As the ambient temperature rose this afternoon at the Circuit Paul Ricard, venue for The Prologue – the official pre-season tests for the FIA World Endurance Championship – so the times dropped on the track in all classes.
At the close of the second 4-hour test session, it was Porsche’s No.20 919 Hybrid which had taken the initiative from Audi at the head of the time sheets. Timo Bernhard set the fastest lap of the day so far, 1:41.788, just a tenth ahead of his team mate in the No.20 Mark Webber, and 0.285s ahead of the No.2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro.
In LMP2 the two cars which were unable to post a time this morning turned around their fortunes for the afternoon. The No.23 Millenium Racing ORECA 03 Nissan of Shinji Nakano marked the best lap of the afternoon, the Japanese driver lapping the Le Castellet track with a time of 1:48.970. This was just 0.11s in front of the No.26 G-Drive Racing Morgan Nissan of Olivier Pla.
Porsche Team Manthey held the upper hand in LMGTE Pro, but this time it was new Porsche factory signing Fred Makowiecki who set the fastest time of the session with a lap of 1:58.041. Another newcomer to the WEC, recently announced AF Corse Ferrari signing James Calado, put the No.71 Ferrari 458 Italia second in class, only 0.23s behind the Porsche 911 RSR.
8Star Motorsport’s No.90 F458 Italia also maintained its place at the top of the LMGTE Am category, Paolo Ruberti once again leading the way. His best lap of 1:58.507 was an improvement of 2.5 seconds over his fastest lap of the morning, but only 0.03s ahead of Sam Bird in the No.81 AF Corse Ferrari.
The third and final session of the day will begin at 19h00 and run into darkness to allow teams and drivers an opportunity to experience night running ahead of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June. The two hour session will finish at 21h00.
Fiona Miller
Full results can be found HERE
Photo: CIRCUIT PAUL RICARD (LE CASTELLET, FRANCE), THE PROLOGUE, FRIDAY 28 MARCH 2014. The No.20 Porsche 919 Hybrid set the fastest lap in the second practice session of The Prologue.
