Practice report
WEC COTA
Austin WEC: Rebellion leads Toyota in first practice
Rebellion Racing led the way in Saturday morning's first practice session for this weekend's Lone Star Le Mans at the Circuit of the Americas.
Gary Watkins
Edited: Feb 22, 2020, 6:27 PM
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Gustavo Menezes went fastest in the solo Rebellion R-13 with a 1m49.957s, which outpaced the best of the Toyotas by just under two tenths of a second.
Sebastien Buemi posted a 1m50.132s in the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, which is the least penalised of the two Japanese cars under the system of LMP1 success handicaps.
The #7 sister car, which is penalised by 2.77s compared with the #8 TS050's 2.21s, ended up ninth overall and slowest in the LMP1 field depleted by the absence of the two works Ginetta G60-LT-P1s.
Mike Conway's 1m52.460s in the #7 Toyota left him behind six LMP2 cars in the times at the end of the first of the pair of two-hour practice sessions on the compressed two-day Austin schedule.
The Toyota's handicaps compare with the 0.55s penalty for the Rebellion after its third-place finish behind the TS050s last time out in the WEC at Bahrain last December.
The United Autosports Oreca 07 led the way in LMP2 in third overall with a 1m50.488s from Filipe Albuquerque set at the beginning of the session.
Will Stevens got within two tenths of the class leader in the closing minutes with a 1m50.669s aboard the JOTA Sport-run Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca. Third fastest was Andre Negrao in the Signatech Alpine Oreca on 1m50.954s.
Albuquerque's time was more than three seconds quicker than the fastest LMP2 lap on the WEC's last visit to Austin in 2017. The improvement in times is at least partially down to the new track surface laid over the winter.
Aston Martin driver Maxime Martin jumped to the top of the GTE Pro order towards the end of the session. His 2m01.838s in the #97 Aston Martin Vantage GTE put him more than two tenths up on James Calado's 2m02.117s in the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE.
Calado and then teammate Alessandro Pier Guidi had been fastest for much of the session aboard the #51 car. The sister #71 Ferrari took third on a 2m02.276s from Miguel Molina.
Gianmaria Bruni ended up fourth in the best of the factory Porsche 911 RSR-19s with a 2m02.440s.
The new mid-engined Chevrolet Corvette C8-R ended up slowest of the 30-car field, behind all 11 GTE Am entries, despite a late improvement from Mike Rockenfeller. His 2m04.284s left him nearly 2.5s off the GTE Pro pace.
Matt Campbell pipped Dempsey-Proton Porsche teammate Thomas Preining for the top spot in GTE Am in the closing minutes of the session.
Session results:
Cla # Drivers Car Class Time Gap 1 1 Bruno Senna
Gustavo Menezes
Norman Nato
Rebellion R13 LMP1 1'49.957 2 8 Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima
Brendon Hartley
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'50.132 0.175 3 22 Philip Hanson
Filipe Albuquerque
Paul di Resta
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.488 0.531 4 37 Ho-Pin Tung
Gabriel Aubry
Will Stevens
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'50.669 0.712 5 36 Thomas Laurent
Andre Negrao
Pierre Ragues
Alpine A470 LMP2 1'50.954 0.997 6 29 Frits van Eerd
Giedo van der Garde
Nyck de Vries
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'51.171 1.214 7 21 Henrik Hedman
Ben Hanley
Colin Braun
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.058 2.101 8 38 Roberto Gonzalez
Antonio Felix da Costa
Anthony Davidson
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.122 2.165 9 7 Mike Conway
Kamui Kobayashi
Jose Maria Lopez
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'52.460 2.503 10 42 Nicolas Lapierre
Antonin Borga
Alexandre Coigny
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.762 2.805 11 33 Mark Patterson
Kenta Yamashita
Anders Fjordbach
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'52.858 2.901 12 47 Roberto Lacorte
Andrea Belicchi
Giorgio Sernagiotto
Dallara P217 LMP2 1'55.492 5.535 13 97 Alex Lynn
Maxime Martin
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 2'01.838 11.881 14 51 James Calado
Alessandro Pier Guidi
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 2'02.117 12.160 15 71 Davide Rigon
Miguel Molina
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 2'02.276 12.319 16 91 Gianmaria Bruni
Richard Lietz
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 2'02.440 12.483 17 92 Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre
Porsche 911 RSR - 19 LMGTE PRO 2'02.456 12.499 18 95 Marco Sorensen
Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 2'02.674 12.717 19 77 Christian Ried
Riccardo Pera
Matt Campbell
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'02.742 12.785 20 88 Bret Curtis
Adrien de Leener
Thomas Preining
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'02.911 12.954 21 86 Michael Wainwright
Andrew Watson
Benjamin Barker
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'02.985 13.028 22 56 Egidio Perfetti
Laurents Hörr
Matteo Cairoli
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'03.018 13.061 23 70 Motoaki Ishikawa
Olivier Beretta
Kei Cozzolino
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'03.202 13.245 24 98 Paul Dalla Lana
Darren Turner
Ross Gunn
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'03.302 13.345 25 57 Ben Keating
Felipe Fraga
Jeroen Bleekemolen
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'03.356 13.399 26 54 Thomas Flohr
Francesco Castellacci
Giancarlo Fisichella
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'03.460 13.503 27 90 Salih Yoluc
Charles Eastwood
Jonathan Adam
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE AM 2'03.542 13.585 28 83 François Perrodo
Emmanuel Collard
Nicklas Nielsen
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'03.697 13.740 29 62 Bonamy Grimes
Johnny Mowlem
Charles Hollings
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE AM 2'04.219 14.262 30 63 Jan Magnussen
Mike Rockenfeller
Chevrolet Corvette C8.R LMGTE PRO 2'04.284 14.327 View full results
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