Porsche’s Vanthoor Fastest in Opening Sao Paulo Practice

Laurens Vanthoor set the fastest time for Porsche Penske Motorsport in the opening Free Practice session for the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo.

The Belgian steered the No. 6 Porsche 963 to a best lap of 1:25.176, outpacing the No. 50 Ferrari 499P of Antonio Fuoco by 0.084 seconds.

Rene Rast was third aboard the No. 20 BMW M Hybrid V8, followed by Mike Conway in the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid while the second BMW, driven by Raffaele Marciello, completed the overall top five.

The pair of Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.Rs were sixth and seventh piloted by Earl Bamber and Will Stevens, respectively, ahead of the No. 83 Ferrari in the hands of Robert Kubica.

The No. 36 Alpine A424 and No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 rounded out the top ten.

Jose Maria Lopez fronted a Lexus 1-2 to lead the LMGT3 category, as the Argentinean reeled off a time of 1:35.010 aboard the No. 87 Akkodis ASP Team Lexus RC F GT3.

His teammate Finn Gehrsitz was 0.124 seconds slower in second place, followed by the No. 33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R driven by Daniel Juncadella.

The opening session at the Interlagos circuit started 17 minutes later than originally planned, with that delay understood to have been caused by a temporary loss of timing data in the pit lane.

Once it got underway, the session ran largely interrupted aside from a Full Course Yellow caused by the No. 54 Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 of Francesco Castellacci.

The Second Free Practice session is scheduled for 3:45 p.m. local time (2:45 p.m. EST).

RESULTS: Free Practice 1