Of the 8,581 km covered by the Porsche 919 Hybrid in testing sessions in Spain, no less than 6,689 km were done in simulated race conditions with the knowledge the distance record at Le Mans (5,410 km) was beaten in 2010 by the Audi R15 Plus driven by Romain Dumas, Mike Rockenfeller and Timo Bernhard, the latter one of six drivers in Porsche's armada this year.

Unlike Toyota, who used the appropriate aero kit at the 6 Hours of Silverstone and WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps WEC, Porsche instead chose to develop and tweak its car set-up destined for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. This is why the Japanese cars, winners at the the first two races, proved routinely faster. The driver line-ups of the two Porsche 919 Hybrids still claimed the second and third steps on the podium at the opening round of the season, but were forced to settle for the third step alone in the Belgian Ardennes.

At Motorland Aragon, the entire team worked together on the set-up, performance and endurance. The German marque's six drivers - Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley and Earl Bamber for the #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid and Neel Jani (winner at Le Mans), André Lotterer and Nick Tandy for the #1 car - took part in the 36-hour test, as did Marc Lieb, reserve driver with whom Neel Jani and Romain Dumas won last year.

Note that at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, alternate drivers are prohibited and any change to a driver line-up is forbidden once the administrative and technical checks have been conducted (Article 10.9.2 of the regulations on the composition of driver line-ups), except in case of force majeure at the discretion of the Sporting Commissioners College.

Photo (Copyright - Laurent Cartalade/VSA): The #1 and #2 Porsche 919 Hybrids at the WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.