Porsche dominates EL1 in Austin

Bien qu’ayant outrageusement dominé les 6 Heures de Mexico, Porsche ne s’attend pas pour autant à avoir la partie facile ce week-end à Austin (Texas), aux 6 Heures du Circuit des Amériques. Reste que le constructeur allemand a dominé la première séance d’essais libres. La 919 Hybrid n°2 de Earl Bamber-Timo Bernhard-Brendon Hartley completed a lap in 1'48"124. Porsche signed the double since the n°1 of Lotterer-Jani-Tandy follows at 0”145.

Si la firme de Zuffenhausen a pour le moment l’avantage, Toyota n’est qu’à 0 »460 grâce à la n°8 de Buemi-Sarrazin-Nakajima, when the n°7 of Conway-Kobayashi-Lopez is 1”190 behind the reference mark.

In LM P2, the No. 07 Oreca 26 of G-Drive Racing rose to the top of the timesheet. Credited with a 1'55"399, the trio Lynn-Rusinov-Thiriet precedes the No. 28 of TDS Racing entrusted to Collard-Perrodo-Vaxivière (+0"309). But the differences are small since the top three is completed byAlpine A470 n°37 of Stone-Menezes-negrao, which follows at 0 »636. CEFC Manor TRS Racing has more difficulty, the two 07s from the Chinese team bringing up the rear by more than a second and a half.

Discreet in Mexico, the Fords returned to the forefront in GTE Pro, the No. 66 GT from Mücke-Pla having signed a 2'04"939 placing it just ahead of Priaulx-Tincknell's sister car. Both follow in the same second Ferrari 488 GTE. Aston Martin and Porsche are further behind.

Finally, mishandled over the last two rounds, the No. 98 Aston Martin of Lauda-Lamy-Dalla Lana regained first place in GTE Am. It is ahead of the Porsche 911 RSRs of Dempsey-Proton Racing and Gulf Racing UK.

Meet at 23:30 p.m. (French time) for the second free practice session.