Porsche’s Estre Fastest on Thursday

Kevin Estre kept Porsche Penske Motorsport on top of the timesheets at the end of the opening day of Free Practice running ahead of the Qatar 1812km by posting the fastest time of the weekend thus far.

The Frenchman reeled off a lap of 1:39.990 aboard the No. 6 Porsche 963 to beat Peugeot driver Jean-Eric Vergne by 0.782 seconds.

Estre’s time was the quickest set across all sessions held at Lusail International Circuit so far, including the Prologue, and also made him the first driver to set a sub 1:40 lap.

It also continued Porsche’s stranglehold on the top spot in Qatar, with no other manufacturer having led a session since track running began with the Prologue on Monday.

Vergne’s No. 93 Peugeot 9X8 in second place only narrowly outpaced the No. 38 Hertz Team JOTA Porsche of Jenson Button, with the two separated by a mere 0.010 seconds.

Alex Lynn put the No. 2 Cadillac V-Series.R in fourth position for the second consecutive session, while the second Penske Porsche rounded out the top five with Matt Campbell behind the wheel.

Callum Ilott slotted into sixth aboard the No. 12 JOTA Porsche, ahead of the No. 51 Ferrari 499P of Antonio Giovinazzi and Nyck de Vries’ No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid.

The overall top ten was completed by the No. 94 Peugeot in the hands of Stoffel Vandoorne and the No. 83 AF Corse Ferrari piloted by Yifei Ye.

In LMGT3, the pair of Vista AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3s led the class 1-2, with Simon Mann quickest aboard the No. 55 car by posting a 1:55.190.

That allowed him to remain clear of stablemate Francesco Castellacci by 0.255 seconds, with the No. 31 Team WRT BMW M4 GT3 making up the remainder of the top three.

Erwan Bastard picked up fourth in the No. 777 D’station Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 Evo, just ahead of the No. 95 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 Evo that led the first session in the hands of Nico Pino.

This time, however, it was Pino’s Japanese co-driver Marino Sato that set the car’s fastest time, which was 0.373 seconds down on the fastest time in class.

The 90-minute session, which ran under the floodlights at the Lusail circuit, was stopped by red flags twice.

First, Jean-Karl Vernay found the gravel at Turn 6 aboard the No. 11 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 6 Competizione LMH after just over 15 minutes of running.

A second red flag then came out with nine minutes remaining when Mirko Bortolotti ground to a halt aboard the No. 63 Lamborghini SC63 at Turn 7, after which the session was not resumed.

The third and final Free Practice session is scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m. local time (3 a.m. ET).

RESULTS: Free Practice 2