The session got off to a dramatic start as a spin for the #7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro of Andre Lotterer brought out the red flags almost immediately, as the German hit the barriers and lost a large chunk of his front-left bodywork in the process.

Proceedings resumed some 10 minutes later, with Webber wasting little time in hitting the tarmac and setting what would prove to be the day's benchmark time, a 1m24.074, in the #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid.

That was enough to beat the #8 Audi of Oliver Jarvis by 0.894s, while the #7 car - in the hands of Lotterer after his early drama - set a time of 1m25s dead to seal third.

Behind was the #2 Porsche, which set a best time of 1m25.078s relatively late on in the hands of Marc Lieb to end up fourth fastest.

Both Toyotas were late improvers as well, although the #5 and #6 TS050 Hybrids still ended up fifth and sixth, Kazuki Nakajima setting the Japanese marque's best time of 1m25.657s.

The #6 car's session came to a slightly early end, as Kamui Kobayashi stopped out on track at Turn 14 with just over three minutes to run with a suspected engine problem.

Rebellion once again had the measure of sole LMP1-L class rival ByKolles, the #13 R-One lapping some 5.5s off the pace of the leading Porsche.

RGR Sport and Ford top classes

The LMP2 class was topped by the #43 RGR Sport by Morand Ligier, which set an early benchmark in the baby prototype category of 1m31.909s courtesy of Filipe Albuqerque.

Second was the #26 G-Drive Oreca driven by Alex Brundle, eight tenths back, followed by the leading Manor, the #44 Oreca, of Roberto Merhi.

Ford confirmed its earlier pace in the GTE-Pro class as Stefan Mucke led the way in the #66 car with a best effort of 1m38.743s.

The German was followed by the two AF Corse Ferraris, which demoted the sister #67 Ford to fourth.

Although Aston Martin continued to struggle for pace with its Pro cars, the British marque topped the Am category as the #98 machine set a best time of 1m40.112s.

Second practice results:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	1	Mark Webber Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley	Porsche 919 Hybrid	LMP1	1'24.074
2	8	Lucas di Grassi Loic Duval Oliver Jarvis	Audi R18	LMP1	1'24.968	0.894
3	7	Andre Lotterer Marcel Fassler Benoit Tréluyer	Audi R18	LMP1	1'25.000	0.926
4	2	Romain Dumas Neel Jani Marc Lieb	Porsche 919 Hybrid	LMP1	1'25.078	1.004
5	5	Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'25.657	1.583
6	6	Stéphane Sarrazin Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'25.702	1.628
7	13	Alexandre Imperatori Dominik Kraihamer Matheo Tuscher	Rebellion R-One	LMP1	1'29.653	5.579
8	4	Simon Trummer Oliver Webb Pierre Kaffer	CLM P1/01	LMP1	1'30.515	6.441
9	43	Bruno Senna Ricardo Gonzalez Filipe Albuquerque	Ligier JS P2	LMP2	1'31.909	7.835
10	26	Will Stevens Roman Rusinov Alex Brundle	Oreca 05	LMP2	1'32.742	8.668
11	44	Roberto Merhi Richard Bradley Matthew Rao	Oreca 05	LMP2	1'32.747	8.673
12	42	Jonny Kane Lewis Williamson	Gibson 015S	LMP2	1'32.948	8.874
13	30	Giedo van der Garde Sean Gelael Antonio Giovinazzi	Ligier JS P2	LMP2	1'32.971	8.897
14	35	Paul-Loup Chatin Ho-Pin Tung David Cheng	Alpine A460	LMP2	1'33.076	9.002
15	36	Nicolas Lapierre Gustavo Menezes Stéphane Richelmi	Alpine A460	LMP2	1'33.274	9.200
16	37	Vitaly Petrov Viktor Shaytar Kirill Ladygin	BR01	LMP2	1'33.364	9.290
17	31	Pipo Derani Ryan Dalziel Chris Cumming	Ligier JS P2	LMP2	1'33.393	9.319
18	45	Shinji Nakano Tor Graves Alex Lynn	Oreca 05	LMP2	1'33.675	9.601
19	27	Maurizio Mediani Nicolas Minassian Mikhail Aleshin	BR01	LMP2	1'34.006	9.932
20	66	Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	1'38.743	14.669
21	51	Gianmaria Bruni James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE PRO	1'38.935	14.861
22	71	Sam Bird Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE PRO	1'39.012	14.938
23	67	Harry Tincknell Andy Priaulx	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	1'39.219	15.145
24	95	Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage V8	LMGTE PRO	1'39.547	15.473
25	97	Darren Turner Richie Stanaway	Aston Martin Vantage V8	LMGTE PRO	1'39.548	15.474
26	77	Richard Lietz Michael Christensen	Porsche 911 RSR (2016)	LMGTE PRO	1'39.577	15.503
27	98	Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage V8	LMGTE AM	1'40.112	16.038
28	50	Pierre Ragues Ricky Taylor Yutaka Yamagishi	Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06	LMGTE AM	1'40.401	16.327
29	88	David Heinemeier Hansson Patrick Long Khaled Al Qubaisi	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'40.414	16.340
30	86	Michael Wainwright Adam Carroll Ben Barker	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'41.124	17.050
31	78	Christian Ried Wolf Henzler Joel Camathias	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	1'41.286	17.212
32	83	François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Rui Aguas	Ferrari F458 Italia	LMGTE AM	1'41.414	17.340