Shanghai WEC: Webber tops free practice for Porsche
Porsche once again set the pace in free practice for the penultimate round of the 2015 FIA WEC at Shanghai courtesy of Mark Webber.
#17 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley
Porsche AG
The Australian set the fastest time of the day with a 1m45.111s during FP2 in the #17 Porsche 919 Hybrid, beating Neel Jani’s best time of 1m45.351s in the sister #18 machine.
The Swiss ace set the time early on in the second 90-minute session, which was held in cool and overcast conditions.
In the earlier session, Audi had enjoyed a 1-2 formation at the head of the timing screens as Andre Lotterer peaked with a 1m45.707s lap. The German’s FP1 time was 0.645s ahead of Lucas di Grassi in the sister #8 R18 e-tron quattro.
The afternoon session saw both Audis lap within a second of Webber’s benchmark, with Oliver Jarvis in the #8 car and Benoit Treluyer in the #7 machine setting the times.
Toyota slipped into its familiar sub-class behind the Porsches and Audis, with the #2 Toyota TS 040 Hybrid fifth and the reigning champion car of Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Anthony Davidson in sixth.
KCMG sets the LMP2 pace
The KCMG ORECA 05-Nissan lead the way in the LMP2 class in both of the sessions. Richard Bradley set the quickest time in the morning on a 1m55.069s lap, while his teammate Nick Tandy claimed the best afternoon effort with a 1m54.185s.
It was a good end to the day for the Hong Kong-entered team, which had earlier taken a suspended drive-through race penalty. The sanction has been implemented until the end of the season.
This decision came after stewards received a report from the Technical Delegates after Bradley’s now-infamous race-ending incident with G-Drive Racing’s Gustavo Yacaman in Fuji earlier this month.
Bradley was deemed to have begun braking 40 metres earlier than the previous lap, extending the braking zone from 150 to 190 metres.
The Signatech Alpine claimed second in the quicker second session with WEC rookie Tom Dillmann impressing with a best time of 1m54.285s. Third was Ricardo Gonzalez in the G-Drive racing Ligier-Nissan which he shares with Pipo Derani and Yacaman.
Title leaders Sam Bird, Julien Canal and Roman Rusinov placed only eighth in the second session. The G-Drive trio enjoy a 12-point advantage going in to the penultimate race at Shanghai this weekend.
Ferrari dominates GTE
The LMGTE Pro class witnessed AF Corse dominate, with James Calado easily the fastest driver in the #71 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia.
The former Force India test driver was almost a second ahead of title rival Toni Vilander with a best effort of 2m03.028s, compared to Vilander’s 2m03.947s.
In LMGTE Am, Viktor Shaitar set the pace with a lap of 2m04.527s in the SMP Racing Ferrari 458 Italia.
Sharing with Andrea Bertolini and Aleksey Basov, Shaitar has laid claim to being one of the most improved drivers in the WEC this season, and his confidence netted a slender 0.067s advantage over the Larbre run Chevrolet Corvette C7, which was fastest in the hands of Paolo Ruberti.
Combined practice times:
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Mark Webber Brendon Hartley Timo Bernhard |
Porsche Team | Porsche 919 Hybrid | 1:45.111 | 1:45.111 |
2 | Marc Lieb Romain Dumas Neel Jani |
Porsche Team | Porsche 919 Hybrid | 1:45.351 | +0.240 |
3 | Loic Duval Oliver Jarvis Lucas di Grassi |
Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi R18 e-tron quattro '15 | 1:45.930 | +0.819 |
4 | Andre Lotterer Benoit Tréluyer Marcel Fassler |
Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi R18 e-tron quattro '15 | 1:46.087 | +0.976 |
5 | Alexander Wurz Mike Conway Stéphane Sarrazin |
Toyota Racing | Toyota TS040 Hybrid | 1:47.373 | +2.262 |
6 | Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota Racing | Toyota TS040 Hybrid | 1:47.724 | +2.613 |
7 | Alexandre Imperatori Mathéo Tuscher Dominik Kraihamer |
Rebellion Racing | Rebellion R-One | 1:50.790 | +5.679 |
8 | Mathias Beche Nicolas Prost |
Rebellion Racing | Rebellion R-One | 1:51.441 | +6.330 |
9 | Pierre Kaffer Simon Trummer |
Team ByKolles | CLM P1/01 | 1:53.951 | +8.840 |
10 | Matthew Howson Nick Tandy Richard Bradley |
KCMG | ORECA 05 | 1:54.185 | +9.074 |
11 | Nelson Panciatici Paul-Loup Chatin Tom Dillmann |
Signatech Alpine | Alpine A450b | 1:54.285 | +9.174 |
12 | Pipo Derani Gustavo Yacaman Ricardo Gonzalez |
G-Drive Racing | Ligier JS P2 | 1:54.706 | +9.595 |
13 | Jonny Kane Nick Leventis Danny Watts |
Strakka Racing | Gibson 015S | 1:54.713 | +9.602 |
14 | Oliver Webb Chris Cumming Pierre Ragues |
Team SARD Morand | Morgan LMP2 Evo '15 | 1:55.063 | +9.952 |
15 | David Heinemeier Hansson Ryan Dalziel Scott Sharp |
Extreme Speed Motorsports | Ligier JS P2 | 1:55.162 | +10.051 |
16 | Ed Brown Jon Fogarty Johannes van Overbeek |
Extreme Speed Motorsports | Ligier JS P2 | 1:55.807 | +10.696 |
17 | Roman Rusinov Sam Bird Julien Canal |
G-Drive Racing | Ligier JS P2 | 1:55.934 | +10.823 |
18 | Alex Brundle Ho-Pin Tung David Cheng |
Pegasus Racing | Morgan LMP2 | 1:56.647 | +11.536 |
19 | Davide Rigon James Calado |
AF Corse | Ferrari F458 Italia | 2:03.028 | +17.917 |
20 | Toni Vilander Gianmaria Bruni |
AF Corse | Ferrari F458 Italia | 2:03.947 | +18.836 |
21 | Alex MacDowall Richie Stanaway Fernando Rees |
Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 2:03.995 | +18.884 |
22 | Frédéric Makowiecki Patrick Pilet |
Porsche Team Manthey | Porsche 911 RSR | 2:04.019 | +18.908 |
23 | Richard Lietz Michael Christensen |
Porsche Team Manthey | Porsche 911 RSR | 2:04.329 | +19.218 |
24 | Jonathan Adam Darren Turner |
Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 2:04.475 | +19.364 |
25 | Aleksey Basov Andrea Bertolini Viktor Shaitar |
SMP Racing | Ferrari F458 Italia | 2:04.527 | +19.416 |
26 | Gianluca Roda Paolo Ruberti Nicolai Sylvest |
Larbre Compétition | Chevrolet Corvette C7.R | 2:04.594 | +19.483 |
27 | Patrick Long Patrick Dempsey Marco Seefried |
Dempsey Racing - Proton | Porsche 911 RSR | 2:05.112 | +20.001 |
28 | Liam Griffin Francesco Castellacci Stuart Hall |
Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 2:05.924 | +20.813 |
29 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | 2:06.294 | +21.183 |
30 | Emmanuel Collard Rui Aguas François Perrodo |
AF Corse | Ferrari F458 Italia | 2:06.624 | +21.513 |
31 | Khaled Al Qubaisi Christian Ried Klaus Bachler |
Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing | Porsche 911 RSR | 2:07.807 | +22.696 |
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