour remaining in the 90-minute session. The championship-leading #35 Alpine ended up second, ahead of the the #44 Manor Oreca third following a rapid 1:57.647 by Richard Bradley.
The fastest non-Oreca chassis behind the #36 Alpine that sat fourth was the #31 ESM Ligier which was 1.8 seconds off Rast’s time following a 1:58.753 tour.
In Pro, Stefan Mucke put the #66 Ford GT at the top of the class with a 2:05.457 in the final minutes. For a time it was an AF Corse 1-2-, with the #51 of Gianmaria Bruni and #71 of Davide Rigon trading fastest laps, but in the end the 2:05.560 from Bruni wasn’t enough. The #51 dropped to second, with the #71 third.
The #95 Aston finished up just shy of the top three with a 2:06.634; while the sister car had a rough time. An early Full-Course Yellow was called for Darren Turner going off into the gravel at Turn 1 in the opening minutes of the session, before returning to the pits and later handing over to Fernando Rees, who ground to a half shortly after climbing aboard. The car did get going again, but it was slowest of the Pro runners; its best a 2:07.518.
The 2:07.518 from the #97 wasn’t even faster than the best of the Am runners. The #50 Larbre Corvette ran fastest in the class with Ricky Taylor setting a 2:07.412 before WEC debutant Lars Viljoen stopped on the entry to the pits at the end of the session. The #88 Abu Dhabi and #86 Gulf Racing Porsches made up the top three in the class.
Free Practice 2 for the WEC runners is set to begin at 20:00 local time in Texas.
