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Silverstone WEC: Conway fastest for Toyota, Senna has heavy crash

Toyota driver Mike Conway set the fastest time in first practice for this weekend's Silverstone World Endurance Championship round in a session disrupted by two red flags

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's heavy crash at Copse in the #1 Rebellion R-13.

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

After a half-hour delay, the session resumed with 15 minutes 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 lap, 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 the car's best effort, which was 1.027s adrift of Conway.

The stricken #1 car driven by Senna was 3.2s off the pace in fourth shortly before his accident.

One-time Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button was quickest of the SMP Racing drivers and set a 1m40.176s lap 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 driver Loic Duval, who set a 1m46.122s lap 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 Racing-run GTs led the way in GTE Pro, with Olivier Pla setting the best time in class with a 1m57.166s lap 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 #51 Ferrari 488 GTE.

Fresh from a Balance of Performance boost in the run-up to Silverstone, Aston Martin's two Vantage GTEs 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.

Watch the Silverstone WEC race live with Motorsport.TV On Demand

FP1 times

Pos Class Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 LMP1 M.Conway, K.Kobayashi, J.M.Lopez Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota 1m39.916s - 24
2 LMP1 S.Buemi, K.Nakajima, F.Alonso Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota 1m40.191s 0.275s 27
3 LMP1 M.Beche, T.Laurent, G.Menezes Rebellion Racing Rebellion/Gibson 1m40.943s 1.027s 20
4 LMP1 N.Jani, A.Lotterer, B.Senna Rebellion Racing Rebellion/Gibson 1m43.155s 3.239s 4
5 LMP1 M.Aleshin, V.Petrov, J.Button SMP Racing BR Engineering/AER 1m43.176s 3.260s 17
6 LMP1 S.Sarrazin, E.Orudzhev SMP Racing BR Engineering/AER 1m43.957s 4.041s 20
7 LMP1 H.Hedman, B.Hanley, R.van der Zande DragonSpeed BR Engineering/Gibson 1m44.533s 4.617s 16
8 LMP1 O.Webb, R.Binder ByKOLLES Racing Team ENSO CLM/NISMO 1m44.770s 4.854s 17
9 LMP2 F.Perrodo, M.Vaxiviere, L.Duval TDS Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m46.122s 6.206s 32
10 LMP2 H-Pin Tung, G.Aubry, S.Richelmi Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m46.855s 6.939s 26
11 LMP2 N.Lapierre, A.Negrao, P.Thiriet Signatech Alpine Matmut Alpine/Gibson 1m47.082s 7.166s 30
12 LMP2 J.Jaafar, W.Tan, N.Jeffri Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m47.385s 7.469s 28
13 LMP2 R.Gonzalez, P.Maldonado, A.Davidson DragonSpeed ORECA/Gibson 1m47.760s 7.844s 21
14 LMP2 F.van Eerd, G.van der Garde, N.de Vries Racing Team Nederland Dallara/Gibson 1m48.650s 8.734s 29
15 LMP2 E.Creed, R.Ricci, Y.Mori Larbre Competition Alpine/Gibson 1m50.929s 11.013s 27
16 GTE Pro S.Mucke, O.Pla Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford 1m56.852s 16.936s 20
17 GTE Pro A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford 1m57.523s 17.607s 28
18 GTE Pro R.Lietz, G.Bruni Porsche GT Team Porsche 1m58.212s 18.296s 24
19 GTE Pro A.P.Guidi, J.Calado AF Corse Ferrari 1m58.483s 18.567s 26
20 GTE Pro M.Christensen, K.Estre Porsche GT Team Porsche 1m58.748s 18.832s 25
21 GTE Pro A.Lynn, M.Martin Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 1m58.770s 18.854s 25
22 GTE Pro M.Sorensen, N.Thiim Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 1m58.836s 18.920s 29
23 GTE Pro D.Rigon, S.Bird AF Corse Ferrari 1m58.927s 19.011s 22
24 GTE Pro A.Farfus, A.F.da Costa BMW Team MTEK BMW 1m59.122s 19.206s 24
25 GTE Am G.Roda, G.Roda, M.Cairoli Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 1m59.418s 19.502s 26
26 GTE Am C.Ried, J.Andlauer, M.Campbell Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 1m59.623s 19.707s 26
27 GTE Am M.Wainwright, B.Barker, A.Davison Gulf Racing Porsche 1m59.676s 19.760s 24
28 GTE Am S.Yoluc, J.Adam, C.Eastwood TF Sport Aston Martin 1m59.693s 19.777s 28
29 GTE Pro M.Tomczyk, N.Catsburg BMW Team MTEK BMW 1m59.754s 19.838s 15
30 GTE Am Mok W.S., K.Sawa, M.Griffin Clearwater Racing Ferrari 2m00.180s 20.264s 26
31 GTE Am T.Flohr, F.Castellacci, G.Fisichella Spirit of Race Ferrari 2m00.704s 20.788s 29
32 GTE Am M.Ishikawa, O.Beretta, E.Cheever MR Racing Ferrari 2m01.042s 21.126s 28
33 GTE Am P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 2m01.067s 21.151s 23
34 GTE Am J.Bergmeister, P.Lindsey, E.Perfetti Team Project 1 Porsche 2m01.549s 21.633s 25

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