Toyota made an impressive start to the FIA World Endurance Championship’s pre-season ‘Prologue’ test at Monza in Italy by edging out Porsche at the top of the timesheets.
Toyota unveiled its updated TS050 Hybrid LMP1 car on Friday, with its No. 7 and No. 8 entries getting their first public runs at Monza today.
Mike Conway turned in a fastest lap of 1:31.332 to finish the day at the top of the standings, ending up three-tenths of a second clear of Porsche’s Neel Jani in the 919 Hybrid.
Defending WEC champion Jani squeezed his fast lap in just before heavy rain began to fall at the start of the night-time session, which prompted half the grid to remain in their garages instead of braving the wet conditions.
2015 Le Mans winner Earl Bamber slotted into third in the No. 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid, two-tenths off Jani’s time, with Kazuki Nakajima following in P4 for Toyota.
ByKolles managed to get out in the night-time session after its parts were delivered late, completing six laps in total after a frustrating day.
Rebellion made a good start to life in LMP2 by storming to a one-two finish on Saturday, led by Bruno Senna in the No. 31 ORECA-Gibson. Mathias Beche finished six-tenths of a second behind in the sister No. 13 entry, with G-Drive’s No. 26 entry completing the top three courtesy of Roman Rusinov.
After failing to top LMP1, Porsche was able to do so in GTE Pro as the mid-engined 911 RSR enjoyed its first public running in Europe. Michael Christensen set the pace in the No. 92 car, finishing 0.160 seconds clear of Andy Priaulx for the Ford Chip Ganassi Racing.
While MST has been deliberately absent of April Fool’s coverage today, it is worth sharing this fun prank that Ford and Ferrari played on its GT drivers, swapping their cars around (a novel approach to Balance of Performance, we must say...).
This is what happened while @FordPerformance & @FerrariRaces drivers were away at their briefing 🙃#Prologue2017 #FordVsFerrari #April1st pic.twitter.com/3T8wS6n4UH
— FIA World Endurance Championship (@FIAWEC) April 1, 2017
In the five-car GTE Am category, British racer Ben Barker topped the timesheets for Gulf Racing in the No. 86 Porsche 911 RSR, finishing 0.145 seconds clear of Matteo Cairoli in the No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche.
The WEC Prologue continues on Sunday at Monza with a further six hours of running.