Austin WEC: Rebellion leads Toyota in first practice

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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