Silverstone WEC: Toyota extends gap to privateers in FP2
Toyota extended its gap at the front of the field in second free practice for this weekend's Silverstone FIA World Endurance Championship round.
The #7 Toyota TS050 Hybrid, this time with Jose Maria Lopez at the wheel, beat the sister car by 1.3 seconds and ended up 1.6s clear of the fastest privateer.
Lopez posted a 1m38.536s early in the 90-minute practice period, which compared with Kazuki Nakajima's session best of 1m38.893s.
The fastest of the LMP1 privateers was the #17 SMP Racing BR Engineering BR1.
Egor Orudzhev recorded a 1m40.179s in the AER-powered car, which later stopped on-track with an electronics issue, to end up more than a second ahead of the next best privateer, the #3 Rebellion-Gibson R-13.
Thomas Laurent's 1m41.369s was four tenths down on the first session best from the car in the hands of Gustavo Menezes.
The second of the SMP entries took fifth with Vitaly Petrov ahead of Ben Hanley in DragonSpeed's Gibson-engined BR1.
The #1 Rebellion, in which Bruno Senna suffered a fractured ankle after crashing in the opening session, did not run as it continued to undergo repairs.
The ByKolles ENSO CLM-Nissan P1/01 also didn't take to the track after suffering an oil leak in first practice.
The Jota-run Jackie Chan DC Racing squad topped the LMP2 class times, as Gabriel Aubry ended up fastest in the team's #38 Oreca 07 with a 1m45.311s.
The Signatech Alpine Oreca took second with a 1m45.751s from Nicolas Lapierre, which just edged out Matthieu Vaxiviere's 1m45.818s in the TDS entry.
Ford returned to the top of the GTE Pro times in the closing minutes of the session courtesy of 1m56.898s from Harry Tincknell.
That vaulted him ahead of the two Aston Martin Vantage GTEs, which had headed the times in the middle of the session first with Marco Sorensen and then Alex Lynn.
Lynn ended up second in the 1m57.026s, while Stefan Mucke jumped to third with a 1m57.182s in the second Ford.
Andy Priaulx and Olivier Pla led the times initially in the two Ganassi-run Ford GTs.
Ferrari led the chasing pack courtesy of a 1m58.190s from James Calado as the Italian manufacturer and Porsche filled out the next four positions in class.
Matteo Cairoli was again fastest in GTE Am in his Dempsey-Proton Porsche 911 RSR.
Second practice times:
| Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7 |  Kamui Kobayashi  Mike Conway  Jose Maria Lopez | Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'38.536 | |
| 2 | 8 |  Fernando Alonso  Kazuki Nakajima  Sébastien Buemi | Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'39.893 | 1.357 |
| 3 | 17 |  Stéphane Sarrazin  Egor Orudzhev | BR Engineering BR1 | LMP1 | 1'40.179 | 1.643 |
| 4 | 3 |  Mathias Beche  Thomas Laurent  Gustavo Menezes | Rebellion R13 | LMP1 | 1'41.369 | 2.833 |
| 5 | 11 |  Jenson Button  Vitaly Petrov  Mikhail Aleshin | BR Engineering BR1 | LMP1 | 1'41.587 | 3.051 |
| 6 | 10 |  Henrik Hedman  Renger van der Zande  Ben Hanley | BR Engineering BR1 | LMP1 | 1'43.449 | 4.913 |
| 7 | 38 |  Ho-Pin Tung  Stéphane Richelmi  Gabriel Aubry | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'45.311 | 6.775 |
| 8 | 36 | Nicolas Lapierre  Pierre Thiriet  Andre Negrao | Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 1'45.751 | 7.215 |
| 9 | 28 |  Loic Duval François Perrodo  Matthieu Vaxiviere | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'45.818 | 7.282 |
| 10 | 37 |  Nabil Jeffri  Weiron Tan  Jazeman Jaafar | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'46.074 | 7.538 |
| 11 | 31 |  Anthony Davidson  Pastor Maldonado  Roberto Gonzalez | Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'47.069 | 8.533 |
| 12 | 29 |  Giedo van der Garde  Nyck de Vries Frits van Eerd | Dallara P217 | LMP2 | 1'47.601 | 9.065 |
| 13 | 50 | Romano Ricci Erwin Creed Yoshiharu Mori | Ligier JSP 217 | LMP2 | 1'49.486 | 10.950 |
| 14 | 67 | Harry Tincknell  Andy Priaulx | Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 1'56.898 | 18.362 |
| 15 | 97 |  Maxime Martin  Alex Lynn | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 1'57.026 | 18.490 |
| 16 | 66 |  Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla | Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 1'57.182 | 18.646 |
| 17 | 95 |  Marco Sorensen  Nicki Thiim | Aston Martin Vantage AMR | LMGTE PRO | 1'57.281 | 18.745 |
| 18 | 51 |  James Calado  Alessandro Pier Guidi | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.190 | 19.654 |
| 19 | 92 |  Michael Christensen Kevin Estre | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.288 | 19.752 |
| 20 | 71 | Sam Bird  Davide Rigon | Ferrari 488 GTE EVO | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.606 | 20.070 |
| 21 | 91 | Gianmaria Bruni  Richard Lietz | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.869 | 20.333 |
| 22 | 82 |  Antonio Felix da Costa  Augusto Farfus | BMW M8 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.893 | 20.357 |
| 23 | 81 |  Nick Catsburg  Martin Tomczyk | BMW M8 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 1'58.950 | 20.414 |
| 24 | 88 |  Gianluca Roda  Matteo Cairoli  Giorgio Roda | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 1'59.105 | 20.569 |
| 25 | 98 |  Pedro Lamy  Paul Dalla Lana  Mathias Lauda | Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE AM | 1'59.378 | 20.842 |
| 26 | 77 |  Christian Ried  Matt Campbell Julien Andlauer | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 1'59.449 | 20.913 |
| 27 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Benjamin Barker  Alex Davison | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 1'59.476 | 20.940 |
| 28 | 54 | Giancarlo Fisichella  Francesco Castellacci Thomas Flohr | Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 1'59.716 | 21.180 |
| 29 | 56 |  Jörg Bergmeister  Patrick Lindsey  Egidio Perfetti | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 1'59.760 | 21.224 |
| 30 | 90 |  Jonathan Adam  Salih Yoluc  Charles Eastwood | Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE AM | 1'59.953 | 21.417 |
| 31 | 70 |  Olivier Beretta Eddie Cheever III  Motoaki Ishikawa | Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 1'59.984 | 21.448 |
| 32 | 61 |  Matthew Griffin  Mok Weng Sun  Keita Sawa | Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 2'00.213 | 21.677 |
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About this article
| Series | WEC |
| Drivers | Jose Maria Lopez |
| Teams | Toyota Racing |
| Author | Gary Watkins |
