Porsche Quickest in Rain-Soaked Night Session; Toyota Tops Saturday

Photo: Porsche

While Porsche led the way in a rain-soaked night session at Monza, but it was Toyota’s Mike Conway that ended the opening day of the FIA World Endurance Championship Prologue on top.

Conway’s 1:31.322 lap set in the dry afternoon session in the No. 7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid held as the quickest of the day, despite an early charge from the Porsche brigade in the third session, moments before heavy rain fell at the Italian circuit.

Defending World Champion Neel Jani managed to reel off a 1:31.666 in the No. 1 Porsche 919 Hybrid to go quickest in the third session, which was declared wet from the onset, and only remained dry in the first five minutes.

Jani was one-tenth quicker than the sister No. 2 Porsche, which along with the pair of Toyotas, all took advantage of the wet track for extended running in the two-hour session, which saw periods of thunder and lightning.

The LMP1 hybrids were reported for exceeding track limits and running off-course in the challenging conditions.

The No. 13 Rebellion Racing Oreca 07 Gibson topped LMP2, with the No. 92 Porsche 911 RSR pacing GTE-Pro and the No. 86 Gulf Racing Porsche the only GTE-Am car to set a time in the night.

All three teams also ended up quickest of the day in their respective classes, except with the No. 31 Rebellion Oreca of Bruno Senna ahead in LMP2, thanks to the Brazilian’s 1:36.094 lap time set in the morning.

Thirteen of the 27 cars turned laps in the rain-affected session, including an installation lap for the No. 4 ByKolles Racing ENSO CLM P1/01 NISMO, which had missed the first two sessions due to the late delivery of parts.

A total of six hours of additional track time is on tap for tomorrow’s second and final day of testing action, set to get underway at 9 a.m. local time.

RESULTS: Test Session 3
RESULTS: Saturday Combined

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John