Buemi puts Toyota on top on Le Mans test day

Toyota backed up its status as pre-event favorites for the Le Mans 24 Hours by finishing one-two in the test day.

Sebastien Buemi topped the times with a 3m23.014s lap in the #8 TS040 hybrid set early in the afternoon session, while Kazuki Nakajima put in a lap one and a half tenths slower in the #7 entry right at the end of the test.

"To have the fastest lap of the day doesn't mean a lot, but it does mean we are heading in the right direction," said Buemi. "We can now analyze all the data and try to be quicker for race week."

Two of the three Audi R18 e-tron quattros took third and fourth spots. Marco Bonanomi's morning best of 3m23.799s in the #3 car stood as the fastest Audi time of the day. Loic Duval was seven tenths behind in the #1 Audi druing the afternoon.

Porsche took fifth place with Neel Jani in the #14 car on a 3m24.692s.

Roman Rusinov topped the LMP2 class in the OAK Racing-run G-Drive Morgan-Nissan, by going half a second quicker than Karun Chandhok in the Murphy ORECA-Nissan right at the end of the day.

Jeff Zwart's "917-12" brings a legendary racecar to life

GTE Pro honors went to Frederic Makowiecki with a 3m57.260s set aboard his factory Porsche 911 RSR. That eclipsed Giancarlo Fisichella's best in the fastest of the AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italias by two tenths of a second.

The top two in GTE Pro were split by the best Am car, the 8Star Ferrari driven by Paolo Ruberti.