Mexico WEC: Lotterer tops FP1 for Porsche
Porsche topped the times in the opening session of free practice for this weekend's Mexico City round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Andre Lotterer set a 1m27.026s to improve on teammate Neel Jani's 1m27.652s in the closing minutes of a session that began on a wet circuit.
That put the German six tenths up on the sister Porsche in which Earl Bamber subsequently posted a 1m27.675s.
The best of the Toyotas was a shade over a second off the pace in the hands of Mike Conway, who improved to a 1m28.029s shortly before the chequered flag.
That put him a second clear of Sebastien Buemi in the second Toyota.
Alpine tops LMP2
Nicolas Lapierre was fastest in LMP2 in the Signatech Alpine squad's solo Oreca-Gibson 07 on a 1m34.556s set late in the session to eclipse team-mate Gustavo Menezes' 1m34.715s.
The #13 Rebellion Racing Oreca was second fastest on a 1m34.932s set by Mathias Beche.
Third fastest was the second of the Rebellion cars in which Bruno Senna recorded a 1m35.213s.
Ferrari beats BoP changes in GTE
Ferrari was fastest in GTE despite a double hit under the automatic Balance of Performance rules in the form of a 5kg weight penalty and a decrease in turbo boost across its torque curve.
The Italian marque's rivals have all been given performance breaks with a 2kg decrease in minimum weight and more power.
James Calado set a 1m41.10s in the #51 AF Corse factory Ferrari 488 GTE, which gave him a margin of seven hundredths over Frederic Makowiecki in the best of the Porsche 911 RSRs.
Nicki Thiim was third fastest for Aston Martin in the best of the Vantage GTEs on a 1m41.297s.
Matteo Cairoli was fastest in GTE Am in the Dempsey-Proton Porsche 911 RSR.
Results:
| Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |  Andre Lotterer  Neel Jani  Nick Tandy |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'27.026 | |
| 2 | 2 | Timo Bernhard  Brendon Hartley Earl Bamber |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'27.675 | 0.649 |
| 3 | 7 |  Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway  Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'28.029 | 1.003 |
| 4 | 8 | Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'29.131 | 2.105 |
| 5 | 36 |  Nicolas Lapierre  Andre Negrao  Gustavo Menezes |
Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 1'34.556 | 7.530 |
| 6 | 13 | Nelson Piquet Jr.  David Heinemeier Hansson Mathias Beche |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'34.932 | 7.906 |
| 7 | 31 | Bruno Senna Julien Canal Nicolas Prost |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'35.213 | 8.187 |
| 8 | 26 |  Roman Rusinov Pierre Thiriet Alex Lynn |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'35.506 | 8.480 |
| 9 | 25 | Vitaly Petrov Simon Trummer  Roberto Gonzalez |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'35.687 | 8.661 |
| 10 | 24 | Jean-Eric Vergne Ben Hanley Matt Rao |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'35.774 | 8.748 |
| 11 | 38 | Oliver Jarvis  Ho-Pin Tung Thomas Laurent |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'36.171 | 9.145 |
| 12 | 28 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'36.191 | 9.165 |
| 13 | 37 | David Cheng Tristan Gommendy Alex Brundle |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'36.432 | 9.406 |
| 14 | 51 | James Calado  Alessandro Pier Guidi |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 1'41.101 | 14.075 |
| 15 | 91 |  Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 1'41.177 | 14.151 |
| 16 | 95 | Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 1'41.297 | 14.271 |
| 17 | 71 | Sam Bird Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 1'41.322 | 14.296 |
| 18 | 92 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 1'41.413 | 14.387 |
| 19 | 66 | Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 1'41.716 | 14.690 |
| 20 | 67 | Harry Tincknell  Andy Priaulx |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 1'41.943 | 14.917 |
| 21 | 97 | Darren Turner Jonathan Adam Daniel Serra |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 1'42.011 | 14.985 |
| 22 | 77 | Christian Ried Matteo Cairoli Marvin Dienst |
Porsche 911 RSR (991) | LMGTE AM | 1'42.469 | 15.443 |
| 23 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Ben Barker  Nick Foster Jr. |
Porsche 911 RSR (991) | LMGTE AM | 1'42.576 | 15.550 |
| 24 | 98 |  Pedro Lamy  Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 1'42.923 | 15.897 |
| 25 | 54 | Francesco Castellacci  Miguel Molina Thomas Flohr |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 1'43.127 | 16.101 |
| 26 | 61 |  Matt Griffin  Mok Weng Sun Keita Sawa |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 1'43.353 | 16.327 |
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