World Endurance Championship newcomer Porsche ended up only a tenth behind reigning champion Audi in the first session of the official series test at Paul Ricard last Friday. Audi driver Marcel Fassler was fastest during the four-hour session in the R18 e-tron quattro he shares with Andre Lotterer and Benoit Treluyer on a time of 1m42.788s.
That eclipsed Neel Jani’s previous table-topping best in the #14 Porsche 919 Hybrid by just 0.124s. The #20 Porsche, in which Mark Webber had headed the times early in the session, ended up third fastest on 1m43.260s.Organisers are using the test as the final stage of analysis of the fuel figures in the new energy-based formula, prior to setting down the allocations for the first three rounds of the 2014 WEC up to and including the Le Mans 24 Hours.
