By alley - May 4, 2017, 8:28 AM ET

Toyota tops opening WEC practice at Spa

Toyota Gazoo Racing ran fastest in this morning's opening practice session of the FIA WEC 6 Hours of Spa, after Mike Conway set a 1m57.940 in the No. 7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid.

The Brit, who this weekend will be sharing the No. 7 with only Kamui Kobayashi after teammate Jose Maria Lopez was

ruled out of the meeting due to injury

, set his time in the opening minutes of the session. It was just 0.036 quicker than the No.2 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley, Timo Bernhard and Earl Bamber, which ended up with a 1m57.976 courtesy of Hartley.

Rounding out the top three in LMP1 was the No. 1 Porsche 919 following a 1m58.869 by Neel Jani on the dry Spa Francorchamps circuit. The Swiss' time was just a tenth quicker than the second of the Toyotas down in fourth.

The No.8 TS050 ended up fourth with a 1m58.914 from Sebastien Buemi, with the third No. 9 TS050 – which is running Le Mans low-drag aero this weekend – fifth. The best time from the trio of Stephane Sarrazin, Nicolas Lapierre and Yuji Kunimoto in the No.9 was a 2m00.495 by returning Toyota factory driver Lapierre.

In the LMP2 class, American 2016 class champion Gustavo Menezes topped the times with a 2m04.171 in the No. 36 Signatech Alpine A470, 0.091 quicker than Silverstone polesitter Alex Lynn in the G-Drive Racing Oreca. The CEFC Manor TRS Racing ORECA ended the morning session third, with a 1m04.301 from ex-ByKolles LMP1 driver Simon Trummer.

Down the order, Tockwith Motorsport – which is entering its Ligier JS P217 in the ORECA-dominated class as part of its Le Mans preparations – ended its debut WEC session 10th in the class. The best time from its three drivers was a 2m06.607 from Nigel Moore.

Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK took first blood in the tight GTE Pro division, with the no.67 Silverstone-winning GT running fastest after a 2m16.802 by Andy Priaulx. The former World Touring Car Champion's lap was 0.122 quicker than the best time from Frederic Makowiecki who put the No.91 Porsche 911 RSR second.

The sister Ford ended the 90-minute session third with a 2m017.201 tour from U.S. racer Billy Johnson. The No. 92 Porsche and No. 71 AF Corse Ferrari slotted in fourth and fifth in the Pro running order, respectively.

Matteo Cairoli placed the Dempsey-Proton Porsche atop the GTE Am class time sheet with a 2m18.089, which notably, was a faster time than the best set by Jonny Adam in the No. 97 Aston Martin Racing Vantage that finished up bottom of the GTE Pro runners.

Free Practice 2 at Spa-Francorchamps is set to begin at 4:45 p.m. local time in Belgium.