Peugeot set the quickest time in the opening practice for the World Endurance Championship at Sao Paulo after a red flag brought an early halt to proceedings.
The 90-minute session was red-flagged at exactly the halfway point when Arnold Robin heavily crashed his #78 ASK Lexus RC F GT3 at Turn 4 on a damp but drying track. Although bronze-rated Robin was reported to be okay and taken to medical centre for evaluation, the impact substantially damaged the barriers at the exit of the left-hander, leading to a prolonged suspension.
With still 20 minutes left on the clock, the race control announced that the session would not be restarted — with the results declared from the times set immediately prior to the red flag. To make up for the lost time, FP2 will be extended by 45 minutes and will now run from 14:30 to 16:45 on Friday evening.
Just prior to the stoppage caused by the Lexus, Peugeot had gone quickest in the Hypercar class courtesy of Nico Muller in the #93 9X8.
Having fitted slick tyres on like the rest of the field as the track began to dry out after earlier showers, the Swiss driver first moved to the top of the charts with a time of 1m26.971s before cementing his position with a 1m26.341s flier.
Cadillac ended up second after 45 minutes of green flag running, with Earl Bamber — who had set the pace on wet tyres early on — lapping the circuit in 1m26.520s, 0.179s down on Muller’s benchmark.
Third place went to the #6 Porsche 963 of Andre Lotterer, who was the first to set competitive lap times on slicks. The German’s best effort of 1m26.657s was 0.226s off the pace, but comfortably clear of fourth-placed Sebastien Buemi in the best of the Toyotas, the #8 GR010 HYBRID.
AF Corse driver Yifei Ye led Ferrari’s three-car attack in fifth after posting a time of 1m26.824s, while BMW driver Rene Rast made it six different manufacturers inside the top six with a time of 1m26.871s.
No other driver was able to lap within a second of Muller, as the red flag was deployed not too long after the track had become dry enough for slick rubber.
Miguel Molina in the Le Mans 24 Hours-winning #50 Ferrari was 1.003s off the pace in seventh place, while Mike Conway — making his WEC return after missing the previous round due to a cycling accident — put the #7 Toyota up to eighth in the ranking.
Next up was Michael Christensen in the #5 Porsche, while Jean-Karl Vernay was a surprise 10th in the Isotta Fraschini Tipo6-Competizione.
The two Alpine A424 LMDh cars ended up 12th and 13th, while Jota ended up at the bottom of the Hypercar order with its two customer Porche 963s.
McLaren leads the LMGT3 category
In the LMGT3 class, Nicolas Costa topped the session in the #59 United Autosports McLaren 720S GT3 after setting a time of 1m35.881s just before the red flag.
That put him just 0.003s clear of Alex Riberas in the #27 Heart of Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3, while the sister Aston car entered under the D’station Racing banner finished third with a time of 1m36.104s set by Marco Sorensen.
The two Lamborghinis occupied fourth and fifth positions, with Matteo Cressoni just edging ahead in the #60 Iron Lynx Huracan GT3.
The #78 Lexus that brought out the red flag ended up 17th out of the 18 runners, with Robin having set the car’s best time of 1m40.108s prior to his off at Turn 4. Robin’s team-mate Kelvin van der Linde had previously put the car at the top of the order on wet tyres when the track was still damp.