Porsche tops first World Endurance Championship test session
Porsche led the way in the opening session of the official World Endurance Championship test at Paul Ricard
Marc Lieb topped the times in the four-hour Friday morning session, with a 1m39.292s aboard his 2015-specification Porsche 919 Hybrid.
That put him six tenths up on the fastest of the second-generation Toyota TS040 HYBRIDs, in which Anthony Davidson recorded a 1m39.949s.
Mark Webber was third fastest on 1m40.032s, which was nearly a second up on the best of the latest-generation Audi R18 e-tron quattros in Andre Lotterer's hands.
Porsche's first-session time was already nearly two full seconds quicker than last year's official test day best of 1m41.289s, set by Hartley in the original 919 Hybrid.
Richard Bradley was quickest in LMP2 in KCMG's new ORECA-Nissan 05 coupe.
His best of 1m48.924s put him just over 1.2s ahead of the Nissan-engined Strakka Dome S103 of Jonny Kane, Danny Watts and Nick Leventis, which ended up on 1m50.158s.
Ferrari was quickest in GTE though the lead factory-backed AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia with Gianmaria Bruni behind the wheel.
Its fastest lap of 1m58.45s was just three hundredths up on Patrick Pilet in the best of Manthey-run factory Porsche 911 RSRs.
Stuart Hall was quickest in GTE Am in his works-run Aston Martin Vantage GTE.
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