Practice report

Silverstone WEC: Rebellion leads Toyota in FP1

Rebellion Racing topped the timesheets in the opening practice session of the 2019/20 FIA World Endurance Championship season at Silverstone, beating Toyota by over four tenths of a second.

Norman Nato set the fastest time at the wheel of the #1 Rebellion R-13-Gibson with less than 10 minutes to go in the 90-minute session, a 1m38.860s.

That was 0.420s up on the quickest Toyota, the #8 TS050 Hybrid, which set a 1m38.280s in the hands of Sebastien Buemi, while the sister #7 car was third-fastest thanks to a late effort of 1m39.431s set by Kamui Kobayashi.

Despite running 54kg heavier than they did in the 2018 Silverstone race, the Toyotas were still 0.7s faster than they were in FP1 last year, helped by the British track's recent resurfacing.

Rebellion's second car, the #3, was fourth, 0.858s off the pace with ex-Audi LMP1 driver Loic Duval at the wheel, while the best of the Ginetta G60-LT-P1s was fifth.

One-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Guy Smith set the British marque's best time of 1m40.618s, but the #5 Ginetta failed to set a timed lap, completing only three installation laps due to persistent gear selection problems.

LMP2 was led by United Autosports, with Filipe Albuquerque setting the class benchmark of 1m43.066s early on in the squad's newly-acquired Oreca 07.

That was enough to beat Nicolas Lapierre's benchmark in the Cool Racing Oreca by 0.404s, while third-fastest was the Racing Team Nederland Oreca in the hands of Job van Uitert, who is substituting for Nyck de Vries this weekend.

Michelin locked out the top three in LMP2, with the best of the Goodyear runners, the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing, ending up fourth.

Gianmaria Bruni left it late to send Porsche to the top of the GTE Pro class times with a lap of 1m55.766s in the new 911 RSR-19.

That demoted the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE driven by James Calado to second, while Aston Martin made it three different marques in the top three courtesy of Marco Sorensen in the #95 Vantage GTE.

TF Sport's new-generation Aston Martin topped the order in GTE Am with factory driver Jonathan Adam at the wheel, ahead of the works Vantage of Darren Turner.

Elsewhere in Am, there has been a driver change in the #56 Project 1 Porsche, with German youngster David Kolkmann substituting for David Heinemeier Hansson, whose wife is expected to give birth imminently.

It's understood however that there remains a chance Heinemeier Hansson could race alongside teammates Egidio Perfetti and Matteo Cairoli.

The session was delayed by 20 minutes due to a heavy crash at Stowe for Carlin driver Jack Manchester in the preceding European Le Mans Series session.

The WEC 4 Hours of Silverstone will be streamed live on Motorsport.tv. Click here for more coverage details.

Session results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	1	Bruno Senna Gustavo Menezes Norman Nato	Rebellion R13	LMP1	1'38.860
2	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'39.280	0.420
3	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'39.431	0.571
4	3	Nathanael Berthon Pipo Derani Loic Duval	Rebellion R13	LMP1	1'39.718	0.858
5	6	Michael Simpson Oliver Jarvis Guy Smith	Ginetta G60-LT-P1	LMP1	1'40.618	1.758
6	22	Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Paul di Resta	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'43.066	4.206
7	42	Nicolas Lapierre Antonin Borga Alexandre Coigny	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'43.470	4.610
8	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Job Van Uitert	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'43.776	4.916
9	37	Ho-Pin Tung Gabriel Aubry Will Stevens	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'43.953	5.093
10	36	Thomas Laurent Andre Negrao Pierre Ragues	Alpine A470	LMP2	1'44.188	5.328
11	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'44.497	5.637
12	33	Mark Patterson Kenta Yamashita Anders Fjordbach	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'45.367	6.507
13	47	Roberto Lacorte Andrea Belicchi Giorgio Sernagiotto	Dallara P217	LMP2	1'46.182	7.322
14	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'55.766	16.906
15	51	James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'56.069	17.209
16	95	Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	1'56.361	17.501
17	97	Alex Lynn Maxime Martin	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	1'56.390	17.530
18	71	Davide Rigon Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'56.426	17.566
19	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	1'56.445	17.585
20	90	Salih Yoluc Charles Eastwood Jonathan Adam	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'56.611	17.751
21	98	Paul Dalla Lana Darren Turner Ross Gunn	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	1'57.190	18.330
22	70	Motoaki Ishikawa Olivier Beretta Kei Cozzolino	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'57.251	18.391
23	56	Egidio Perfetti David Kolkmann Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'57.429	18.569
24	57	Ben Keating Felipe Fraga Jeroen Bleekemolen	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'57.482	18.622
25	77	Christian Ried Matt Campbell Riccardo Pera	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'57.827	18.967
26	83	François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'57.976	19.116
27	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'58.031	19.171
28	88	Thomas Preining Gianluca Giraudi Ricardo Sanchez	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'58.040	19.180
29	86	Michael Wainwright Andrew Watson Benjamin Barker	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'58.541	19.681
30	62	Bonamy Grimes Johnny Mowlem Charles Hollings	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	1'58.618	19.758
31	5	Charles Robertson Ben Hanley Egor Orudzhev	Ginetta G60-LT-P1	LMP1
View full results