Austin WEC: Toyota hits back to lead third practice
Toyota set the pace in final free practice for this weekend's Austin round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima
JEP / Motorsport Images
Sebastien Buemi went fastest in the #8 Toyota TS050 Hybrid during the one-hour Friday practice period with a 1m45.712s set during a qualification simulation.
That put Toyota a tenth up on the best Porsche time of the weekend so far posted by Neel Jani when the German manufacturer undertook its practice qualifying runs during FP2 on Thursday.
Porsche took second and third positions in the times during final practice.
Timo Bernhard recorded a 1m47.465s aboard the #2 919 Hybrid, which put him half a second up on Nick Tandy in the #1 car.
Kamui Kobayashi was a further tenth back in the #7 Toyota.
Matthieu Vaxiviere went fastest in LMP2 aboard the TDS Racing Oreca 07 with a 1m53.541s.
That put him just four hundredths of a second up Alex Brundle on in the best of the Jackie Chan DC Racing Orecas.
Ford leads Ferrari in GTE
Ford returned to the top of the timesheets in GTE Pro.
Oliver Pla went quickest in his Ganassi Ford GT, setting a 2m02.987s to end up nearly eight tenths quicker than James Calado's AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE.
Pedro Lamy again led the way in GTE Am for Aston Martin.
Practice results:
Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 8 | Stéphane Sarrazin Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'45.712 | |
2 | 2 | Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley Earl Bamber |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'47.465 | 1.753 |
3 | 1 | Andre Lotterer Neel Jani Nick Tandy |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'47.974 | 2.262 |
4 | 7 | Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'48.086 | 2.374 |
5 | 28 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'53.541 | 7.829 |
6 | 37 | David Cheng Tristan Gommendy Alex Brundle |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'53.582 | 7.870 |
7 | 24 | Jean-Eric Vergne Ben Hanley Matt Rao |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'54.257 | 8.545 |
8 | 25 | Vitaly Petrov Simon Trummer Roberto Gonzalez |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'54.824 | 9.112 |
9 | 36 | Nicolas Lapierre Andre Negrao Gustavo Menezes |
Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 1'54.842 | 9.130 |
10 | 38 | Oliver Jarvis Ho-Pin Tung Thomas Laurent |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'55.171 | 9.459 |
11 | 13 | Nelson Piquet Jr. David Heinemeier Hansson Mathias Beche |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'55.213 | 9.501 |
12 | 31 | Bruno Senna Julien Canal Nicolas Prost |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'56.414 | 10.702 |
13 | 26 | Roman Rusinov Pierre Thiriet Alex Lynn |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'56.666 | 10.954 |
14 | 66 | Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 2'02.987 | 17.275 |
15 | 51 | James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 2'03.735 | 18.023 |
16 | 71 | Sam Bird Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 2'03.983 | 18.271 |
17 | 91 | Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 2'04.376 | 18.664 |
18 | 92 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 2'04.491 | 18.779 |
19 | 97 | Darren Turner Jonathan Adam Daniel Serra |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 2'04.659 | 18.947 |
20 | 98 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE AM | 2'04.941 | 19.229 |
21 | 95 | Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 2'05.176 | 19.464 |
22 | 54 | Francesco Castellacci Miguel Molina Thomas Flohr |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 2'05.432 | 19.720 |
23 | 61 | Matt Griffin Mok Weng Sun Keita Sawa |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 2'05.605 | 19.893 |
24 | 77 | Christian Ried Matteo Cairoli Marvin Dienst |
Porsche 911 RSR (991) | LMGTE AM | 2'05.971 | 20.259 |
25 | 67 | Harry Tincknell Andy Priaulx |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 2'05.981 | 20.269 |
26 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Ben Barker Nick Foster |
Porsche 911 RSR (991) | LMGTE AM | 2'07.948 | 22.236 |
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