The early weather forecast for the La Sarthe region proved to be incorrect as rain fell on Le Mans midway through the first four-hour test session of the day. With a dry track for the first hour times soon tumbled, with the fastest time of the session being set by Neel Jani in the no18 Porsche 919 with a 3m21.945 lap, just 0.156s slower than the pole position time set by Toyota at last year’s race.
The session was interrupted by two red flags. The first to recover the no22 Nissan which had stopped at Dunlop. The second was to clear the track of debris left when the rear left tyre of the no4 Bykolles CLM deflated, causing damage to the rear of the LMP1 car.
The Porsche was just 0.362s ahead of the no9 Audi R18 e-tron quattro and a further 0.623s ahead of the no7 Audi. The two Toyota TS040s finished the session in 7th and 8th, with the no2 car ahead of the no1 car by less than a tenth of a second. The no12 Rebellion Racing R-One of Mathias Beche was the quickest of the LMP1 privateer entries with a 3m30.508 lap.
In LMP2 the no34 Oak Racing Ligier led the way with a 3m41.919 lap, 0.3 seconds ahead of the first of the WEC entries, the no36 Signatech Alpine A450b of Paul-Loup Chatin and the no47 KCMG ORECA 05-Nissan of Matt Howson.
In the changing conditions the fastest car in the LMGTE Pro class was the no64 Chevrolet Corvette of Oliver Gavin with a 3m58.162, 0.454 seconds ahead of Gianmaria Bruni in the no51 AF Corse Ferrari and the no92 Porsche Team Manthey 911 of Frederic Makowiecki. The leading Aston Martin was the no97 Vantage, nine places and 4.5 seconds behind the leading Corvette.
The top three places in the LMGTE Am class were filled by Ferrari with the no61 AF Corse-run F458 at the top of the timing sheet with a 4m00.677 lap, 0.626 ahead of the no72 SMP Racing Ferrari of Andrea Bertolini and 1.7 seconds ahead of the no83 AF Corse 458 of Emmanuel Collard.
The second test session will begin at 14h00
CLICK HERE for the results from the first test session
