FP1: Audi places itself at the forefront

After the Prologue contested at the end of March at Paul Ricard in the Var, the competitors of the World ChampionshipEndurance returned to the track this morning for the first official free practice session on the British track at Silverstone. A first confrontation which smiled on Audi Sport, author of the best time in 1'42"121 thanks to the trio of the R18 e-tron quattro n°8 of Loïc duval, Lucas du Grassi (author of the chrono) and Oliver Jarvis. The LM P1 prototype on the rings is ahead of the Porsche 919 Hybrid n°17 Brendon Hartley ? Mark Webber? Timo Bernhard, who failed at 0″144 in second position. Behind the leading duo, we take the same ones and we start again since the No. 7 Audi of Marcel Fässler, Benoît Tréluyer and André Lotterer climbs into third position in front of the No. 919 Porsche 18 of Dumas? Jani? Lieb, delayed this morning by a mechanical problem.

Toyota, the reigning world champion team, followed in 4th and 5th position, but the two TS040 Hybrids were relegated to 0″6 and 1″4 behind the leading car. The CLM 01/P1 of Team ByKolles, where Christian klien made its appearance today, finished in 14th place, ahead of most of the LM P2s.

In LM P2 precisely, the G Drive Racing showed itself to its advantage this morning with the two Ligier JS P2s at the helm of the category, Yacaman? Derani? Gonzalez having got the best of the Canal trio? Bird? Rusinov. The KCMG Oreca 05 took third place, just over five tenths behind the leading Ligier, just ahead of theAlpine Signatech A450b-Alpine, driven by Paul-Loup Chatin? Nelson Panciatici and Vincent Capillaire.

On the GTE Pro side, Aston Martin dominated the debates thanks to the n°95 of Thiim – Nygaard? Sorensen who got the best of the Gianmaria Bruni duo? Toni Vilander (Ferrari 458? AF Corse) and the #97 Vantage of Darren Turner and Stefan Mücke. The two Porsche 911 RSRs from Team Manthey follow by almost four tenths. The Porsche 911 RSR from Ried – Al-Qubaisi? Bachler (Abu Dhabi? Proton Racing) was the fastest in GTE Am ahead of the #458 Ferrari 72 from SMP Racing and the Corvette C7 from Larbre Compétition.

The second free practice session will begin shortly before 17 p.m. French time.