Buemi Leads Toyota 1-2 in Opening Portimao Practice

Sebastien Buemi topped the opening Free Practice session for the 6 Hours of Portimao, leading a Toyota 1-2 ahead of Ferrari’s Alessandro Pier Guidi.

Buemi reeled off a best lap of 1:32.792 aboard the No. 8 Toyota GR010 Hybrid, 0.384 seconds clear of the sister car piloted by Mike Conway.

Pier Guidi completed the top three aboard the No. 51 Ferrari 499P with a 1:33.453, leaving him just over a tenth clear of the second Ferrari in the hands of Nicklas Nielsen.

The pair of Porsche 963s occupied fifth and sixth position, with the No. 5 car of Frederic Makowiecki ahead of the sister machine of Laurens Vanthoor.

Chip Ganassi Racing’s Earl Bamber and Peugeot’s Gustavo Menezes rounded out the top eight.

Prema led the LMP2 ranks with both of its cars as Mirko Bortolotti topped the timesheets aboard the No. 63 Oreca 07 Gibson.

The Italian steered his car to a best lap of 1:34.542, leading teammate Bent Viscaal aboard the No. 9 Oreca as Fabio Scherer completed the top three for Inter Europol Competition.

Oliver Jarvis set the fourth fastest time aboard the No. 23 United Autosports Oreca, just ahead of Team WRT’s Louis Deletraz and the second United entry in the hands of Phil Hanson.

The top three in GTE-Am saw all three manufacturers represented, as Ferrari led from Aston Martin and Porsche.

Daniel Serra went quickest aboard the No. 57 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo by setting a 1:41.341, beating out NorthWest AMR’s Nicki Thiim and Proton Competition’s Harry Tincknell.

The 90-minute session was twice interrupted by a red flag. The first one was triggered by the No. 77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR-19 of Mikkel Pedersen finding the gravel at Turn 8.

Rui Andrade’s No. 41 Team WRT Oreca brought the session to a premature end after making contact with the barrier at turn 11 with just under two minutes remaining in the session.

Track action at Portimao resumes with the second Free Practice session at 3:30 p.m. local time (10:30 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Free Practice 1