Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia
Practice report

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

#8 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Stéphane Sarrazin, Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima

JEP / Motorsport Images

#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez
#1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Neel Jani, Andre Lotterer, Nick Tandy
#7 Toyota Gazoo Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi, Jose Maria Lopez
#28 TDS Racing Oreca 07 Gibson: François Perrodo, Matthieu Vaxivière, Emmanuel Collard
#67 Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK  Ford GT: Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell
#95 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage: Nicki Thiim, Marco Sorensen

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.#DriversCarClassTimeGap
1 8 france Stéphane Sarrazin 
japan Kazuki Nakajima 
switzerland Sébastien Buemi 
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'45.712  
2 2 germany Timo Bernhard 
new_zealand Brendon Hartley 
new_zealand Earl Bamber 
Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 1'47.465 1.753
3 1 germany Andre Lotterer 
switzerland Neel Jani 
united_kingdom Nick Tandy 
Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 1'47.974 2.262
4 7 japan Kamui Kobayashi 
united_kingdom Mike Conway 
argentina Jose Maria Lopez 
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'48.086 2.374
5 28 france François Perrodo 
france Emmanuel Collard 
france Matthieu Vaxiviere 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'53.541 7.829
6 37 china David Cheng 
france Tristan Gommendy 
united_kingdom Alex Brundle 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'53.582 7.870
7 24 france Jean-Eric Vergne 
united_kingdom Ben Hanley 
united_kingdom Matt Rao 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'54.257 8.545
8 25 russia Vitaly Petrov 
switzerland Simon Trummer 
mexico Roberto Gonzalez 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'54.824 9.112
9 36 france Nicolas Lapierre 
brazil Andre Negrao 
united_states Gustavo Menezes 
Alpine A470 LMP2 1'54.842 9.130
10 38 united_kingdom Oliver Jarvis 
china Ho-Pin Tung 
france Thomas Laurent 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'55.171 9.459
11 13 brazil Nelson Piquet Jr. 
denmark David Heinemeier Hansson
switzerland Mathias Beche 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'55.213 9.501
12 31 brazil Bruno Senna 
france Julien Canal 
france Nicolas Prost 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'56.414 10.702
13 26 russia Roman Rusinov 
france Pierre Thiriet 
united_kingdom Alex Lynn 
Oreca 07 LMP2 1'56.666 10.954
14 66 germany Stefan Mücke 
france Olivier Pla 
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 2'02.987 17.275
15 51 united_kingdom James Calado 
italy Alessandro Pier Guidi 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE PRO 2'03.735 18.023
16 71 united_kingdom Sam Bird 
italy Davide Rigon 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE PRO 2'03.983 18.271
17 91 austria Richard Lietz 
france Frédéric Makowiecki 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 2'04.376 18.664
18 92 denmark Michael Christensen 
france Kevin Estre 
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 2'04.491 18.779
19 97 united_kingdom Darren Turner 
united_kingdom Jonathan Adam 
brazil Daniel Serra 
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE PRO 2'04.659 18.947
20 98 portugal Pedro Lamy 
canada Paul Dalla Lana 
austria Mathias Lauda 
Aston Martin Vantage V8 LMGTE AM 2'04.941 19.229
21 95 denmark Marco Sorensen 
denmark Nicki Thiim 
Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE PRO 2'05.176 19.464
22 54 italy Francesco Castellacci 
spain Miguel Molina 
switzerland Thomas Flohr 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'05.432 19.720
23 61 ireland Matt Griffin 
singapore Mok Weng Sun 
japan Keita Sawa 
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'05.605 19.893
24 77 germany Christian Ried 
italy Matteo Cairoli 
germany Marvin Dienst 
Porsche 911 RSR (991) LMGTE AM 2'05.971 20.259
25 67 united_kingdom Harry Tincknell 
guernsey Andy Priaulx 
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 2'05.981 20.269
26 86 united_kingdom Michael Wainwright 
united_kingdom Ben Barker 
united_kingdom Nick Foster 
Porsche 911 RSR (991) LMGTE AM 2'07.948 22.236

Be part of Motorsport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Why the fight for LMP1’s survival might lead to a new dawn
Next article WEC reveals changes to 2018/19 'superseason' calendar

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Motorsport prime

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Edition

Australia