Porsche takes the lead in the Prologue

The kick-off of the 2015 World Championship seasonEndurance was finally given this morning, with the green light for the first session of the Prologue on the Paul Ricard route in Var. At the end of the first four hours of driving, the best time returned to the Porsche 919 Hybrid n°18 by Romain Dumas? Neel Jani? Marc Lieb in 1’39″292. The trio is ahead of Toyota TS040 Hybrid n°1 of the reigning world champions Sébastien Buemi and Anthony Davidson, joined this season by the Japanese Kazuki Nakajima. The Japanese LM P1 prototype, presented yesterday in the South-East of France, failed 0″657 behind the leading Porsche.

Behind these only two cars to have gone below 1'40 per lap we find the second 919 n°17 ​​entrusted to Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard. Note that the No. 1 Toyota has so far been the most diligent on the track with 76 laps completed. The Audis, less diligent on the track this Friday morning, are in 4th and 5th positions, the No. 7 of Benoît Tréluyer? Marcel Fassler? André Lotterer ahead of the n°8 of Loïc duval ? Lucas di Grassi? Oliver Jarvis. Wurz's Toyota No. 2? Conway ? Sarrazin takes 6th place. The CLM P1/01 of Team ByKolles ranks 11th.

In LM P2, the best time went to the Oreca 05 from the KCMG team with Richard Bradleu at the helm in front of the Dome S103 of Strakka Racing and theAlpine Signatech A450b-Alpine of the Capillary trio? Panciatici? Chatin.

The GTE Pro saw the short domination of AF Corse and the Ferrari 458 Italia n°51 from the Bruni duo? Vilander ahead of the two Porsche 911 RSRs from Team Manthey, the #92 preceding the #91. Six hundredths separate the three cars. Finally in GTE Am, theAston Martin n°96 of the trio Francesco Castellaci – Roald Goethe – Stuart Hall was the fastest.