Tincknell puts Aston Martin on top in first Interlagos practice

Harry Tincknell topped the times in the first practice session of the FIA WEC weekend at Interlagos. The Aston Martin factory driver set a 1m25.457s early in the 90-minute session aboard the No. 007 Valkyrie, on a fresh set of medium Michelin tires.

Robert Kubica, in the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P, looked set to end the session at the top of the times, after setting a 1m25.184s. But the Pole had multiple lap times deleted, including his outright fastest, after he was caught speeding in the pit lane. That dropped the car to fourth in the times with its best valid lap a 1m25.596s set during Kubica's second stint. Along with bumping the No. 007 Aston Martin to the top, this pushed the Nos. 50 and 51 factory 499Ps to second and third respectively.

The second-fastest time was just 0.024s off Tincknell's best, a 1m25.481s from Antonio Fuoco, with Antonio Giovinazzi setting a 1m25.563s to go third.

Alpine completed the top five with its No. 36 A424. Fred Makowiecki was the pace-setter for Les Bleus. His 1m26.520s was also set at the start of the session before the track became busy.

There was very little experimentation with the two Michelin compounds during the running, with almost the entire field spending the entire session on mediums, and those that did, ended up within a second of the top time.

Toyota's No. 8 TR010 was an outlier, sampling a set ofhard tires throughout, but ended up at the bottom of the screens, over a second off with a 1m26.799s. The sister car, which leads the championship, set a 1m26.219s on mediums to go 12th.

Peugeot's No. 93 9X8, meanwhile, ran with hards on the right and mediums on the left, and was only marginally quicker than the Toyota, with a lap to go 16th.

In LMGT3, Iron Lynx's No. 61 Mercedes-AMG GT3 topped the class with a 1m34.883s from Maxime Martin. The top 10 in the class were separated by less than a second, and the top five spots were occupied by different manufacturers.

Racing Team Turkey's Corvette slotted in second with a 1m35.459s. The No. 32 WRT BMW was third with a 1m35.596s, and the No. 77 Proton Ford ended up fourth with a 1m35.648s.

Vista AF Corse completed the top five with a 1m35.727s from its No. 21 296 GT3 Evo.

There were no significant incidents to report. The session ran green with only the occasional yellow flag.

Next up is Free Practice 2 at 3:50 local time this afternoon.

RESULTS