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Practice report

Nurburgring WEC: Audi on top in damp first practice

Audi topped the first free practice session at a damp but steadily drying out Nurburgring as teams prepare for the fourth round of the 2015 World Endurance Championship on Sunday.

#7 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro Hybrid Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer

#7 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro Hybrid Marcel Fassler, Andre Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer

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Andre Lotterer, Benoit Tréluyer, Marcel Fassler, Lucas di Grassi, Oliver Jarvis, Audi Sport Team Joest check out the wall of legends
Patrick Dempsey
#31 Extreme Speed Motorsports Ligier JS P2
Oliver Jarvis, Audi Sport Team Joest
Aston Martin detail
#47 KCMG ORECA 05
Aston Martin detail
Track walk

The No.7 Audi R18 etron quattro set a best lap of 1m39.201s in the 90-minute session, with Andre Lotterer setting the best lap of 1:39.201.

Despite being on schedule to eclipse Lotterer's time, Neel Jani aborted his lap in the No.18 Porsche 919 Hybrid. The Swiss driver's previous lap had seen him get to within 0.076s of the quickest Audi lap.

The top two positions were transposed for third and fourth, with the No.8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro leading the No.17 Porsche, which led the timing screens for much of the first 30-minute with Mark Webber at the wheel.

Toyota continued to be off the pace as its 2015 development has effectively been halted. The No.2 TS 040 headed the sister No.1 machine by 0.7 for fifth and sixth positions.

LMP2 saw the G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan head the timing screens, with Colombian racer Gustavo Yacaman setting a best time of 1:46.631 to lead the other G-Drive Ligier of Sam Bird by almost exactly a second.

In the two LMGTE classes, Ferrari ruled the roost with the No.51 reigning champion AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander top in LMGTE Pro.

AF Corse also led the way in LMGTE Am with Rui Aguas setting a best of 1m57.876, in the Ferrari he shares with Francois Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard.

There was one red flag, caused by Simon Trummer, who spun his Kolles run CLM P1/01-AER in to the gravel at the final corner.

The session had been relatively trouble free until this point with only a brief on-track stoppage for Le Mans winner Earl Bamber in the No.88 Abu-Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche 911 SR and Alex Wurz running wide and off track at turn one in the No.2 Toyota TS 040.

Marc Lieb also had a quick gyration at turn one in the No.18 Porsche 919 Hybrid.

There were problems for the two ESM Ligier-HPD cars as they were confined to their pit boxes for the majority of the session.

The No.43 Morand Morgan did not take part in the session after being impounded by officials on Thursday evening. It remains unclear as to whether the car will take part at all this weekend.

 Pos  Driver   Car  Time  Gap   Laps 
Marcel Fässler
André Lotterer
Benoît Tréluyer
Audi 1'39.201   40
Romain Dumas
Neel Jani
Marc Lieb
Porsche 1'39.277 0.076 38
Lucas di Grassi
Loïc Duval
Oliver Jarvis
Audi 1'39.910 0.709 40
Timo Bernhard
Mark Webber
Brendon Hartley
Porsche 1'39.915 0.714 35
Alexander Wurz
S.Sarrazin
Mike Conway
Toyota 1'41.812 2.611 27
Anthony Davidson
Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima
Toyota 1'42.541 3.340 35
Gustavo Yacamán
Luis Derani
Ricardo González
Ligier/Nissan 1'46.631 7.430 27
Nicolas Prost
Mathias Beche
Nick Heidfeld
Rebellion/AER 1'47.433 8.232 23
Roman Rusinov
Julien Canal
Sam Bird
Ligier/Nissan 1'47.623 8.422 15
10  A.Imperatori
D.Kraihamer
Daniel Abt
Rebellion/AER 1'49.171 9.970 15
11  Nick Leventis
Danny Watts
Jonny Kane
Dome/Nissan 1'49.242 10.041 26
12  Simon Trummer
Pierre Kaffer
CLM/AER 1'49.274 10.073 26
13  N.Panciatici
Paul-Loup Chatin
V.Capillaire
Alpine/Nissan 1'49.490 10.289 39
14  Scott Sharp
Ryan Dalziel
David Hansson
Ligier/HPD 1'50.096 10.895 7
15  Matt Howson
Richard Bradley
Nick Tandy
ORECA/Nissan 1'53.098 13.897 13
16  Ed Brown
J.van Overbeek
Jon Fogarty
Ligier/HPD 1'54.076 14.875 6
17  Gianmaria Bruni
Toni Vilander
Ferrari 1'55.661 16.460 37
18  Davide Rigon
James Calado
Ferrari 1'56.035 16.834 33
19  Patrick Pilet
F.Makowiecki
Porsche 1'56.956 17.755 18
20  Richard Lietz
M.Christensen
Porsche 1'57.213 18.012 10
21  Fernando Rees
Alex MacDowall
Richie Stanaway
Aston Martin 1'57.295 18.094 34
22  François Perrodo
Emmanuel Collard
Rui Águas
Ferrari 1'57.876 18.675 33
23  Paul Dalla Lana
Pedro Lamy
Mathias Lauda
Aston Martin 1'58.019 18.818 25
24  Darren Turner
Stefan Mücke
Jonathan Adam
Aston Martin 1'58.320 19.119 31
25  Christian Ried
K.Al Qubaisi
Earl Bamber
Porsche 1'59.034 19.833 18
26  Patrick Dempsey
Patrick Long
Marco Seefried
Porsche 1'59.074 19.873 33
27  Marco Sørensen
C.Nygaard
Aston Martin 1'59.150 19.949 23
28  Gianluca Roda
Paolo Ruberti
Kristian Poulsen
Chevrolet 1'59.220 20.019 28
29  F.Castellacci
Roald Goethe
Stuart Hall
Aston Martin 1'59.812 20.611 30
30  Viktor Shaitar
Andrea Bertolini
Aleksey Basov
Ferrari 2'07.291 28.090 19
31  Pierre Ragues
Oliver Webb
Archie Hamilton
Morgan/SARD   - 19

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