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.
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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About this article
| Series | WEC |
| Event | COTA |
| Sub-event | FP1 |
| Author | Gary Watkins |
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