Audi eclipses Porsche in final WEC practice
A last-minute charge by Andre Lotterer put Audi top in the final practice session for this weekend's 6 Hours of Spa, narrowly ahead of Porsche.
#7 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro Hybrid: Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer
Lucien Harmegnies
Lotterer left the best until last, setting the fastest ever WEC lap around the Belgian circuit in the final moments with a 1m57.368s.
That left the number #7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro at the top of the timesheets by just 0.011s, ahead of the #19 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Force India Formula 1 driver Nico Hulkenberg.
Nick Tandy initially starred in the 60-minute session. The Brit, who is making his LMP1 debut this weekend, set a succession of rapid laps to head the regular #18 and #17 Porsches to temporarily lock out the top three positions.
In the first dry conditions of the meeting, Tandy peaked with a 1m57.396s, which beat the previous fastest lap – a 1m58.934s, set by Lucas Di Grassi in 2013.
Di Grassi set the fourth fastest time in the #8 Audi he shares with Loic Duval and Oliver Jarvis.
Toyota continued to re-group after the dramas of Nakajima’s accident yesterday. The Japanese manufacturer placed sixth and seventh in the session with the #2 TS 040 HYBRID just outpacing the re-built #1 car.
G-Drive and Ferrari set the pace
G-Drive returned to the top of the LMP2 times in the dry running, with Sam Bird setting a best lap of 2m08.415s in the #26 Ligier-Nissan. The winners of the previous round at Silverstone enjoyed a 0.4s advantage over the KCMG ORECA-Nissan of Nicolas Lapierre, Matt Howson and Richard Bradley.
Reigning champions Toni Vilander and Gianmaria Bruni claimed the LMGTE Pro fastest lap in the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 458, with Vilander setting the pace on 2m18.390s.
The #99 Aston Martin Vantage placed second, just ahead of the #71 AF Corse Ferrari, the top three in class being split by three tenths.
Pedro Lamy set the best time in LMGTE Am in the #98 Aston Martin with a 2m19.485s, heading the Larbre-run Chevrolet Corvette by a huge 1.7s.
The only significant incidents in the session came early on when Klaus Bachler backed his Abu Dhabi-Proton Porsche 911 RSR in to the wall at Pouhon.
Darren Turner also went off, but avoided hitting the wall at the exit of Les Combes as his Aston Martin Vantage beached itself in the gravel.
Practice times:
Pos | Drivers | Car | Time/Gap |
1 | Marcel Fassler Andre Lotterer Benoit Treluyer |
Audi | 1m57.368 |
2 | Nico Hulkenberg Earl Bamber Nick Tandy |
Porsche | 0.011 |
3 | Romain Dumas Neel Jani Marc Lieb |
Porsche | 0.493 |
4 | Timo Bernhard Mark Webber Brendon Hartley |
Porsche | 0.531 |
5 | Lucas di Grassi Loic Duval Oliver Jarvis |
Audi | 0.860 |
6 | Alexander Wurz Stephane Sarrazin Mike Conway |
Toyota | 2.262 |
7 | Anthony Davidson Sebastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima |
Toyota | 2.482 |
8 | Filipe Albuquerque Marco Bonanomi Rene Rast |
Audi | 4.864 |
9 | Roman Rusinov Julien Canal Sam Bird |
Ligier/Nissan | 11.047 |
10 | Matt Howson Richard Bradley Nicolas Lapierre |
ORECA/Nissan | 11.486 |
11 | Simon Dolan Mitchell Evans Harry Tincknell |
Gibson/Nissan | 11.597 |
12 | Gustavo Yacaman Luis Derani Ricardo Gonzalez |
Ligier/Nissan | 11.943 |
13 | Nelson Panciatici Paul-Loup Chatin Vincent Capillaire |
Alpine/Nissan | 12.448 |
14 | Simon Trummer Vitantonio Liuzzi Christian Klien |
CLM/AER | 12.594 |
15 | Pierre Ragues Oliver Webb Zoel Amberg |
Morgan/SARD | 12.747 |
16 | Nick Leventis Danny Watts Jonny Kane |
Dome/Nissan | 14.148 |
17 | Scott Sharp Ryan Dalziel David Hansson |
Ligier/HPD | 15.939 |
18 | Jacques Nicolet Jean-Marc Merlin Erik Maris |
Ligier/Nissan | 15.996 |
19 | Ed Brown Johannes van Overbeek Jon Fogarty |
Ligier/HPD | 17.263 |
20 | Gianmaria Bruni Toni Vilander |
Ferrari | 21.022 |
21 | Alex MacDowall Fernando Rees Richie Stanaway |
Aston Martin | 21.143 |
22 | Davide Rigon James Calado |
Ferrari | 21.242 |
23 | Darren Turner Stefan Mücke Rob Bell |
Aston Martin | 21.248 |
24 | Christoffer Nygaard Marco Sorensen Jonathan Adam |
Aston Martin | 21.763 |
25 | Frederic Makowiecki Richard Lietz |
Porsche | 21.807 |
26 | Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin | 22.117 |
27 | Sven Muller Kevin Estre |
Porsche | 22.274 |
28 | Gianluca Roda Paolo Ruberti Kristian Poulsen |
Chevrolet | 23.750 |
29 | Christian Ried Khalid Al Qubaisi Klaus Bachler |
Porsche | 24.078 |
30 | Viktor Shaitar Andrea Bertolini Aleksey Basov |
Ferrari | 24.136 |
31 | Francois Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Rui Aguas |
Ferrari | 24.141 |
32 | Patrick Dempsey Patrick Long Marco Seefried |
Porsche | 24.451 |
33 | Duncan Cameron Matt Griffin Alex Mortimer |
Ferrari | 26.813 |
34 | Francesco Castellacci Roald Goethe Stuart Hall |
Aston Martin | 27.252 |
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