Porsche remained at the top of the times in the World Endurance Championship pre-season test at Paul Ricard on Saturday morning courtesy of a late lap from Brendon Hartley.
Hartley posted a 1m37.886s aboard his 919 Hybrid after the first of Saturday’s two sessions resumed following a red flag, eclipsing Stephane Sarrazin’s best lap in the Toyota TS050 HYBRID of 1m38.273s.
Hartley and fellow WEC champions Mark Webber and Timo Bernhard have taken over testing duties for Porsche in the 919 Hybrid they will race in the season-opener at Silverstone on April 17.
The New Zealander’s time compared with Neel Jani’s fastest time from the opening day of the test of 1m37.487s.
Toyota moved closer to the pace after its solo TS050 was converted to high-downforce configuration from the Le Mans-spec bodywork in which it ran in the opening two sessions on Friday.
Sarrazin’s time of 1m38.273s was substantially quicker than the 1m39.949s that stood as Toyota’s Ricard test best last year.
The Toyota caused the red flag halfway through the final hour when Kamui Kobayashi stopped out on the circuit for precautionary reasons.
The team was expecting to resume running with the news TS050 in the afternoon session.
Audi switched to a second R18 e-tron quattro after the chassis it ran on Friday encountered what were described as mechanical issues, Marcel Fassler ending up third in the times with a 1m39.563s.
Signatech Alpine was again quickest in LMP2 with its ORECA-Nissan 05.
Gustavo Menezes’s time was nearly seven tenths quicker than the G-Drive ORECA in the hands of Roman Rusinov.
The AF Corse Ferrari team headed the GTE Pro times, Sam Bird edging out Gianmaria Bruni by three tenths.
