Le Prologue WEC 2017 en chiffres

The FIA World Endurance Championship was a resounding success with the Italian fans who turned up in their thousands to the Autodromo Nationale Monza for The Prologue.  

With 14 hours of track time staged across 5 sessions over 2 days, there was plenty to see around the circuit, with the 27 cars that attended the test completing 5,345 laps between them. This equated to a total distance of 30,880 km, or 30 direct trips between Monza and Silverstone, which will stage the first round of the 2017 WEC on April 16. 

Maximum laps

The 67-lap stint by Porsche LMP1 Team’s Timo Bernhard on Sunday afternoon was the longest of any driver in a single session, although it was Harry Tincknell who completed the most laps overall. The British driver, sharing the No. 67 Ford GT with Andy Priaulx, managed 155 laps over the two days to put him just ahead of Aston Martin’s Richie Stanaway (141 laps) and new Toyota signing Yuji Kunimoto (137 laps), the busiest of the LMP1 competitors.

As teams acclimatised to their new machinery, Vaillante Rebellion driver Mathias Beche (111 laps) and Signatech-Alpine’s Gustavo Menezes (100 laps) were the only LMP2 drivers to break past the 100 mark, an honour also held by Clearwater Racing’s WEC debutant Weng Sun Mok (117 laps) in the LMGTE Am class.

By contrast, reigning GT Drivers Champion Nicki Thiim completed just 19 laps in the No. 95 Aston Martin as Stanaway got reacclimatised to the Vantage GTE, while Robert Kubica sadly completed no laps as the ByKolles ENSO CLM P1/01-Nismo hit mechanical trouble.

Top Speeds

Earl Bamber recorded the highest top speed of anybody at The Prologue, reaching 319.5 km/h during Saturday‘s night session in the No. 2 Porsche 919 Hybrid. His team-mate Neel Jani was also quick through the speed traps, the reigning champion just 2.8 km/h slower at 316.7 km/h.