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.
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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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