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Practice report

Silverstone WEC: Toyota leads disrupted first practice

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

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez

Toyota Racing

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 suffering a heavy crash at Copse in the #1 Rebellion R-13.

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

After a half-hour delay, the session resumed - with 15 minutes being 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, 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 that car's best effort, 1.027s adrift of Conway, while the stricken #1 car set the fourth-best time, 3.2s off the pace, with Senna shortly before its accident.

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

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

First practice results:

Pos. # Drivers Car Class Time Gap
1 7 Japan Kamui Kobayashi 
United Kingdom Mike Conway 
Argentina Jose Maria Lopez 
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'39.916  
2 8 Spain Fernando Alonso 
Japan Kazuki Nakajima 
Switzerland Sébastien Buemi 
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'40.191 0.275
3 3 Switzerland Mathias Beche 
France Thomas Laurent 
United States Gustavo Menezes 
Rebellion R13 LMP1 1'40.943 1.027
4 1 Germany Andre Lotterer 
Brazil Bruno Senna 
Switzerland Neel Jani 
Rebellion R13 LMP1 1'43.155 3.239
5 11 United Kingdom Jenson Button 
Russian Federation Vitaly Petrov 
Russian Federation Mikhail Aleshin 
BR Engineering BR1 LMP1 1'43.176 3.260
6 17 France Stéphane Sarrazin 
Russian Federation Egor Orudzhev 
BR Engineering BR1 LMP1 1'43.957 4.041
7 10 Sweden Henrik Hedman 
Netherlands Renger van der Zande 
United Kingdom Ben Hanley 
BR Engineering BR1 LMP1 1'44.533 4.617
8 4 United Kingdom Oliver Webb 
Austria Rene Binder 
ENSO CLM P1/01 LMP1 1'44.770 4.854
9 28 France Loic Duval 
France François Perrodo 
France Matthieu Vaxiviere 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'46.122 6.206
10 38 China Ho-Pin Tung 
Monaco Stéphane Richelmi 
France Gabriel Aubry 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'46.855 6.939
11 36 France Nicolas Lapierre 
France Pierre Thiriet 
Brazil Andre Negrao 
Alpine A470 LMP2 1'47.082 7.166
12 37 Malaysia Nabil Jeffri 
Malaysia Weiron Tan 
Malaysia Jazeman Jaafar 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'47.385 7.469
13 31 United Kingdom Anthony Davidson 
Venezuela Pastor Maldonado 
Mexico Roberto Gonzalez 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'47.760 7.844
14 29 Netherlands Giedo van der Garde 
Netherlands Nyck de Vries 
Netherlands Frits van Eerd 
Dallara P217 LMP2 1'48.650 8.734
15 50 France Romano Ricci 
France Erwin Creed 
Japan Yoshiharu Mori
Ligier JSP 217 LMP2 1'50.929 11.013
16 66 Germany Stefan Mücke 
France Olivier Pla 
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 1'56.852 16.936
17 67 United Kingdom Harry Tincknell 
Guernsey Andy Priaulx 
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 1'57.523 17.607
18 91 Italy Gianmaria Bruni 
Austria Richard Lietz 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 1'58.212 18.296
19 51 United Kingdom James Calado 
Italy Alessandro Pier Guidi 
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'58.483 18.567
20 92 Denmark Michael Christensen 
France Kevin Estre 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 1'58.748 18.832
21 97 Belgium Maxime Martin 
United Kingdom Alex Lynn 
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 1'58.770 18.854
22 95 Denmark Marco Sorensen 
Denmark Nicki Thiim 
Aston Martin Vantage AMR LMGTE PRO 1'58.836 18.920
23 71 United Kingdom Sam Bird 
Italy Davide Rigon 
Ferrari 488 GTE EVO LMGTE PRO 1'58.927 19.011
24 82 Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa 
Brazil Augusto Farfus 
BMW M8 GTE LMGTE PRO 1'59.122 19.206
25 88 Italy Gianluca Roda 
Italy Matteo Cairoli 
Italy Giorgio Roda 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'59.418 19.502
26 77 Germany Christian Ried 
Australia Matt Campbell 
France Julien Andlauer 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'59.623 19.707
27 86 United Kingdom Michael Wainwright 
United Kingdom Benjamin Barker 
Australia Alex Davison 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 1'59.676 19.760
28 90 United Kingdom Jonathan Adam 
Turkey Salih Yoluc 
Ireland Charles Eastwood 
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE AM 1'59.693 19.777
29 81 Netherlands Nick Catsburg 
Germany Martin Tomczyk 
BMW M8 GTE LMGTE PRO 1'59.754 19.838
30 61 Ireland Matthew Griffin 
Singapore Mok Weng Sun 
Japan Keita Sawa 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'00.180 20.264
31 54 Italy Giancarlo Fisichella 
Italy Francesco Castellacci 
Switzerland Thomas Flohr 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'00.704 20.788
32 70 Monaco Olivier Beretta 
Italy Eddie Cheever III 
Japan Motoaki Ishikawa 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'01.042 21.126
33 98 Portugal Pedro Lamy 
Canada Paul Dalla Lana 
Austria Mathias Lauda 
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE AM 2'01.067 21.151
34 56 Germany Jörg Bergmeister 
United States Patrick Lindsey 
Norway Egidio Perfetti 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 2'01.549 21.633

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