Toyota set the pace in the first official free practice session of the 2017 FIA WEC season at Silverstone on Friday. An early effort of 1:40.104 from Sebastien Buemi in the #8 wasn’t bettered in the course of the session, although the two TS050s were split by Brendon Hartley’s 1:40.885 in the #2 Porsche. The #7 Toyota and #1 Porsche were third and fourth-fastest respectively.
Fastest in P2 was the #13 Rebellion, courtesy of Mathias Beche’s 1:45.913, with the #28 TDS Racing Oreca second and the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing entry third. The ByKolles LMP1, meanwhile, was slower than all but one of the LMP2 runners.
In GTE, it was an Aston one-two, with the #95 Pro car going quickest with Richie Stanaway at the wheel (a 1:59.110), followed just a few tenths behind by Pedro Lamy in the #98 Am entry.
There were only a few spits of rain and no major incidents in the course of the session, just one full-course yellow coming when Stefan Mucke stopped the #66 Ford GT (which wound up the third-quickest GTE in the session) at the Loop. The German managed to get the car going again, however, and normal service was swiftly resumed.
