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Practice report

Austin WEC: Porsche sets pace, Aston on top in GTE

Porsche monopolised the top positions in both Thursday free practice sessions for the Austin round of the FIA World Endurance Championship. 

#1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Neel Jani, Andre Lotterer, Nick Tandy

#1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Neel Jani, Andre Lotterer, Nick Tandy

JEP / Motorsport Images

#1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Neel Jani, Andre Lotterer, Nick Tandy
#2 Porsche LMP Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber, Brendon Hartley
#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez
#13 Vaillante Rebellion Racing Oreca 07 Gibson: Mathias Beche, David Heinemeier Hansson, Nelson Piquet Jr.
#95 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage: Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen
Nicki Thiim, Aston Martin Racing
#67 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK  Ford GT: Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell

The German manufacturer's pair of 919 Hybrids shared the honours across the two practice periods: Earl Bamber went fastest aboard the #2 car in FP1 and Neel Jani topped the times in the #1 Porsche in the second of the 90-minute sessions. 

Bamber led the way with a 1m48.124s in the opening session before the times tumbled in FP2.

Jani ended up with fastest time of the day, a 1m45.860s, which put him just over half a second up on Bamber's second-session best of 1m46.401s in the #2 car. 

The fastest of the Toyota TS050 Hybrids ended up nearly a second off the pace on a 1m46.819s from Kamui Kobayashi set in the second session.

Sebastien Buemi's 1m48.584s from opening practice left the #8 Toyota fourth in combined times.  

Rebellion leads way in LMP2

The two Rebellion Oreca 07s jumped to the top of the LMP2 times midway through the second session. 

Bruno Senna ended up fastest on a 1m54.601s, which put him just under three tenths up on Mathias Beche in the sister car. 

Early session-two pacesetter Alex Lynn took third position in the G-Drive Oreca after earlier topping the times in the opening period.

Aston pips Ford in GTE class

Nicki Thiim set the pace in GTE Pro for Aston Martin, his 2m04.023s second-session best putting him just seven hundredths up on Harry Tincknell in the best of the Ganassi Ford GTs. 

The two Fords had been quickest in the opening session, Stefan Mucke ending up two tenths clear off Andy Priaulx. 

Pedro Lamy was quickest in GTE Am for Aston Martin in both sessions. 

Second practice results:

Pos.#DriversCarClassTimeGap
1 1 germany Andre Lotterer 
switzerland Neel Jani 
united_kingdom Nick Tandy 
Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 1'45.860  
2 2 germany Timo Bernhard 
new_zealand Brendon Hartley 
new_zealand Earl Bamber 
Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 1'46.401 0.541
3 7 japan Kamui Kobayashi 
united_kingdom Mike Conway 
argentina Jose Maria Lopez 
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'46.819 0.959
4 8 france Stéphane Sarrazin 
japan Kazuki Nakajima 
switzerland Sébastien Buemi 
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'48.839 2.979
5 31 brazil Bruno Senna 
france Julien Canal 
france Nicolas Prost 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'54.601 8.741
6 13 brazil Nelson Piquet Jr. 
denmark David Heinemeier Hansson
switzerland Mathias Beche 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'54.770 8.910
7 26 russia Roman Rusinov 
france Pierre Thiriet 
united_kingdom Alex Lynn 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'55.043 9.183
8 36 france Nicolas Lapierre 
brazil Andre Negrao 
united_states Gustavo Menezes 
Alpine A470 LMP2 1'55.136 9.276
9 37 china David Cheng 
france Tristan Gommendy 
united_kingdom Alex Brundle 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'55.443 9.583
10 28 france François Perrodo 
france Emmanuel Collard 
france Matthieu Vaxiviere 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'55.818 9.958
11 24 france Jean-Eric Vergne 
united_kingdom Ben Hanley 
united_kingdom Matt Rao 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'55.864 10.004
12 38 united_kingdom Oliver Jarvis 
china Ho-Pin Tung 
france Thomas Laurent 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'55.965 10.105
13 25 russia Vitaly Petrov 
switzerland Simon Trummer 
mexico Roberto Gonzalez 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'57.177 11.317
14 95 denmark Marco Sorensen 
denmark Nicki Thiim 
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE PRO 2'04.023 18.163
15 67 united_kingdom Harry Tincknell 
guernsey Andy Priaulx 
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 2'04.097 18.237
16 92 denmark Michael Christensen 
france Kevin Estre 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 2'05.208 19.348
17 91 austria Richard Lietz 
france Frédéric Makowiecki 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 2'05.375 19.515
18 51 united_kingdom James Calado 
italy Alessandro Pier Guidi 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE PRO 2'05.468 19.608
19 97 united_kingdom Darren Turner 
united_kingdom Jonathan Adam 
brazil Daniel Serra 
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE PRO 2'05.750 19.890
20 66 germany Stefan Mücke 
france Olivier Pla 
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 2'05.898 20.038
21 98 portugal Pedro Lamy 
canada Paul Dalla Lana 
austria Mathias Lauda 
Aston Martin Vantage V8 LMGTE AM 2'05.935 20.075
22 71 united_kingdom Sam Bird 
italy Davide Rigon 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE PRO 2'06.241 20.381
23 61 ireland Matt Griffin 
singapore Mok Weng Sun 
japan Keita Sawa 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'07.503 21.643
24 77 germany Christian Ried 
italy Matteo Cairoli 
germany Marvin Dienst 
Porsche 911 RSR (991) LMGTE AM 2'07.852 21.992
25 86 united_kingdom Michael Wainwright 
united_kingdom Ben Barker 
united_kingdom Nick Foster 
Porsche 911 RSR (991) LMGTE AM 2'07.981 22.121
26 54 italy Francesco Castellacci 
spain Miguel Molina 
switzerland Thomas Flohr 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'08.218 22.358

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