WEC – EL1: Porsche takes the lead in São Paulo

Resurfaced, the Interlagos circuit track is undeniably faster than before. And for good reason, if since the start of the season, the times between the 1 LM P2014 and those of the previous generation have held up, the time of 1'20"784 signed by Marcel Fässler last year in qualifying has been shattered.

La Porsche 919 Hybrid n°20, meilleur temps de la première séance d’essais libres des 6 Heures de São Paulo, finale du WEC 2014, in fact completed his fastest lap in 1’19”172. The trio's car Brendon Hartley-Mark Webber-Timo Bernhard a devancé de 0 »339 la voiture sœur, la n°14 de Romain Dumas-Neel Jani-Marc Lieb. Les deux protos de la firme de Stuttgart ont précédé l’Audi R18 e-tron quattro n°2 (+0 »598) de Marcel Fässler-André Lotterer-Benoît Tréluyer et la Toyota TS040 Hybrid n°8 (+1 »131).

In LM P2, where the battle rages for the titles between the teams G-Drive Racing (#26) and SMP Racing (#27), it is the first named which came out the best. The Julian Canal-Olivier Pla-Roman Rusinov trio was credited with a 1’25”670. Second, their rivals, namely Nicolas Minassian, Maurizio Mediani and Sergey Zlobin, are second at 0”9.

In GTE Pro, the six cars entered are within the same second. There Ferrari 458 Italia n°71 of James Calado-Rigon set the best time in 1'31"592, just ahead of the n°51 of Gianmaria Bruni-Toni Vilander. The top three is completed by the No. 911 Porsche 92 RSR of the Patrick Pilet-Frédéric Makowiecki tandem.

Without surprise, Aston Martin Racing ruled the roost in GTE Am, with the #95 of Nicki Thiim-David Heinemeier Hansson-Kristian Poulsen setting a time of 1’32”011. Followed by the No. 458 Ferrari 61 Italia of Fittipaldi-Pier Guidi-Segal and the second Aston, the No. 98 of Lamy-Dalla Lana-Nygaard.

The second free practice session will begin at 20:30 p.m. French time.