With cloudy skies above the Circuit of the Americas and a hot and humid 32 degrees centigrade air temperature the 29 cars taking part in the first non-European race of the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship took to the track.

At the end of the 90-minute session the no2 Audi R18 of 24 Hours of Le Mans winners Benoit Treluyer, Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer was the quickest car with a 1m51.136, 0.187s faster than their teammates in the no1 R18.  The fastest lap is 3.6 seconds slower than last year’s pole time of 1m47.520 but there are still two more practice sessions before qualifying tomorrow.

The no20 Porsche 919 of Timo Bernard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley set the third fastest time of 1m51.919, ahead of the two Toyotas.  The championship leading Toyota pulled off the track towards the end of the session, with Anthony Davidson parking the car out of the way on the pit exit.

The no12 Rebellion R-One was the quickest LMP1-L competitor, two seconds faster than the sister no13 car. The brand new Lotus CLM P1/01 – AER got its first competitive run of the 2014 season, finishing up with a 2m01942 lap, 4.3 seconds behind the no12 Rebellion.

The no30 Extreme Speed Motorsports HPD ARX 03B – Honda of Scott Sharp, Ryan Dalziel and Ed Brown set the pace in LMP2 on home soil with a 1m58.111 lap, 1.1 seconds ahead of the brand new G-Drive Racing Ligier of Olivier Pla, Roman Rusinov and Julien Canal.

The second free practice session will get underway at 19:30 (local) and take place under the lights at the Circuit of the Americas. Session Ends with Audi 1-2.