Toyota Paces Free Practice 1 at Shanghai

Photo: John Dagys

Sebastien Buemi led a Toyota 1-2 in opening Free Practice for Sunday’s FIA WEC Six Hours of Shanghai.

The No. 8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid reeled off a quick time of 1:49.833 in the mixed-condition 90-minute session, which started in the wet.

While Buemi edged out teammate Stephane Sarrazin by a considerable 1.148 seconds, the closest non-Toyota, the No. 2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, was nearly 2.4 seconds behind.

Audis ended the session third and fourth, with the No. 20 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley completed the top-five.

There were problems for the No. 14 Porsche, as the team underwent a hybrid battery change, resulting in the the car only completing seven laps in the tail end of the session.

The Lotus, freshly rebuilt following its fire in Fuji, turned only 14 laps in the hands of Pierre Kaffer.

G-Drive Racing topped LMP2 with Roman Rusiov setting the quickest time in the No. 26 Ligier JS P2 Nissan.

It was 0.770 seconds quicker than the No. 30 Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX-03b of Ryan Dalziel, who turned in a 1:57.917 lap time late in the session to jump to second.

Matt Howson completed the top-three in the No. 47 KCMG Oreca 03 Nissan.

AF Corse led the way in GTE-Pro, thanks to Gianmaria Bruni’s 2:06.153 lap time in the No. 51 Ferrari F458 Italia, while Pedro Lamy paced GTE-Am aboard the No. 98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage GTE.

RESULTS: Free Practice 1

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