The opening track session of the 6 Hours of Shanghai weekend in China saw the no1 Porsche 919 hybrid set the fastest time in the 90-minute Free Practice period with Brendon Hartley setting a 1m46.781 lap, just 0.198 seconds ahead of the no8 Audi R18 of Lucas Di Grassi and 0.6 seconds ahead of the no5 Toyota TS050 with Sebastien Buemi setting a best lap of 1m47.445.  The current championship leaders in the no2 Porsche 919 of Romain Dumas, Marc Lieb and Neel Jani could only manage the 6th fastest time after a battery had to be changed on the car with Dumas setting the cars best time of 1m48.438, 1.657 seconds slower than their teammates.

The no7 Audi R18 was slow on track early in the session due to a gearbox issue but Andre Lotterer was still able to set a 1m47.827 lap.

The leading LMP1 Privateer was the newly crowned 2016 champions in the no13 Rebellion Racing R-One with a 1m52.079.

6 Hours of Fuji LMP2 race winner Will Stevens in the no26 G Drive Racing Oreca was the quickest of the ten LMP2 competitors with a 1m55.953 lap, 0.055s ahead of the current championship leaders in the no36 Signatech Alpine A460.

The no51 AF Corse Ferrari F488 of Gianmaria Bruni was the quickest of the seven LMGTE Pro cars with a 2m03.752 lap, just 0.115s ahead of the no77 Dempsey-Proton Competition Porsche of Richard Lietz and 0.158s ahead of the no66 Ford GT of Stefan Mucke

The no98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage was the quickest in LMGTE Am with Pedro Lamy setting a 2m04.503 lap, over a second ahead of the second fastest car, the no78 KCMG Porsche of Wolf Henzler and the no88 Abu Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche of Pat Long.

Free Practice 2 will get underway at 15h30 (local) / 08h30 (CET)