Jani puts Porsche on top in first WEC Monza pre-season test session
Porsche edged out Toyota in the opening session of the official pre-season World Endurance Championship test at Monza
Neel Jani went fastest for the German manufacturer with a 1m32.068s, set on his second flying lap two thirds of the way through the first three-hour session of the two-day 'prologue'.
The Swiss driver bettered the 1m32.274s on which team team-mate Nick Tandy had earlier held the top spot in the #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid.
Jani's lap left him a tenth and half up on the best Toyota time, 1m32.226s set by Anthony Davidson late in the session aboard the #8 Toyota TS050 HYBRID, in the final session classification.
Mike Conway took third spot in the second Toyota on a 1m32.491s, while Brendon Hartley was fourth fastest in the #2 Porshe with a 1m32.616ss.
Porsche and Toyota are running their respective 2017 LMP1 contenders in the low-downforce trim that they will race at the Le Mans 24 Hours in June.
The German ByKolles privateer P1 team didn't set a time with its latest ENSO CLM P1/01 powered by a Nissan twin-turbo V6 in place of the AER engine raced in 2014-16.
Bruno Senna was quickest in LMP2 for the Anglo-Swiss Rebellion squad.
The Brazilian set a 1m36.094s early in the session aboard the #31 ORECA-Gibson 07 to top the class times by seven tenths from team-mate Mathias Beche in the sister Rebellion entry.
Beche's 1m36.736s narrowly gave him second spot ahead of the G-Drive ORECA in which Roman Rusinov had earlier posted a 1m36.883s.
Porsche was also fastest in GTE Pro with a 1m47.379s from Michael Christensen in the #92 911 RSR.
That put him less than two tenths up on Andy Priaulx in the best of the Ganassi Ford GTs.
Stefan Mucke was a further two seconds back in the second Ford, while Davide Rigon was the fastest Ferrari driver in fifth position in class.
Ben Bakrer led the way in GTE Am in the Gulf Racing Porsche after a late lap that bettered Matteo Cairoli's fastest time in the similar Dempsey-Proton car by just over a tenth.
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