EL1 – Rebellion and Aston Martin ahead in Austin

The best time was set by the Rebellion R13 n°1 of Nato-Menezes-Senna in 1'49"957. The Swiss car designed by Oreca, winner of the 4 Hours of Shanghai, beat the Toyota TS050 Hybrid n°8 entrusted to the trio Buemi-Hartley-Nakajima.

Surprise, it is an LM P2 which is in third place and not the No. 7 Toyota, only ninth at 2”5. However, there is no need to worry about Conway, Lopez and Kobayashi, who would never have had the opportunity to ride with new tires and an empty tank, unlike their teammates. But the gap between LM P1 and LM P2 is surprising.

As usual, United Autosports dominated the free sessions with its No. 22 Oreca at the wheel of which Di Resta, Albuquerque and Hanson were registered. Credited with a 1'50"488 (only 0"531 from the absolute best mark), the English 07 preceded the 07 n°37 of Jackie Chan DC Racing (Aubry-Stevens-Tung) and theAlpine A470 from Laurent-negrao- Rages.

Aston Martin (n°97) in front of the two Ferrari (n°51 and n°71), such is the top three in the GTE Pro, the advantage therefore going to the English rider from Lynn-Martin, but with tiny gaps over the competition. The best Porsche, No. 91, is fourth.

Dempsey-Proton Racing shines in GTE Am with the #77 Porsche of Campbell-Ried-Pera moving up the hierarchy ahead of the #88 of Preining-Curtis-De Leener. Two other 911 RSRs follow, the No. 86 of Gulf Racing (Wainwright-Watson-Barker) and the No. 56 of Team Project 1 (Bleekemolen-Perfetti-Hörr).

The second free practice session is scheduled for 19:45 p.m. French time, with qualifying at 00:40 a.m.