Two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso was fastest in the opening practice session of his debut World Endurance Championship weekend at the Six Hours of Spa.
Alonso led a Toyota one-two at the top of the timesheet in FP1 – the first session of the new WEC superseason.
The #8 Toyota was first propelled to the top of the timesheet by Sebastien Buemi. He handed over to team-mate Alonso after the first 30 minutes of the 90-minute session.
It took Alonso four laps before posting a 1m58.392s lap time to go fastest. This remained the benchmark for the rest of the session.
Alonso will dovetail his McLaren F1 duties with a full WEC programme driving Toyota’s TS050 this season, which will include two appearances at the Le Mans 24 Hours, as he continues his campaign to secure motorsport’s unofficial triple crown.
Mike Conway ensured a Toyota one-two at the top of the times. He finished 0.2 seconds adrift of Alonso in the #7 car, recording a personal best time within a tenth of Buemi’s original benchmark.
Rebellion Racing was the fastest privateer LMP1 team in first practice. Thomas Laurent’s 1m58.849s was within half a second of the fastest Toyota.
DragonSpeed’s Ben Hanley was the fastest non-hybrid car in the session, finishing fourth in the #10 car. The #1 Rebellion Racing entry finished fifth.
Both SMP Racing ars completed modest lap totals, with the #17 entry recording nine laps en route to seventh while the #11 finished ninth having completed just 11 laps.
At the foot of the overall timesheet was the Manor pairing, with Charlie Robertson and Alex Brundle only completing install laps on both the cars in FP1.
Ex-F1 race winner Pastor Maldonado finished top of the LMP2 class by over half a second for DragonSpeed.
Top of the GTE-Pro category was the #67 Ford, with Andy Priaulx setting the pace, ahead of Olivier Pla in the sister Ford GT.
GTE-AM was headed by the Dempsey-Proton Racing squad. The team finished first and third with its two entries.
