Fernando Alonso kicked off his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut with the quickest time during the official test day on Sunday, just a week before the first of two Le Mans in the World Endurance Championship's first ever 'Super Season'.
The Spaniard set a 3:19.066 lap around the 13.6km Circuit des 24 Heures in the #8 Toyota TS050 HYBRID, finishing the day 0.6 seconds ahead of the nearest LMP1 rival, the #3 Rebellion Racing car.
The two Toyotas, favourite to take their first Le Mans victory this year, were split by Mathias Beche's P2 lap in the R13 which was 0.614s off Alonso's benchmark.
Kamui Kobayashi in the second Toyota was a further 0.328s off the pace to claim third. The #1 Rebellion car finished fourth ahead of the two SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1's.
In LMP2 it was the #31 DragonSpeed ORECA which topped the timesheets with Nathanael Berthon who set the 3:55.970 lap to put the American team ahead of the 19 other class rivals on the grid. The second placed car, the #48 IDEC Sport ORECA of Paul Loup Chatin, was just 0.024s behind, with the #26 G-Drive Racing entry in third.
The LMGTE Pro category was hard fought with Ford leading the way at the end of the morning session. However it was Porsche who came out on top at the end of the day with Patrick Pilet posting a 3:52.551 just before the session prematurely came to an end due to a red flag less than two minutes before the chequered flag was due to be waved.
That was one of two red flags, the other coming in the morning which also brought a premature end to the running after the #95 Aston Martin Vantage, with Marco Sørensen at the wheel, went off at speed. Sørensen was taken to the medical centre for checks but released soon after with no injuries.
The pink #93 Porsche 911 RSR of Pilet was just 0.096s ahead of the sister car, the #91 911 of Gianmaria Bruni. The four Ford GTs filled the next four slots on the time sheets with the #67 Ford GT third quickest with Andy Priaulx setting a 3:53.008 lap.
The LMGTE Am category was also headed by a Porsche, with the #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing 911 RSR posting a 3:55.970 lap with Julien Andlauer at the wheel, 0.299s ahead of the #54 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GTE of Giancarlo Fisichella.
Teams now have a week before the 86th edition of the famous race which begins Wednesday with practice ahead of the race start on Saturday.
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