The Porsche LMP Team with the two Porsche 919 Hybrids covered 156 laps at the official test day at Le Mans. Besides its six regular LMP1 works drivers – Neel Jani (CH)/André Lotterer (DE)/Nick Tandy (GB) in car number 1 and Earl Bamber (NZ)/Timo Bernhard (DE)/Brendon Hartley (NZ) sharing car number 2 – Marc Lieb also drove on Sunday. The German won last year’s Le Mans 24-Hours race together with Jani and Romain Dumas (FR) at the wheel of the 919 Hybrid and is joint reigning world champion with them both.
The best 2017 lap time of a Porsche 919 Hybrid at the official Le Mans test was 3:21.512 minutes which means an improvement by seven tenths of a second compared to the 919’s best test lap time in 2016. This was achieved despite restrictions enforced by new regulations concerning the aerodynamics in particular. The Porsche LMP Team refrained from simulating qualifying at the test and finished fourth and fifth quickest behind Toyota after eight hours of testing.
TOYOTA GAZOO Racing finished in the top three positions at the end of a productive official test day, the third round of the 2017 FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC).
Kamui Kobayashi set the fastest lap of the day in the #7 TS050 HYBRID he shares with Mike Conway and Stéphane Sarrazin. His time of 3mins 18.132secs was more than five seconds quicker than the best TOYOTA lap at the 2016 test day.
The #8 TS050 HYBRID of World Championship leaders Sébastien Buemi, Anthony Davidson and Kazuki Nakajima was second quickest, 1.887secs behind following a positive day of set-up development and tyre comparisons.
There were three TOYOTAs at the top of the timing sheets, with Nicolas Lapierre, Yuji Kunimoto and José María López putting the #9 TS050 HYBRID third. As well as an intense programme of technical adjustments and comparisons, today’s test was the first time for Yuji and José María to drive on the Circuit de la Sarthe.
Both drivers have experienced the circuit virtually in the team’s driving simulator so they arrived well prepared and then consistently set competitive lap times. For José María, the test also provided final confirmation that he has fully recovered from the back injury which prevented him competing at Spa four weeks ago.
The Circuit de la Sarthe on the outskirts of Le Mans consists partly of public roads and is closed for most of the year. Today’s two four-hour sessions are the only testing allowed before practice starts on Wednesday 14 June.
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