Porsche was totally dominating the FIA WEC Prologue at Paul Ricard.
There was 5 sessions and Porsche were fastest in all 5.
Toyota were the second fastest while Audi were the slowest of the 3 constructors.
It is quite hard to see a clear picture from these tests, since you don’t know exactly how much fuel that they are running with, and what aero configuration were on the cars.
Toyota started out shocking everybody by going over 30 kilometers faster than anybody else down the straight. However it soon became clear that they ran Le Mans bodywork, and when they put the high-downforce bodywork on the car, the speed came down. However the times were quite similar with both types of bodywork, which was quite interesting.
Rebellion Racing showed impressive top speeds through all the test, but the lap times were a bit more than 4 seconds slower than Porsche’s best times. Bykolles were another few seconds behind.
But as previously mentioned, it’s really hard to come up with any major conclusions from a test. It’s not before a few tests are done, that you can see the real comparisons.
In the LMP2 field we saw Signatech Alpine fastest while Strakka Racing managed to clock almost exactly the same time.
Newcomers Manor Racing was in the middle of the field in their sports car debut. Manor Racing are the people who started Manor F1, but left the team last fall and then went on to start their own sports car team. The former Manor F1 driver Will Stevens is among the 6 drivers for the 2 cars.
In GTE Pro we saw Ferrari in the shape of AF Corse and their new Ferrari F488 GTE on top with both their cars, while Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK followed with their 2 cars. Aston Martin wasn’t at the top of the time sheets but clocked the convincingly fastest speeds down the straight in GTE Pro.
Larbre Competition was fastest in GTE Am while Gulf Racing in their Porsche 911 RSR was the second fastest followed by AF Corse and Abu Dhabi Proton Racing.
Several of the teams stayed at the track to continue with private tests. Tomorrow and Wednesday Porsche will be present at Spa Francorchamps, where they will run with their LMP1 cars.