Nurburgring WEC: Audi shade Porsche in FP2

Benoit Treluyer’s time of 1m37.862s, set in the final five minutes of the session, just eclipsed the benchmark of the #17 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Mark Webber.

Treluyer had recovered from a gravel excursion at Turn 1 and went on to overhaul Webber by just 0.059s.

The Audi and Porsche have looked closely matched around the 3.199-mile track, in spite of the former manufacturer getting what many are suggesting is a preferable break in fuel flow through the EoT (Equivalence of Technology) balancing, which has taken place between Le Mans and the fourth round of the WEC this weekend.

Neel Jani put the #18 Porsche in third place, while the second Audi R18 was fourth in the hands of Loic Duval.

However, the #8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro suffered damage to its rear section when Lucas di Grassi hooked the inner kerb at the last right-hander in the final stages of the session and glanced the tyrewall.

Meanwhile, G-Drive Racing again topped the LMP2 times, although this time it was the #26 Ligier Nissan that led the way.

Sam Bird set a rapid 1m46.299s to lead the sister G-Drive car by 1.6s, while Strakka Racing completed the top three with sportscar veteran Jonny Kane lapping in 1m47.978s in the teams’ new ex-Greaves Gibson 015S-Nissan.

The LMGTE Pro class was led by the #99 Aston Martin, in the hands of Richie Stanaway. The Kiwi peaked with a 1m54.869s to lead the reigning champions AF Corse with their No.51 Ferrari 458 Italia.

The Le Mans winning SMP Racing Ferrari posted a late time of 1m56.238s, with Victor Shaytar setting the benchmark. The Russian-entered Ferrari was just under half a second clear of the LMGTE Am points leading #98 Aston Martin, crewed by Paul Dalla Lana, Mathias Lauda and Pedro Lamy.

The final free practice session takes place tomorrow morning at 09.30 local time.

Pos	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Marcel Fassler Andre Lotterer Benoît Treluyer	Audi	1'37.862		29
2	Timo Bernhard Mark Webber Brendon Hartley	Porsche	1'37.921	0.059	48
3	Romain Dumas Neel Jani Marc Lieb	Porsche	1'37.932	0.070	41
4	Lucas di Grassi Loïc Duval Oliver Jarvis	Audi	1'38.886	1.024	40
5	Alexander Wurz Stephane Sarrazin Mike Conway	Toyota	1'40.612	2.750	34
6	Anthony Davidson Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima	Toyota	1'40.845	2.983	48
7	Nicolas Prost Mathias Beche Nick Heidfeld	Rebellion/AER	1'44.105	6.243	32
8	Alexandre Imperatori Dominik Kraihamer Daniel Abt	Rebellion/AER	1'44.943	7.081	17
9	Simon Trummer Pierre Kaffer	CLM/AER	1'45.035	7.173	35
10	Roman Rusinov Julien Canal Sam Bird	Ligier/Nissan	1'46.299	8.437	39
11	Gustavo Yacamán Luis Derani Ricardo González	Ligier/Nissan	1'47.934	10.072	40
12	Nick Leventis Danny Watts Jonny Kane	Dome/Nissan	1'47.978	10.116	42
13	Pierre Ragues Oliver Webb Archie Hamilton	Morgan/SARD	1'47.987	10.125	41
14	Matt Howson Richard Bradley Nick Tandy	ORECA/Nissan	1'47.988	10.126	44
15	Ed Brown Johannes van Overbeek Jon Fogarty	Ligier/HPD	1'48.310	10.448	41
16	Nelson Panciatici Paul-Loup Chatin Vincent Capillaire	Alpine/Nissan	1'48.469	10.607	45
17	Scott Sharp Ryan Dalziel David Hansson	Ligier/HPD	1'48.839	10.977	30
18	Fernando Rees Alex MacDowall Richie Stanaway	Aston Martin	1'54.869	17.007	35
19	Gianmaria Bruni Toni Vilander	Ferrari	1'54.907	17.045	42
20	Darren Turner Stefan Mücke Jonathan Adam	Aston Martin	1'55.134	17.272	39
21	Marco Sørensen Christoffer Nygaard	Aston Martin	1'55.546	17.684	44
22	Richard Lietz Michael Christensen	Porsche	1'55.863	18.001	33
23	Patrick Pilet Frederic Makowiecki	Porsche	1'56.011	18.149	24
24	Viktor Shaitar Andrea Bertolini Aleksey Basov	Ferrari	1'56.238	18.376	37
25	Davide Rigon James Calado	Ferrari	1'56.354	18.492	42
26	Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin	1'56.729	18.867	33
27	Gianluca Roda Paolo Ruberti Kristian Poulsen	Chevrolet	1'57.041	19.179	33
28	François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Rui Águas	Ferrari	1'57.176	19.314	38
29	Christian Ried Khaled Al Qubaisi Earl Bamber	Porsche	1'57.240	19.378	32
30	Patrick Dempsey Patrick Long Marco Seefried	Porsche	1'57.297	19.435	37
31	Francesco Castellacci Roald Goethe Stuart Hall	Aston Martin	1'57.447	19.585	41