Porsche had a 'mixed' test day for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, according to LMP1 Team Principal Andreas Seidl.
The two 919 Hybrids were out-paced by the trio of Toyota TS050s on Sunday, with Earl Bamber's best time of 3:21.512s falling 3.3 seconds shy of the overall benchmark.
However, unlike Toyota, Porsche elected not to carry out qualifying runs during the test, instead focusing exclusively on race setup.
Bamber shared driving duties with Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard, while Neel Jani, Andre Lotterer and Nick Tandy took turns behind the wheel of the sister machine, with test driver Marc Lieb also gaining seat time.
Defending race winner Jani posted a 3:22.100s marker to put his car fifth in the order.
"We’ve had a mixed test day," admitted Seidl.
"Although we didn’t achieve the mileage we wanted, we still learnt important lessons for the race regarding tyre choice and tyre wear."
"Toyota’s speed was impressive, we could not match that. In the coming days we will analyse today’s data and draw our conclusions to improve our cars’ performance."
Bamber's effort behind the wheel of the #2 Porsche was enough to eclipse the manufacturer's quickest time from 2016 – a race it won – by seven tenths of a second.
However, the same car also encountered an oil leak during the four-hour morning session which curtailed its mileage and neccessitated a change of the two-litre V4 combustion engine.
That meant the #2 only completed 75 laps across eight hours of test day running, compared with 81 for the sister car and 106 for the most industrious Toyota.
"We unfortunately lost a lot of test time with our number 2 car," reflected Seidl.
"After only two-and-a-half hours repair time the car was back on track. What caused the leak is still to be analysed but the team did a great job. Now we go full throttle on the road to the Le Mans race week.”
Despite the issues to the #2 car and the overall lack in pace, LMP1 Vice President Fritz Enzinger remained confident, assuring the result of the test day should be taken with a pinch of salt:
“The test result is difficult to read as we stuck to our plan and focused on race preparation," he said.
"On Tuesday, we’ll have a roll-out with the Le Mans cars here on the Bugatti Circuit. Afterwards the majority of the team will be sent home to take a deep breath before we return and enjoy the hype at scrutineering next Sunday in Le Mans town centre.”
"The return to La Sarthe definitely brings back the nicest memories for us. Of course, we would like to follow up on these recollections."
“Now Le Mans 2017 is on."
Porsche will return to the 8.5 mile La Sarthe circuit to bid for a record-breaking 19th victory at the 24-hour classic, which takes place on June 17-18.
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