Mark Webber’s Porsche team fastest at test day ahead of 2015 Le Mans 24 Hours

Hartley led a Porsche 1-2 at the Le Mans 24 Hour test day. Source: AFP

MARK Webber’s Porsche team topped the timesheets at the official test day ahead of this month’s Le Mans 24 Hours sports car endurance race, with the Australian’s No. 17 car ending the session on top.

The car’s quickest lap was set by Brendon Hartley, the New Zealander’s 3m21.061s lap over seven tenths quicker than last year’s pole position time despite only a short amount of dry-track running during the day.

“It feels fantastic to be back in Le Mans and out on track with our red number 17 for the first time,” Hartley said.

“It was a productive start in the morning with testing in the dry, and then it was also good to gather experience in the wet. For the afternoon session we made a big step forward and the pace on the dry track was really good.”

Watch this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours LIVE in HD on FOX SPORTS Australia on June 13-14.

Porsche locked up three of the top four spots during the test, with the No. 18 car’s session-topping morning time good enough for second at the end of the day, while the No. 19 car that features F1 driver Nico Hulkenberg among its line-up ended the day in fourth.

Webber and Hartley in the Porsche garage. Source: AFP

Audi were Porsche’s nearest challenger on the day, the reigning champions’ No. 9 car ending the day in third while their No. 7 and No. 8 cars sat fifth and sixth.

Toyota’s two-pronged attack were next in seventh and eighth, the Japanese marque desperate for Le Mans success after taking pole position and dominating last year’s race until mechanical failures and crashes scuppered their campaign.

Webber posted the 20th-fastest time out of the 190 driver and car combinations to post a time during the day, with the former Formula 1 star not getting a chance to put in a fast lap when track conditions were at their best.

Audi and Toyota were 1 and 4 seconds off Porsche’s one-lap pace. Source: AFP

Nissan’s revolutionary front-wheel-drive LMP1 challenger completed its first laps on track with other cars, the No. 23 car notching up the 18th fastest time of the test with Frenchman Olivier Pla at the wheel of the car he will share with Jann Mardenborough and Max Chilton.

The new GT-R LM Nismo’s form against its factory LMP1 rivals at Porsche, Toyota and Audi is still uncertain. Though Pla’s best lap was some 22 seconds slower than Hartley’s time, none of Nissan’s fleet of three cars logged any fast laps on a dry track.

“We weren’t chasing headlines today. It was all about learning and recording data as part of our preparation for our Le Mans debut,” Team Principal and Technical Director, Ben Bowlby said.

Two Nissans run line-astern during the test day. Source: AFP

“At the end of the day our times in the damp conditions were competitive and during the morning runs we recorded the two fastest straight line speeds overall.

“We know we have a big learning curve ahead of us bringing this unique front-engined, front-wheel-drive car to Le Mans but after our first day here we have three straight cars in the garage and mountains of data for our engineers to study.”

The cars will next hit the track in just over a week’s time when Free Practice gets underway for the 83rd edition of the 24 Heures du Mans.

RESULTS — Le Mans 24 Hours Test day
1. (17) Hartley/Berhard/Webber (Porsche, LMP1) 3m21.061s
2. (18) Dumas/Jani/Lieb (Porsche, LMP1) +0.884s
3. (9) Albuquerque/Bonanomi/Rast (Audi, LMP1) +1.246s
4. (19) Hulkenberg/Bamber/Tandy (Porsche, LMP1) +1.261s
5. (7) Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer (Audi, LMP1) +1.495s
6. (8) Di Grassi/Duval/Jarvis (Audi, LMP1) +1.941s
7. (1) Davidson/Buemi/Nakajima/Kobayashi (Toyota, LMP1) +4.260s
8. (2) Wurz/Sarrazin/Conway (Toyota, LMP1) +5.868s
9. (12) Prost/Beche/Heidfeld (Rebellion, LMP1) +9.447s
10. (4) Trummer/Kaffer/Monteiro (CLM, LMP1) +17.843s
11. (34) Cumming/Vanthoor (Ligier-HPD, LMP2) +20.858s
12. (13) Imperatori/Kraihamer/Abt (Rebellion, LMP1) +21.083s
13. (36) Panciatici/Chatin/Capillaire (Alpine-Nissan, LMP2) +21.212s
14. (48) Chandhok/Patterson/Berthon (Oreca-Nissan, LMP2) +21.344s
15. (47) Howson/Lapiere/Bradley (Oreca-Nissan, LMP2) +21.392s
16. (38) Solan/Evans/Turvey (Gibson-Nissan, LMP2) +21.486s
17. (46) Thiriet/Gommendy/Badey (Oreca-Nissan, LMP2) +22.283s
18. (23) Pla/Mardenborough/Chilton (Nissan, LMP1) +22.322s
19. (42) Leventis/Watts/Kane (Strakka Dome-Nissan, LMP2) +22.772s
20. (41) Hirsch/Wirdheim/Lancaster/Paletou (Gibson-Nissan, LMP2) +23.319s
21. (26) Rusinov/Canal/Bird (Ligier-Nissan, LMP2) +23.391s
22. (29) Roussel/Cheng/Tung (Morgan-Nissan, LMP2) +25.323s
23. (28) Yacaman/Derani/Gonzalez (Ligier-Nissan, LMP2) +25.997s
24. (43) Ragues/Webb/Amberg (Morgan-SARD, LMP2) +26.027s
25. (45) Perret/Bellarosa/Ibanez (Oreca-Nissan, LMP2) +26.137s
26. (40) Krohn/Jonsson (Ligier-Judd, LMP2) +26.190s
27. (27) Mediani/Markozov/Minassian (BR01-Nissan, LMP2) +26.766s
28. (30) Sharp/Dalziel/Heinemeier Hanss (Ligier-HPD, LMP2) +26.882s
29. (22) Tincknell/Krumm/Buncombe (Nissan, LMP1) +27.774s
30. (31) Brown/Van Overbeek/Fogarty (Ligier-HPD, LMP2) +28.321s
31. (35) Nicolet/Merlin/Maris (Ligier-Nissan, LMP2) +30.172s
32. (21) Matsuda/Shulzhitskiy/Ordonez (Nissan, LMP1) +30.273s
33. (37) Aleshin/Ladygin/Ladygin (BR01-Nissan, LMP2) +31.552s
34. (49) Fujii/Hoshino/Klien (Oreca-Judd, LMP2) +32.372s
35. (97) Turner/Mucke/Bell (Aston Martin, LMGTE Pro) +37.008s
36. (64) Gavin/Milner/Taylor (Chevrolet, LMGTE Pro) +37.101s
37. (74) Tomlinson/Robertson/Hoy (Ginetta, LMP3) +37.247s
38. (51) Bruni/Vilander/Fisichella (Ferrari, LMGTE Pro) +37.555s
39. (92) Pilet/Makowiecki/Henzler (Porsche, LMGTE Pro) +37.982s
40. (98) Dalla Lana/Lamy/Lauda (Aston Martin, LMGTE Am) +38.277s
41. (71) Rigon/Calado/Beretta (Ferrari, LMGTE Pro) +38.359s
42. (91) Lietz/Christensen/Bergmeister (Porsche, LMGTE Pro) +39.211s
43. (95) Sorensen/Nygaard/Thiim (Aston Martin, LMGTE Pro) +39.255s
44. (99) Reed/Macdowall/Stanaway (Aston Martin, LMGTE Pro) +39.264s
45. (63) Magnussen/Garcia/Briscoe (Chevrolet, LMGTE Pro) +39.488s
46. (61) Mann/Miammaria/Cressoni (Ferrari, LMGTE Am) +39.616s
47. (86) Wainwright/Carroll/Keen (Porsche, LMGTE Am) +40.147s
48. (55) Cameron/Griffin/Mortimer (Ferrari, LMGTE Am) +40.160s
49. (72) Shaytar/Bertonlini/Basov (Ferrari, LMGTE Am) +40.242s
50. (66) Alfaisal/Giermaziak/Avenatti (Ferrari, LMGTE Am) +41.151s
51. (83) Perrodo/Collard/Aguas (Ferrari, LMGTE Am) +41.340s
52. (53) Bleekemolen/Keating/Miller (Viper, LMGTE Am) +41.438s
53. (75) Chilton/Matsuda/Buncombe/McMillen (Ginetta, LMP3) +41.651s
54. (81) Perazzini/Cioci (Ferrari, LMGTE Am) +41.671s
55. (50) Roda/Ruberti/Poulsen (Chevrolet, LMGTE Am) +41.795s
56. (62) Sweedler/Bell/Segal (Ferrari, LMGTE Am) +41.826s
57. (77) Dempsey/Long/Seefried (Porsche, LMGTE Am) +42.306s
58. (88) Ried/Al Qubaisi/Bachler (Porsche, LMGTE Am) +42.827s
59. (44) Yamagishi/Perret/Ibanez/Raffin (Oreca-Nissan, LMP2) +42.864s
60. (96) Goethe/Hall/Castellacci (Aston Martin, LMGTE Am) +43.293s
61. (68) Chen/Vannelet/Parisy (Porsche, LMGTE Am) +43.430s
62. (60) Laursen/Mac/Rizzoli (Ferrari, LMGTE Am) +44.886s
63. (67) Chen/Kapadia/Maasen (Porsche, LMGTE Am) +46.317s
64. (82) Mallegol/Bachelier/Blank/Mouez (Ferrari, LMGTE Am) +59.266s

Originally published as Webber’s Porsche fastest ahead of Le Mans