WEC – EL3: Porsche sends a signal

Mark Webber loves Silverstone, and he wanted to prove it to his opponents this morning. At the wheel of the Porsche 919 Hybrid n°20, the Australian in fact set the best time in the third free practice session of the opening round of the WEC, completing a lap of the British track in 1'42"837. Romain Dumas, on the sister car, conceding only 0 "150, the Stuttgart firm even signs the double. To be confirmed this afternoon, at 13 p.m., during qualifying.

To be confirmed, yes, because Audi and Toyota are not far away. Di Grassi’s #18 R1 e-tron quattroDuval-Kristensen is only 0”430 behind and the fastest Japanese LM P1, the TS040 Hybrid n°8 of Buemi-Davidson-Stone is at 0 »998. The latter, however, was not able to complete more than three laps after experiencing problems with its supercapacitor.

In LM P2, as usual, Olivier Pla climbed to the top of the hierarchy at the wheel of his No. 26 G-Drive Racing Morgan-Nissan, thanks to a time of 1'49"484. The Toulouse driver beat the Oreca 03 KCMG of Tsugio Matsuda and the No. 03 SMP Racing Oreca 37 of Kirill Ladygin.

In GTE, the Ams came to tickle the Pros, the technical specifications being very similar between the two classes this year. Thus, by completing a lap in 1'59"335 aboard the Ferrari 458 Italia n°81 of AF Corse, Sam Bird holds the reference mark for GTE Am (1'59"335), and is located in the general classification just behind his teammate Gianmaria Bruni, who is raging on the n° 51 in GTE Pro, who posted a 1’59”315.

Now it’s time for serious things with, at 13 p.m. (French time), the qualifications.