The Driver’s Championship leading #17 Porsche was fastest in FP1 this afternoon, Timo Bernhard popping in a 1:42.800, good enough to end the session just 17 thousandths clear of the other Championship contender, the #7 Audi.
The #8 Audi was next up, 6 tenths down but half a tenth up on the #18 Porsche in fourth.
Alexandre Imperatori popped in a 1:50.149 in the #13 Rebellion AER to top LMP1 Privateer by just a single thousandth of a second from the team car.
In LMP2 Nelson Panciatici followed up a race win last time out for the #36 Alpine with top time here (1:52.054), just ahead of the last of the LMP1s the #4 CLM.
More importantly the second LMP2 in the order, the Championship leading #26 G-Drive Ligier Nissan was just 32 thousandths down on the Alpine, Sam Bird setting the time ahead of Danny Watts in the Strakka Gibson Nissan and Nick Tandy in the #47 KCMG Oreca Nissan.
GTE Pro saw three cars inside 2:01 with the #51 Ferrari coming out on top 2:00.136, four tenths up on the sister #71 car, though James Calado crawled back to the pits in the closing moments of the session with a right rear puncture. Patrick Pilet put the #92 Porsche third with Darren Turner popping up fourth fastest in the #97 Aston Martin.
Pedro Lamy topped GTE Am in the #98 Aston Martin (2:01.280), fourth fastest GTE overall, under two tenths clear of Paulo Ruberti in the #50 Larbre Corvette and almost a second up on third fastest in class Andrea Bertolini in the Championship leading #72 SMP Ferrari.
