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Toyota ends WEC test fastest, but privateer LMP1 teams close in

Toyota ended the World Endurance Championship 2019/20 pre-season test at Barcelona with the fastest time, but it only had a slender advantage over top LMP1 privateer squad Rebellion

All six LMP1 cars hit the track in the afternoon and improved on their previous times, with Toyota's pair of TS050 HYBRIDs again locking out the top two positions.

Jose Maria Lopez set the pace in the #7 car with a 1m29.141s that was posted in the opening hour - an improvement of almost half a second on his time from the morning session.

Kazuki Nakajima set the best time in the #8 Toyota, a 1m29.187s, in the second hour of the afternoon.

The quickest of the two Gibson-powered Rebellion R-13s, the #1 car, ended up just 0.267s off the pace thanks to Gustavo Menezes's lap.

That effort lowered the team's best time of the week by six tenths. Bruno Senna also dipped below the 90-second barrier in the #3 Rebellion, but his time was beaten by the best of the Ginetta G60-LT-P1s in the dying stages of the evening.

Both of the Team LNT-run cars made improvements in the final hour of running.

Formula 2 racer Luca Ghiotto set a time that was 0.556s slower than the best of the Toyotas in the #6 machine, to leapfrog the second Rebellion for fourth.

Charlie Robertson's last-ditch effort in the #5 Ginetta was just over a second off the pace and the car ended up in sixth place.

SMP Racing driver Egor Orudzhev finally got his first running of the week in Wednesday's second session.

He drove both Ginettas but suffered an early spin in the #5 at the Turns 14/15 chicane, which comes late in the lap, early on.

Only five of the eight LMP2 cars took part in the test, the fastest of which was the TDS-run Racing Team Nederland ORECA 07 thanks to a late effort of 1m31.659s by Nyck de Vries.

RTN has confirmed it will race Michelin tyres this season after spending time testing that rubber and that of rival brand Goodyear this week.

Paul di Resta put the United Autosports ORECA second-fastest ahead of the Signatech Alpine Oreca of Andre Negrao, which gave Michelin a top-three lockout.

Both Jota Sport-run ORECAs and the Cool Racing ORECA did not run in the final session, with the entire contingent of five GTE Pro cars also not appearing.

Just three of the 11 GTE Am cars appeared, with Thomas Preining setting the fastest time in the class with a 1m44.523s early on in the #88 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR.

Only 14 of the 30 cars took part in the final four-hour session of the two-day test, with many teams opting to end their running early. \

Some had squads had to travel to the Spa 24 Hours to ready for the first day of on-track action for the race on Thursday.

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