Porsche concludes the Prologue in the lead

Porsche a dominé toutes les séances d’essais du Prologue du WEC contested on Paul-Ricard (Var). Brendon Hartley was responsible for setting the best test time with a lap of the Castellet circuit completed in 1'37"445 during the last session at the wheel of the 919 Hybrid, four hundredths less than the previous benchmark achieved by Neel Jani .

La Toyota TS050 Hybrid est la plus proche en pointant à huit dixièmes après un chrono de Stéphane Sarrazin réalisé dans la matinée de la seconde journée. Benoît Tréluyer a réalisé le meilleur temps de l’Audi R18 dans les derniers moments des essais en terminant à 1 »3 de la référence.

Roman Rusinov set the best time of the afternoon in LMP2 with a time of 1'47"024 at the wheel of the G-Drive Racing Oreca 05-Nissan. The Russian lost half a tenth behind the benchmark set during the second morning by Gustavo Menezes, author of a lap in 1'46"974 on theAlpine A460-Nissan which beat the time of Nick Leventis on the Gibson 015S-Nissan of Strakka Racing by two thousandths.

The Ferrari 488 GTEs from AF Corse dominated the GTE Pro sessions. Gianmaria Bruni was the fastest, completing a lap in 1'57"808, almost three tenths ahead of his teammate Sam Bird. The Ford GTs were the closest, Olivier Pla having been the best performer among the American manufacturer's drivers, being seven tenths behind the first Italian.

The competitors nevertheless had to hide their game since the Corvette C7R from Larbre Compétition was faster than the Ford GTs, Paolo Ruberti having achieved the best time of the GTE Am with a lap completed in 1'58"268 in the first session.

Discover the report of the Prologue produced by our special correspondents in issue 2056 of AUTOhebdo, available from Monday evening in digital version on all platforms, and from Wednesday on newsstands.