The Porsche RS Spyder has made its official Le Mans Series debut after two of the three teams set to contest the championship this season took part in the annual group test session at Paul Ricard.

The Horag Racing team missed the test with its car already en-route to Sebring for the season opening 12-Hour American Le Mans Series event, with Team Essex and van Merksteijn Motorsport left to fly the Porsche flag in the LMP2 class.

Team owner Peter van Merksteijn shared driving duties in the Dutch car with Jeroen Bleekemolen and ex-Formula 1 driver Jos Verstappen with Verstappen admitting he enjoyed the experience of the running in the car.

“The Spyder has amazing grip in the fast corners,” he said. “It's incredibly stabile under braking and we haven't experienced one technical problem. This is simply a fantastic car which is great fun to drive.”

The Danish Essex team also takes up the challenge with a well-known line-up of swift drivers, with team manager John Nielsen bringing with him successes in sports car racing and team-mate Casper Elgaard having won the Danish Touring Car Championship on numerous occasions.

“Good pit stops can mean the difference between winning and losing a race,” Nielsen said. “For this reason we tested our pit stops here in the narrow pits under stressful conditions. My boys are extremely ambitious. They want to be the best at pit stops.”

In GT2, the IMSA Performance MATMUT and Felbermayr teams also took part in the test flying Porsche colours.