Lapierre secures top time for Toyota at Prologue

Toyota Gazoo Racing achieved the best time of this year's FIA WEC Prologue, a 1:30.547 in Sunday's afternoon session at Monza courtesy of Nicolas Lapierre. The time from the Frenchman, who will race with the team at Spa and Le Mans this year in its third Toyota TS050, put the car almost a second faster than the other LMP1 factory hybrids.

Second quickest was the sister No. 7 TS050 with a 1:31.809 set by ex-IndyCar racer Mike Conway on Saturday afternoon. The best of the two Porsche 919s almost a second off Lapierre's flyer.

Porsche's best time came from Neel Jani in the No. 1 919 Hybrid, a 1:31.666 which topped the screens in the three-hour test early on Sunday morning. Earl Bamber, meanwhile, was the quickest in the No. 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid, after the Kiwi set a 1:31.823.

All four factory LMP1 cars managed to rack up a good amount of mileage over the two days in Italy, with the No. 2 Porsche completing the most laps. Earl Bamber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard combined for 327 tours of the circuit and 1,800km.

While not much can be read into the times, due to both teams running high-downforce packages and likely refraining from showing their true hand at this stage, there was little visual evidence of sandbagging. At the first chicane for instance, all four LMP1 H runners regularly out-braked themselves and had to use the escape road.

ByKolles Racing's CLM P1/01 – the only other LMP1 runner present – only left the pit lane on one occasion, completing four laps in the rain on Saturday night, a run cut short by a rear wing failure on the start/finish straight. After that the team withdrew from the event due to lack of spares. Because of this, ex-F1 driver Robert Kubica failed to complete a single lap.

In the LMP2 ranks the pace was blistering, with TDS Racing's Matthieu Vaxiviere reeling off a 1:36.078 in the team's ORECA 07 on Sunday morning, a lap which went unbeaten thereafter.

Closest to the Frenchman's flyer was Bruno Senna in the No. 31 Vailliante Rebellion 07 Gibson, following his best time set in the opening session on Saturday – a 1:36.094.

Jackie Chan DC Racing's ORECA 07, meanwhile, ended up third fastest of the LMP2 runners after Ho-Pin Tung set the team's best lap of the weekend in the final session. Tung's 1:36.448 was also the quickest lap time set on Sunday afternoon.

The only major incident of the Prologue came in the LMP2 class. With 40 minutes of running remaining in the final session of the weekend, British driver Matt Rao went straight on at the first Lesmo right-hander in the No. 36 Alpine A470, hitting the tire barriers. Thankfully, though, Rao was confirmed OK after being checked by the on-site medical team shortly after the car was recovered.

In GTE Pro, Porsche finished the weekend with the best time of the bunch with its new 911 RSR. Michael Christensen (pictured)'s 1:47.379 in the No. 92 on Day 1 went unbeaten on Sunday, with Ford proving to be the only other manufacturer to top the times when Harry Tincknell posted a 1:47.530 on Sunday afternoon. It put put the No. 67 Ford GT atop the times, just two tenths off Christensen's best effort, headlining a Ford 1-2 by the end of the session following a late 1:47.572 by Oliver Pla in the sister No. 66 car.

Of the other two factory teams in the class, James Calado's 1:48.192 in Session 5 was the best of the AF Corse Ferrari 488 drivers, while Richie Stanway ended up with the fastest time of Aston Martin Racing's driver stable. The Kiwi – now driving in the No. 95 "Dane Train" Vantage – reeled off his personal best of 1:48.624 on Saturday afternoon.

Of the five Am runners, ex-Audi DTM racer Miguel Molina's 1:49.843 in the Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 in Session 4 broke Gulf Racing – and Porsche's – stranglehold at the top of the screens.

It was Ben Barker who set the best tour in the 2015-spec Gulf Racing 911 RSR to put the British team second in the overall classification for the class. Porsche junior driver Matteo Cairoli put the No. 77 Dempsey Proton Racing Porsche third fastest across the two days with a 1:50.180.

The next trip for the WEC runners and riders will be in two weeks' time when they travel to Silverstone for the opening round of the season.