Porsche panics the clock at Silverstone in EL2

Since the opening round of WEC last year, the hybrid LM P1s lost 10% of power. If some expected a drop in performance, Brendon Hartley this afternoon confirmed that this would not be the case. At the wheel of the 919 Hybrid n°1, the New Zealander completed a lap of the British track in 1’39”655, to compare to the 1’39”534 he signed last year!

The outgoing world champion was ahead of Dumas-Jani-Lieb’s sister car by 1 and the No. 689 Audi R1 of Duval-Di Grassi-Jarvis. The top five is completed by the Toyota TS050 Hybrid n°5 (+1”868) and the Audi n°7 of Tréluyer-Fässler-Lotterer.

In LM P2, the Gibson 015S n°42 of Strakka Racing of Leventis-Watts-Kane signed the best performance of the day in 1’49”632, preceding the #05 Manor Racing Oreca 44 of Merhi-Rao-Bradley. Follow the Alpine A460 n°36 of Stone-Menezes-Richelmi and the second 05 from Manor.

In 2’00”107, la Ferrari 488 GTE from Bruni-Calado rose to the top of the hierarchy in front of the second car bearing the prancing horse, on which Bird and Rigon are inscribed. The Fords were discreet. Olivier Pla is fifth in 2'02"775, behind the Porsche 911 RSR from Dempsey – Proton Racing andAston Martin Vantage GTE n°97.

The top three, in GTE Am, is made up of the Porsche 911 RSR n°86 of Gulf Racing, the No. 98 Aston Martin Vantage and the Corvette C7.R from Larbre Compétition.