Porsche leads WEC Prologue day one

By Adam Tate, Managing Editor

Porsche has started off 2016 the same way the finished 2015, on top. Day one of the World Endurance Championship’s traditional ‘prologue’ test at Paul Ricard has seen the new 919 top the timesheets in both the morning and afternoon sessions.

The days fastest lap was a 1:37.487 by Neel Jani which is just two tenths of a second off his test best time of a year ago, despite new fuel flow regulations designed to slow down the extraordinary speeds the LMP1 cars achieved last season. Jani comfortably outpaced both the Toyota and Audi drivers, with Kazuki Nakajimi eight tenths behind in the TS050 and Andre Lotterer over two seconds adrift in the R18.

Gustavo Menzes came out on top in LMP2, hitting 1:47.782 in the Signatech Alpine.

Gianmaria Bruni led the LM GTE Pro runners with a 1:58.109 in the Ferrari 488, with newcomers Ford, just a second behind in the new GT.

Image: Max Malka

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About

Associate Editor of Motorsports Tribune and jack of all trades, Adam is our resident Formula 1 expert. He has covered F1, IndyCar, WEC, IMSA, NASCAR, PWC and more. His work has been featured on multiple outlets including AutoWeek and Motorsport.com. A MT Co-founder, Adam has been with us since the beginning when he and Joey created Tribute Racing back in 2012. When not at the track or writing about cars, Adam can be found enjoying the Oregon back roads in his GTI.