Bahrain WEC: Audi fights back in second practice
Audi fought back in the second free practice session at the Bahrain International Circuit as Marcel Fassler set the fastest ever LMP time with a stunning 1m42.133s effort.
Photo by: Audi Communications Motorsport
Under the glare of the powerful Bahrain floodlights, the Swiss ace lapped some 1.1s faster than the sister No.8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro.
Porsche appeared to be working on double stinting tyres during the session rather than going for an outright quick lap. This accounted for the 1.2s deficit to the No.7 Audi’s ultimate best.
The title leading No.17 entry of Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley and Timo Bernhard placed third, ahead of the sister machine of Neel Jani, Romian Dumas and Marc Lieb.
Toyota were again fifth and sixth, albeit closer to the pace than in the earlier session. Alex Wurz's best in the No.2 Toyota TS 040 HYBRID was just 0.4s off the last of the Porsches.
In the LMP2 class, Pipo Derani’s early best of 1m50.029s was never beaten. The rookie Brazilian put in another impressive performance in the No.28 G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan on his very first visit to the Bahrain International Circuit.
The other G-Drive Racing Ligier of Sam Bird, Roman Rusinov and Julien Canal placed fourth as they look to protect their 16-point lead and seal the LMP2 title this weekend.
There was trouble for the KCMG ORECA 05-Nissan that currently lies 16 points adrift of the No.26 G-Drive crew in the title fight. Matt Howson was forced to pull off the track in the final stages of the session with an apparent technical issue.
The LMGTE classes saw Ferrari rule the roost in each, with the No.51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 driven by Toni Vilander and the No.72 SMP example driven by Andrea Bertolini setting the times of 1m59.402s and 2m00.866s respectively.
The evening session saw just a single Full Course Yellow after 10 minutes, when Khaled Al Qubaisi beached his Proton Porsche 911 RSR in the gravel at Turn 3.
Several cars were shown the black and white warning flag for persistent abuses of track limits at turn four. Among them were both of the Toyotas, the No.7 Audi and the KCMG ORECA.
Results: WEC 2015 Bahrain FP2
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Andre Lotterer Benoit Tréluyer Marcel Fassler |
Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi R18 e-tron quattro '15 | 1:42.133 | 1:42.133 | 37 |
2 | Loic Duval Oliver Jarvis Lucas di Grassi |
Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi R18 e-tron quattro '15 | 1:43.291 | +1.158 | 39 |
3 | Mark Webber Brendon Hartley Timo Bernhard |
Porsche Team | Porsche 919 Hybrid | 1:43.360 | +1.227 | 44 |
4 | Marc Lieb Romain Dumas Neel Jani |
Porsche Team | Porsche 919 Hybrid | 1:43.529 | +1.396 | 47 |
5 | Alexander Wurz Mike Conway Stéphane Sarrazin |
Toyota Racing | Toyota TS040 Hybrid | 1:43.931 | +1.798 | 47 |
6 | Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota Racing | Toyota TS040 Hybrid | 1:44.288 | +2.155 | 42 |
7 | Mathias Beche Nicolas Prost |
Rebellion Racing | Rebellion R-One | 1:48.385 | +6.252 | 29 |
8 | Pierre Kaffer Simon Trummer |
Team ByKolles | CLM P1/01 | 1:49.200 | +7.067 | 29 |
9 | Alexandre Imperatori Mathéo Tuscher Dominik Kraihamer |
Rebellion Racing | Rebellion R-One | 1:49.685 | +7.552 | 20 |
10 | Pipo Derani Gustavo Yacaman Ricardo Gonzalez |
G-Drive Racing | Ligier JS P2 | 1:50.029 | +7.896 | 36 |
11 | Matthew Howson Nick Tandy Richard Bradley |
KCMG | ORECA 05 | 1:50.774 | +8.641 | 29 |
12 | Nelson Panciatici Paul-Loup Chatin Tom Dillmann |
Signatech Alpine | Alpine A450b | 1:51.354 | +9.221 | 36 |
13 | Roman Rusinov Sam Bird Julien Canal |
G-Drive Racing | Ligier JS P2 | 1:51.546 | +9.413 | 34 |
14 | Oliver Webb Chris Cumming Pierre Ragues |
Team SARD Morand | Morgan LMP2 Evo '15 | 1:51.725 | +9.592 | 36 |
15 | Jonny Kane Nick Leventis Danny Watts |
Strakka Racing | Gibson 015S | 1:52.315 | +10.182 | 38 |
16 | Devi Markozov Nicolas Minassian Mikhail Aleshin |
AF Racing | BR Engineering BR01 | 1:52.662 | +10.529 | 36 |
17 | David Heinemeier Hansson Ryan Dalziel Scott Sharp |
Extreme Speed Motorsports | Ligier JS P2 | 1:52.873 | +10.740 | 31 |
18 | Ed Brown Jon Fogarty Johannes van Overbeek |
Extreme Speed Motorsports | Ligier JS P2 | 1:53.510 | +11.377 | 36 |
19 | Toni Vilander Gianmaria Bruni |
AF Corse | Ferrari F458 Italia | 1:59.402 | +17.269 | 37 |
20 | Davide Rigon James Calado |
AF Corse | Ferrari F458 Italia | 1:59.486 | +17.353 | 37 |
21 | Frédéric Makowiecki Patrick Pilet |
Porsche Team Manthey | Porsche 911 RSR | 1:59.618 | +17.485 | 37 |
22 | Nicki Thiim Christoffer Nygaard Marco Sørensen |
Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 2:00.349 | +18.216 | 34 |
23 | Alex MacDowall Richie Stanaway Fernando Rees |
Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 2:00.396 | +18.263 | 34 |
24 | Aleksey Basov Andrea Bertolini Viktor Shaitar |
SMP Racing | Ferrari F458 Italia | 2:00.866 | +18.733 | 34 |
25 | Christian Ried Patrick Long Marco Seefried |
Dempsey Racing - Proton | Porsche 911 RSR | 2:00.939 | +18.806 | 27 |
26 | Richard Lietz Michael Christensen |
Porsche Team Manthey | Porsche 911 RSR | 2:01.019 | +18.886 | 33 |
27 | Gianluca Roda Kristian Poulsen Paolo Ruberti |
Larbre Compétition | Chevrolet Corvette C7.R | 2:01.369 | +19.236 | 34 |
28 | Jonathan Adam Darren Turner |
Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 2:01.405 | +19.272 | 36 |
29 | Roald Goethe Francesco Castellacci Stuart Hall |
Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 2:02.116 | +19.983 | 37 |
30 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 2:02.672 | +20.539 | 36 |
31 | Khaled Al Qubaisi Klaus Bachler Marco Mapelli |
Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing | Porsche 911 RSR | 2:03.103 | +20.970 | 28 |
32 | Emmanuel Collard Matteo Cressoni François Perrodo |
AF Corse | Ferrari F458 Italia | 2:03.525 | +21.392 | 26 |
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