Toyota tops opening WEC practice at Silverstone

Toyota Gazoo Racing got off to a fast start in the first Free Practice session of the FIA WEC's opening weekend at Silverstone earlier today, with Sebastien Buemi setting an early 1m40.104s to put the No.8 TS050 top of the timing screens.

Buemi's flyer was considerably quicker than the rest of the LMP1 Hybrid field in the 90-minute session, with the No.2 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley ending up 0.781s off in second spot by the end of the running after a 1m40.885s.

The sister No.7 Toyota TS050 meanwhile, ended up rounding out the top three, with Mike Conway fastest in the car during the session with a best time of 1m40.960s. It was an important run for the team, as its newest driver Jose-Maria Lopez completed his first competitive WEC laps with the Japanese marque as a factory driver.

This left the No.1 Porsche of Neel Jani, André Lotterer and Nick Tandy in fourth spot, 1.2 seconds off Buemi's time. The ByKolles Racing ENSO CLM P1/01 LMP1 meanwhile, finished the session way down the order in 13th, Oliver Webb and newly-announced drivers Dominik Kraihamer and James Rossiter unable to match the pace of the quicker LMP2 runners. The best time from the trio was a 1m48.224s set by Rossiter in the car, which for Silverstone is running its full updated aero package in public for the first time.

On the subject of LMP2, Vailliante Rebellion topped the times in the new-look class, with Mathias Beche setting a 1m45.913s in the opening minutes of the session, after Romain Rusinov in the G-Drive Racing Oreca briefly sat atop the class standings.

Beche's quickest tour of the Silverstone GP loop was a couple of tenths clear of the TDS Racing entry of Matthieu Vaxiviere and GTE Am champions François Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard that finished up second. Vaxiviere set the team's best time – a 1m46.138s. Jackie Chan DC Racing's #37 Oreca of Alex Brundle, David Cheng and Tristan Gommendy ended up third.

Down in the LMGTE ranks, it was Aston Martin Racing which finished FP1 top in both classes, as well as 1-2 in the overall GTE standings. A 1m59.110s by New Zealander Richie Stanaway was the quickest of the GTE Pro drivers in the No.95 Aston Martin, a promising time in his first run with Marco Sorensen and Nicki Thiim in the 2016 title-winning 'Dane Train' Vantage.

Second overall in GTE and top of GTE Am was Pedro Lamy, who quickly put the No.98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage at the head of the field, and by a big margin. Lamy's best lap was a 1m59.342s, 0.9s clear of the Gulf Racing Porsche that put in the second-best time in the class which put the car 10th in the overall GTE standings and behind the rest of the GTE Pro runners.

Of the rest of the GTE Pro field, Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK's two GTEs completed the top three, with the No.66 leading the No.67. The best lap time of the two GTs came from American Billy Johnson, who set a 1:59.492. It wasn't plain sailing for the No.66 crew however, as Stefan Mücke had to have his car recovered by marshals, the German bringing out a full-course yellow period after stopping on track on the entry to the Wellington Straight.

In an overall sense, it was a tight session for GTE Pro – which this year is using a new 'automated' Balance of Performance system – as the entire field finished within 1.1 seconds of each other.

Next up for the FIA WEC teams is Free Practice 2, which gets underway at 16:45 local time in the UK.