Porsche has dominated the opening day of action in Brazil for the FIA World Endurance Championship with ex-F1 racer Mark Webber topping the times aboard  the No.20 919 hybrid entry.

Porsche topped the opening session and again set the pace in the afternoon with Webber topping the time sheets with a 1m18.349, eighth tenths quicker than the earlier best time and just 0.091s ahead of the No.14 919 of Romain Dumas.

Audi were third and fourth fastest with the No.1 R18 of Lucas di Grassi leading the way, 0.16s ahead of the No.2 Audi and 0.106s behind Webber’s Porsche.  Toyota were fifth and sixth fastest with the No.8 TS040 of world champion elect Sebastien Buemi finishing just ahead of the sister car after the 90-minute practice session.

The Brazil weekend will be the final race for Le Mans legend – nine-time 24 Hour winner, Tom Kristensen.

”A pretty positive day for us with the car running very smoothly,” Webber said.

“We got through the whole programme. It was good the rain stayed away with just a little bit at the end of FP2. The team did a great job and all us drivers are comfortable with the track. We have a great chance to fight very hard this weekend for a good podium.

“Our long run was the most encouraging of the year. It looks like the new asphalt is good for us – perhaps we need to have that surface on every track in the world.”

The No.12 Rebellion R-One of Andrea Belicchi finishing the session as the leading LMP1-L competitor with a 1m21.709 lap, 0.11s ahead of Nick Heidfeld in the No.12 R-One.  The No.9 Lotus CLM-AER was third quickest once again with Lucas Auer setting the fastest lap for the car, a 1m22.599.

The No.26 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan was once again at the head of the LMP2 field, a 1m24.306 set by Olivier Pla putting the Russian team 1.302s ahead of their Championship rivals in the no27 SMP Racing Oreca-Nissan, the best time of that car set by Nicolas Minassian.  The KCMG Oreca was third quickest, 1.7s behind the Ligier after losing the front bodywork during the session.

Aston Martin set the pace in both GTE classes – PRO and AM. Local Brazilian star Fernando Rees topped the times at 1:30.112 – .06 of a second ahead of the Stefan ucke/Darren Turner car.

The lead GTE-AM car was the third fastest GT car overall with Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla Lana and Christoffer Nygaard.

Two-time Formula 1 World Champion and two-time Indy 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi returned to the track on home soil in Brazil today. He is sharing a GTE-AM Ferrari with American Jeff Segal and Alessandro Pier Guidi.

The third free practice session will take place at 10:00 tomorrow morning local time / 7:00am US eastern, with qualifying starting at 2:45pm / 11:45am US Eastern.