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.
Photo by: motosport.com
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 |
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