Austin WEC: Porsche sets pace, Aston on top in GTE
Porsche monopolised the top positions in both Thursday free practice sessions for the Austin round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
The German manufacturer's pair of 919 Hybrids shared the honours across the two practice periods: Earl Bamber went fastest aboard the #2 car in FP1 and Neel Jani topped the times in the #1 Porsche in the second of the 90-minute sessions.
Bamber led the way with a 1m48.124s in the opening session before the times tumbled in FP2.
Jani ended up with fastest time of the day, a 1m45.860s, which put him just over half a second up on Bamber's second-session best of 1m46.401s in the #2 car.
The fastest of the Toyota TS050 Hybrids ended up nearly a second off the pace on a 1m46.819s from Kamui Kobayashi set in the second session.
Sebastien Buemi's 1m48.584s from opening practice left the #8 Toyota fourth in combined times.
Rebellion leads way in LMP2
The two Rebellion Oreca 07s jumped to the top of the LMP2 times midway through the second session.
Bruno Senna ended up fastest on a 1m54.601s, which put him just under three tenths up on Mathias Beche in the sister car.
Early session-two pacesetter Alex Lynn took third position in the G-Drive Oreca after earlier topping the times in the opening period.
Aston pips Ford in GTE class
Nicki Thiim set the pace in GTE Pro for Aston Martin, his 2m04.023s second-session best putting him just seven hundredths up on Harry Tincknell in the best of the Ganassi Ford GTs.
The two Fords had been quickest in the opening session, Stefan Mucke ending up two tenths clear off Andy Priaulx.
Pedro Lamy was quickest in GTE Am for Aston Martin in both sessions.
Second practice results:
Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | Andre Lotterer Neel Jani Nick Tandy |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'45.860 | |
2 | 2 | Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley Earl Bamber |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'46.401 | 0.541 |
3 | 7 | Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'46.819 | 0.959 |
4 | 8 | Stéphane Sarrazin Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'48.839 | 2.979 |
5 | 31 | Bruno Senna Julien Canal Nicolas Prost |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'54.601 | 8.741 |
6 | 13 | Nelson Piquet Jr. David Heinemeier Hansson Mathias Beche |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'54.770 | 8.910 |
7 | 26 | Roman Rusinov Pierre Thiriet Alex Lynn |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'55.043 | 9.183 |
8 | 36 | Nicolas Lapierre Andre Negrao Gustavo Menezes |
Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 1'55.136 | 9.276 |
9 | 37 | David Cheng Tristan Gommendy Alex Brundle |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'55.443 | 9.583 |
10 | 28 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'55.818 | 9.958 |
11 | 24 | Jean-Eric Vergne Ben Hanley Matt Rao |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'55.864 | 10.004 |
12 | 38 | Oliver Jarvis Ho-Pin Tung Thomas Laurent |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'55.965 | 10.105 |
13 | 25 | Vitaly Petrov Simon Trummer Roberto Gonzalez |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'57.177 | 11.317 |
14 | 95 | Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 2'04.023 | 18.163 |
15 | 67 | Harry Tincknell Andy Priaulx |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 2'04.097 | 18.237 |
16 | 92 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 2'05.208 | 19.348 |
17 | 91 | Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 2'05.375 | 19.515 |
18 | 51 | James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 2'05.468 | 19.608 |
19 | 97 | Darren Turner Jonathan Adam Daniel Serra |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 2'05.750 | 19.890 |
20 | 66 | Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 2'05.898 | 20.038 |
21 | 98 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE AM | 2'05.935 | 20.075 |
22 | 71 | Sam Bird Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 2'06.241 | 20.381 |
23 | 61 | Matt Griffin Mok Weng Sun Keita Sawa |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 2'07.503 | 21.643 |
24 | 77 | Christian Ried Matteo Cairoli Marvin Dienst |
Porsche 911 RSR (991) | LMGTE AM | 2'07.852 | 21.992 |
25 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Ben Barker Nick Foster |
Porsche 911 RSR (991) | LMGTE AM | 2'07.981 | 22.121 |
26 | 54 | Francesco Castellacci Miguel Molina Thomas Flohr |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 2'08.218 | 22.358 |
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