Prologue comes to a close after 30 hours of testing, almost 10,000 laps and over 53,000 kilometres completed between the 35 cars.

The first public running of the new 2018/19 FIA WEC Super Season came to a close at Circuit Paul Ricard this afternoon after 9,836 laps were completed.

The 30-hour Prologue test was conducted in perfect conditions for the teams as they make final preparations before the first round at Spa-Francorchamps on May 5, the Total 6 Hours of Spa Francorchamps.

The pair of Toyota GAZOO Racing TS050 HYBRID entries headed the way as they conducted the most laps by a team, registering a remarkable 1,002 tours of the French circuit.

The team tested many aspects of its upgraded design and, although Mike Conway set an overall best of 1m32.662 in the No.8 car, it was largely unrepresentative due to Toyota running unrestricted when the time was set.

Behind the Japanese team there was a large amount of interest in the variety of all-new non-hybrid LMP1 cars.

The SMP Racing BR1 design continued its impressive introduction to LMP1 competition as Vitaly Petrov took third position. There were equally promising showings from the new Rebellion R13 as André Lotterer set the fourth quickest time in the car’s first significant test.

The ByKolles and CEFC TRSM Racing teams both ran important test programmes during the track time available with the new Ginetta running a combined 259 laps.

Dragonspeed placed eighth in the LMP1 order in its debut showing, with the American team accruing valuable data and knowledge as it gets set for the Super Season.

The RacerViews info

Photos by Paul Foster, April 2018

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