Harry Tincknell, piloting the Aston Martin, led the opening practice session for the Sao Paulo round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, the 6 Hours event.
The British driver stopped the clock at 1:25.457 in the No. 009 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin Valkyrie, finishing 0.024 seconds clear of Antonio Fuoco’s No. 50 Ferrari 499P.
It had looked like Robert Kubica would set the pace in AF Corse’s satellite Ferrari, but his 1:25.184 was erased for exceeding track limits, and his next-best lap left him in fourth behind Antonio Giovinazzi’s No. 51 factory Ferrari, which managed 1:25.563.
Behind the trio of Ferraris in fifth was the best of the Alpine A424s, with Jules Gounon in the No. 36 entry posting 1:25.700, while the top six was completed by the leading BMW M Hybrid V8, the No. 20, which clocked 1:25.998 in the hands of Sheldon van der Linde.
Seventh quickest was Genesis Magma Racing, as Mathieu Jaminet posted 1:26.002 aboard the No. 17 GMR-001.
This was five hundredths faster than the sister No. 19 car of home favourite Pipo Derani, though they were sandwiched on the leaderboard by the No. 94 Peugeot 9X8 of Loic Duval, who achieved 1:26.014.
The top ten was then completed by the Hertz Team JOTA Cadillac V-Series.Rs, the No. 12 machine driven by Will Stevens, which is running a two-driver lineup for this weekend.
Next up was the second Aston Martin, the No. 009 piloted by Marco Sorensen, still within eight tenths of Tincknell’s benchmark, while it was a largely low-key session for the 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Toyota.
The best of the Toyota TR010 Hybrids was only 12th, courtesy of 1:26.219 from Mike Conway in the No. 7 machine.
There was just one brief full-course yellow interruption during the 90-minute session, to recover debris from the opening turns shortly after the No. 34 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Salih Yoluc tangled with the No. 54 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 Evo of Thomas Flohr.
Maxime Martin in the No. 61 Iron Lynx Mercedes-AMG GT3 topped the LMGT3 timesheet with a 1:34.883, just over a tenth faster than the best time from this session last year.
Martin finished more than half a second quicker than Charlie Eastwood’s 1:35.459 in the No. 34 Corvette.
Third fastest was local driver Augusto Farfus in the specially liveried No. 32 WRT BMW M4 GT3 EVO, posting 1:35.596, half a tenth quicker than Ben Tuck aboard the No. 77 Proton Competition Ford Mustang GT3 EVO.
The No. 21 AF Corse Ferrari, driven by Alessio Rovera, ensured five different manufacturers were represented inside the top five, while the second Mercedes-AMG — the No. 79 driven by Matteo Cressoni — came home sixth.
A second 90-minute practice session is scheduled to take place later today at 3:50 p.m. local time (2:50 p.m. EST).
