Austin WEC: Rebellion tops FP2 before hitting drama

As was the case during Saturday's earlier FP1 session, Gustavo Menezes set the fastest time aboard the #1 Rebellion R-13, posting an 1m48.804s early on in the two-hour session.

That was enough to top the session by 0.654s ahead of the quicker of the two Toyota TS050 Hybrids, the #8 with Brendon Hartley at the wheel.

But just before the halfway mark of the session, when Bruno Senna was at the wheel, smoke started pouring from the rear of the #1 car, Senna parking up at Turn 5.

The car was promptly recovered and the Rebellion crew began the process of changing the normally-aspirated Gibson engine ahead of qualifying, which begins at 1810 local time.

"I think we should be OK [for qualifying]," commented Rebellion team manager Bart Hayden on the engine change. "It's not the end of the world."

Toyota's #7 car, which is carrying a larger success handicap than the sister car, once again struggled, ending up seventh-fastest overall, behind four of the LMP2 runners.

Mike Conway's best effort aboard the championship-leading car was 2.381s off the pace.

Mercedes Formula E driver Nyck de Vries set the pace in LMP2 with a time only 1.059s slower than Menezes in the Rebellion.

De Vries took the #29 Racing Team Nederland Oreca to a blistering time of 1m49.863s, a massive nine tenths faster than the United Autosports Oreca of Filipe Albuquerque.

Gabriel Aubry was third-fastest in the #37 Jackie Chan DC Racing Oreca, while the Signatech Alpine-branded Oreca of Thomas Laurent was the fourth and final LMP2 runner to outpace the slower of the Toyota LMP1s.

Porsche led the way in GTE Pro courtesy of late session-topper from Michael Christensen, a 2m01.176s, at the wheel of the #92 works 911 RSR-19.

That was sufficient to beat the #95 Aston Martin Vantage of Marco Sorensen by a scant 0.053s, and the #91 Porsche of Gianmaria Bruni by a little over three tenths.

Corvette Racing's solo C8.R ended up sixth-fastest in the hands of Jan Magnussen, within a second of the pace and ahead of the #97 Aston Martin.

Matt Campbell put the #77 Dempsey-Proton Porsche fastest in GTE Am and fourth overall among the GTE runners, his 2m02.192s beating both GTE Pro class Ferraris.

There were two red flags during the session, the first coming after only 14 minutes when the #95 Aston of Sorensen came to a halt at Turn 8 with a loose left-rear wheel.

The second came with five minutes left on the clock as the #88 Dempsey-Proton Porsche stopped at Turn 2, and the session was not resumed thereafter.

Session results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	1	Bruno Senna Gustavo Menezes Norman Nato	Rebellion R13	LMP1	1'48.804
2	8	Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima Brendon Hartley	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'49.458	0.654
3	29	Frits van Eerd Giedo van der Garde Nyck de Vries	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'49.863	1.059
4	22	Philip Hanson Filipe Albuquerque Paul di Resta	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.803	1.999
5	37	Ho-Pin Tung Gabriel Aubry Will Stevens	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'50.838	2.034
6	36	Thomas Laurent Andre Negrao Pierre Ragues	Alpine A470	LMP2	1'50.968	2.164
7	7	Mike Conway Kamui Kobayashi Jose Maria Lopez	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'51.185	2.381
8	21	Henrik Hedman Ben Hanley Colin Braun	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.879	3.075
9	42	Nicolas Lapierre Antonin Borga Alexandre Coigny	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'51.981	3.177
10	38	Roberto Gonzalez Antonio Felix da Costa Anthony Davidson	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'52.286	3.482
11	33	Mark Patterson Kenta Yamashita Anders Fjordbach	Oreca 07	LMP2	1'52.493	3.689
12	47	Roberto Lacorte Andrea Belicchi Giorgio Sernagiotto	Dallara P217	LMP2	1'54.506	5.702
13	92	Michael Christensen Kevin Estre	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	2'01.716	12.912
14	95	Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	2'01.769	12.965
15	91	Gianmaria Bruni Richard Lietz	Porsche 911 RSR - 19	LMGTE PRO	2'02.045	13.241
16	77	Christian Ried Riccardo Pera Matt Campbell	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'02.192	13.388
17	51	James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	2'02.462	13.658
18	71	Davide Rigon Miguel Molina	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE PRO	2'02.583	13.779
19	63	Jan Magnussen Mike Rockenfeller	Chevrolet Corvette C8.R	LMGTE PRO	2'02.597	13.793
20	98	Paul Dalla Lana Darren Turner Ross Gunn	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'02.634	13.830
21	70	Motoaki Ishikawa Olivier Beretta Kei Cozzolino	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'02.706	13.902
22	97	Alex Lynn Maxime Martin	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE PRO	2'02.844	14.040
23	86	Michael Wainwright Andrew Watson Benjamin Barker	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'02.976	14.172
24	56	Egidio Perfetti Laurents Hörr Matteo Cairoli	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'03.016	14.212
25	54	Thomas Flohr Francesco Castellacci Giancarlo Fisichella	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'03.477	14.673
26	62	Bonamy Grimes Johnny Mowlem Charles Hollings	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'03.526	14.722
27	83	François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Nicklas Nielsen	Ferrari 488 GTE EVO	LMGTE AM	2'03.654	14.850
28	57	Ben Keating Felipe Fraga Jeroen Bleekemolen	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'03.827	15.023
29	88	Bret Curtis Adrien de Leener Thomas Preining	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'03.986	15.182
30	90	Salih Yoluc Charles Eastwood Jonathan Adam	Aston Martin Vantage AMR	LMGTE AM	2'04.333	15.529
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