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Silverstone WEC: Toyota still on top but trouble for Lopez

Toyota kept ahead of LMP1 rival Porsche in third practice for the World Endurance Championship season-opener at Silverstone on Saturday morning

A damp-but-drying track meant times fell quickly in the opening part of the hour-long session, and it was the #8 Toyota TS050 that led the way early on in the hands of Anthony Davidson.

As conditions improved, Porsche took over at the top of the times as Nick Tandy went quickest in the #1 Porsche 919 on a 1m40.243s, a time Neel Jani improved on fractionally with a 1m40.223s.

But in the final 10 minutes, Davidson put Toyota back on top with a 1m39.476s in the #8 car, which left the Japanese marque 0.747s up on Jani's Porsche.

Toyota can make up for its 2017 heartbreak

Brendon Hartley was a further 0.150s back in third place in the sister #2 Porsche, ahead of the second of the Toyotas, which had an eventful session.

A data issue left the #7 machine in the garage for the first half-hour, and Jose Maria Lopez attracted the attention of the stewards when he had a scrape with Paul Dalla Lana's Aston Martin at Luffield late on as he tried to pass the #98 Vantage around the outside.

Lopez set the car's best time, a 1m40.656s, to go 1.180s slower than Davidson's benchmark, and was reported to the stewards for dangerous driving.

Setting the pace in the LMP2 class was the TDS Racing ORECA of Matthieu Vaxiviere, who did a 1m44.105s.

That left the #28 car four tenths up on the other TDS-run car, the #26 G-Drive machine of Roman Rusinov, while third was the best of the Jota-run ORECAs, the #38 DC Racing machine.

The ByKolles ENSO CLM P1/01 was slower than all bar one of the LMP2 contingent, as Oliver Webb set the #4 car's best time of 1m46.515s.

FORD LEADS THE WAY IN GTE

Andy Priaulx put Ford on top in the GTE Pro battle, with a best time of 1m56.233s in the quicker of the two Ganassi-run cars - four tenths up on squadmate Stefan Mucke in the second Ford GT.

Ferrari was third and fourth in class, James Calado giving the Scuderia its best time of 1m57.268s in the #51 488 GTE.

The best of the GTE Am cars, the #98 Aston Martin, was also the fifth-best GTE car overall, thanks to a 1m58.691s set by Pedro Lamy before the car's incident with Lopez's Toyota.

PRACTICE THREE TIMES:

Pos Class Driver Team Car Time Gap Laps
1 LMP1 S.Buemi, A.Davidson, K.Nakajima Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota 1m39.476s - 27
2 LMP1 N.Jani, A.Lotterer, N.Tandy Porsche LMP Team Porsche 1m40.223s 0.747s 29
3 LMP1 T.Bernhard, E.Bamber, B.Hartley Porsche LMP Team Porsche 1m40.373s 0.897s 26
4 LMP1 M.Conway, K.Kobayashi, J.M.Lopez Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota 1m40.656s 1.180s 20
5 LMP2 F.Perrodo, M.Vaxiviere, E.Collard TDS Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m44.105s 4.629s 26
6 LMP2 R.Rusinov, P.Thiriet, A.Lynn G-Drive Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m44.485s 5.009s 27
7 LMP2 H-Pin Tung, O.Jarvis, T.Laurent Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m45.344s 5.868s 29
8 LMP2 R.Gonzalez, S.Trummer, V.Petrov CEFC Manor TRS Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m45.848s 6.372s 24
9 LMP2 N.Lapierre, G.Menezes, M.Rao Signatech Alpine Matmut Alpine/Gibson 1m45.981s 6.505s 26
10 LMP2 J.Canal, N.Prost, B.Senna Vaillante Rebellion ORECA/Gibson 1m46.143s 6.667s 26
11 LMP2 T.Graves, J.Hirschi, J-E.Vergne CEFC Manor TRS Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m46.363s 6.887s 27
12 LMP2 M.Beche, D.H.Hansson, N.Piquet Jr. Vaillante Rebellion ORECA/Gibson 1m46.366s 6.890s 22
13 LMP1 O.Webb, J.Rossiter, D.Kraihamer ByKOLLES Racing Team ENSO CLM/NISMO 1m46.515s 7.039s 21
14 LMP2 D.Cheng, A.Brundle, T.Gommendy Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA/Gibson 1m47.051s 7.575s 21
15 GTE Pro A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell, P.Derani Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford 1m56.233s 16.757s 24
16 GTE Pro S.Mucke, O.Pla, B.Johnson Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK Ford 1m56.628s 17.152s 20
17 GTE Pro J.Calado, A.P.Guidi AF Corse Ferrari 1m57.268s 17.792s 22
18 GTE Pro D.Rigon, S.Bird AF Corse Ferrari 1m57.892s 18.416s 20
19 GTE Am P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 1m58.691s 19.215s 22
20 GTE Am Mok W.S., K.Sawa, M.Griffin Clearwater Racing Ferrari 1m59.083s 19.607s 26
21 GTE Pro R.Lietz, F.Makowiecki Porsche GT Team Porsche 1m59.540s 20.064s 27
22 GTE Am T.Flohr, F.Castellacci, M.Molina Spirit of Race Ferrari 1m59.544s 20.068s 24
23 GTE Pro D.Turner, J.Adam, D.Serra Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 1m59.591s 20.115s 26
24 GTE Pro N.Thiim, M.Sorensen, R.Stanaway Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin 1m59.597s 20.121s 27
25 GTE Pro M.Christensen, K.Estre Porsche GT Team Porsche 1m59.685s 20.209s 19
26 GTE Am C.Ried, M.Cairoli, M.Dienst Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche 1m59.840s 20.364s 25
27 GTE Am M.Wainwright, B.Barker, N.Foster Gulf Racing Porsche 2m02.353s 22.877s 23

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