Silverstone WEC: Toyota leads disrupted first practice

Conway's best time of 1m39.916s in the #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid came shortly after the first red flag period, caused by Bruno Senna suffering a heavy crash at Copse in the #1 Rebellion R-13.

Senna reportedly was able to get out of the car unaided but was taken for the medical centre for checks.

After a half-hour delay, the session resumed - with 15 minutes being added to make up for the lost running - but a second stoppage was caused when the ByKolles ENSO CLM P1/01 dumped oil on track at The Loop.

Sebastien Buemi set the best time in the Le Mans 24 Hours-winning #8 Toyota he shares with Fernando Alonso and Kazuki Nakajima, a 1m40.191s, in the early part of the session to make it a one-two for the Japanese marque.

Best of the LMP1 privateers was the #3 Rebellion, with Gustavo Menezes posting that car's best effort, 1.027s adrift of Conway, while the stricken #1 car set the fourth-best time, 3.2s off the pace, with Senna shortly before its accident.

Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button was quickest of the SMP Racing drivers, setting a 1m40.176s in the #11 BR Engineering BR1 which is running in high-downforce spec for the first time this season.

Egor Orudzhev was sixth in the #17 BR1 ahead of Ben Hanley in the #10 DragonSpeed BR1 and Oliver Webb in the #4 ENSO CLM before its problems.

LMP2 was led by Audi DTM star Loic Duval, who set a 1m46.122s in the #28 TDS Racing Oreca to go seven tenths clear of the opposition, led by GP3 racer Gabriel Aubry in the #38 Jackie Chan DC Racing car.

Third in class was the points-leading #36 Signatech Alpine, with Andre Negrao at the wheel.

Ford's pair of Chip Ganassi-run GTs led the way in GTE Pro, with Olivier Pla setting the best time in class - a 1m57.166s - shortly after the first red flag to put the #66 car ahead of Andy Priaulx's #67 machine by 0.671s.

Third was the quicker of the two Porsches, the #91 machine of Gianmaria Bruni, followed by the best of the Ferrari 488 GTEs, the #51 car.

Aston Martin's two Vantage GTEs, which were handed a Balance of Performance boost in the run-up to Silverstone, were sixth and seventh-fastest, while the two MTEK-run BMW M8 GTEs brought up the rear in ninth and 10th.

Porsche held sway in GTE Am with Matteo Cairoli setting the best lap of 1m59.418s in the #88 Dempsey-Proton car.

First practice results:

Pos.	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	7	Kamui Kobayashi   Mike Conway   Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'39.916
2	8	Fernando Alonso   Kazuki Nakajima   Sébastien Buemi	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'40.191	0.275
3	3	Mathias Beche   Thomas Laurent   Gustavo Menezes	Rebellion R13	LMP1	1'40.943	1.027
4	1	Andre Lotterer   Bruno Senna   Neel Jani	Rebellion R13	LMP1	1'43.155	3.239
5	11	Jenson Button   Vitaly Petrov   Mikhail Aleshin	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	1'43.176	3.260
6	17	Stéphane Sarrazin   Egor Orudzhev	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	1'43.957	4.041
7	10	Henrik Hedman   Renger van der Zande   Ben Hanley	BR Engineering BR1	LMP1	1'44.533	4.617
8	4	Oliver Webb   Rene Binder	ENSO CLM P1/01	LMP1	1'44.770	4.854
9	28	Loic Duval   François Perrodo   Matthieu Vaxiviere	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'46.122	6.206
10	38	Ho-Pin Tung   Stéphane Richelmi   Gabriel Aubry	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'46.855	6.939
11	36	Nicolas Lapierre   Pierre Thiriet   Andre Negrao	Alpine A470	LMP2	1'47.082	7.166
12	37	Nabil Jeffri   Weiron Tan   Jazeman Jaafar	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'47.385	7.469
13	31	Anthony Davidson   Pastor Maldonado   Roberto Gonzalez	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'47.760	7.844
14	29	Giedo van der Garde   Nyck de Vries   Frits van Eerd	Dallara P217	LMP2	1'48.650	8.734
15	50	Romano Ricci   Erwin Creed   Yoshiharu Mori	Ligier JSP 217	LMP2	1'50.929	11.013
16	66	Stefan Mücke   Olivier Pla	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	1'56.852	16.936
17	67	Harry Tincknell   Andy Priaulx	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	1'57.523	17.607
18	91	Gianmaria Bruni   Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	1'58.212	18.296
19	51	James Calado   Alessandro Pier Guidi	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'58.483	18.567
20	92	Michael Christensen   Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE PRO	1'58.748	18.832
21	97	Maxime Martin   Alex Lynn	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	1'58.770	18.854
22	95	Marco Sorensen   Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	1'58.836	18.920
23	71	Sam Bird   Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	1'58.927	19.011
24	82	Antonio Felix da Costa   Augusto Farfus	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	1'59.122	19.206
25	88	Gianluca Roda   Matteo Cairoli   Giorgio Roda	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'59.418	19.502
26	77	Christian Ried   Matt Campbell   Julien Andlauer	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'59.623	19.707
27	86	Michael Wainwright   Benjamin Barker   Alex Davison	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'59.676	19.760
28	90	Jonathan Adam   Salih Yoluc   Charles Eastwood	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	1'59.693	19.777
29	81	Nick Catsburg   Martin Tomczyk	BMW M8 GTE	LMGTE PRO	1'59.754	19.838
30	61	Matthew Griffin   Mok Weng Sun   Keita Sawa	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	2'00.180	20.264
31	54	Giancarlo Fisichella   Francesco Castellacci   Thomas Flohr	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	2'00.704	20.788
32	70	Olivier Beretta   Eddie Cheever III   Motoaki Ishikawa	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE AM	2'01.042	21.126
33	98	Pedro Lamy   Paul Dalla Lana   Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage	LMGTE AM	2'01.067	21.151
34	56	Jörg Bergmeister   Patrick Lindsey   Egidio Perfetti	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'01.549	21.633