Successful 2016 Prologue concludes with Porsche taking first blood

The 2016 FIA WEC Prologue concluded on Saturday afternoon with Porsche topping the final session and confirming a 100% record throughout the five sessions during the two days. As in the morning session, Brendon Hartley claimed the best time with a 1m37.445s, which was the quickest overall time during the two days of running.

However, Toyota Gazoo Racing completed a fine public debut of its all-new TS050 HYBRID and again placed second ahead of the latest Audi model, the 2016 Audi R18. Kamui Kobayashi and Benoit Treluyer respectively set the times this afternoon.

In the other classes, Rebellion Racing was 1-2 again in the LMP1 Privateers category. The No.13 car was this time ahead of the sister No12 Rebellion R-One-AER.

In LMP2 there was a late flurry of times to set the pace, and ultimately it was the No.26 G-Drive Racing ORECA 05-Nissan of Roman Rusinov/Rene Rast and Nathanael Berthon which led the way on a best of 1m47.024s.

Ford Chip Ganassi ended the running in confidence-boosting style by outpacing Ferrari with its No.67 Ford GT. In LMGTE Am Adam Carroll continued Gulf Racing’s promising day by finishing ahead of the Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martin entries.

Thousands of fans came to Circuit Paul Ricard today to make it a carnival atmosphere for the now traditional ‘Fans Saturday’ ahead of the 2016 season start next month at Silverstone.