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Practice report

Di Grassi sets Silverstone practice pace for Audi

Lucas di Grassi set the pace for Audi in the first track action of the 2015 World Endurance Championship at Silverstone on Friday.

#8 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro: Lucas di Grassi, Loic Duval, Oliver Jarvis

#8 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro: Lucas di Grassi, Loic Duval, Oliver Jarvis

Audi Communications Motorsport

#42 Strakka Racing Dome Strakka S103 - Nissan: Nick Leventis, Danny Watts, Jonny Kane
Nissan GT-R LM Nismo
#98 Aston Martin Racing Aston Martin Vantage V8: Paul Dalla Lana, Pedro Lamy, Mathias Lauda
Pit Crew Helmets
Porsche Logo
#8 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro: Lucas di Grassi, Loic Duval, Oliver Jarvis

The Brazilian beat the #17 Porsche 919 Hybrid, driven by Mark Webber, by just 0.144s in the 90-minute session.

The second of the Audi R18 e-tron quattro entries driven by Andre Lotterer claimed third fastest with a 1:42.360.

Most of the times were set early on in the session. Only the late starting #18 Porsche 919 Hybrid driven by Neel Jani made an improvement in the final stages.

Reigning champion Toyota placed fifth and sixth after a quiet session. Alex Wurz was fastest early on in the session with a 1m42.749s in the #2 Toyota TS 040 HYBRID. The Austrian was 0.8s quicker than the #1 TS 040 HYBRID.

All of the top six LMP1 times easily beat the pole position time (1m42.774s) of 2014 indicating significant technical progress for the big three manufacturers in 2015.

LMP2 saw the G-Drive Racing branded team claim a one-two with its brace of Ligier JS P2 coupes. Gustavo Yacaman set a best of 1m50.213s to just outpace Sam Bird's best of 1m50.267s. The new ORECA 05 in the hands of Matt Howson was third.

G-Drive Racing was one-two in the LMP2 category with the all-Latin American crewed No.28 car of Gustavo Yacaman, Pipo Derani and Ricardo Gonzalez just outpacing the No.26 Ligier JS P2-Nissan with which Sam Bird set the fastest lap, just 0.054s.

The new ORECA 05-Nissan was third best with Matt Howson continuing his and the teams impressive form.

The No.95 Aston Martin Vantage V8 topped LMGTE Pro with Nicki Thiim setting the time early in the session.

Second in LMGTE Pro class was the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia driven by Gimmi Bruni. The Italian set a 2m01.680s in the final moments of the session.

In LMGTE Am the Abu-Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche 911 RSR was best in class with rapid young German Klaus Bachler achieving the time of 2m02.350s.

Pos   Driver   Car   Time   Gap  Laps 
Lucas di Grassi
Loic Duval
Oliver Jarvis
Audi 1'42.121   31
Timo Bernhard
Mark Webber
Brendon Hartley
Porsche 1'42.265 0.144 34
Marcel Fässler
Andre Lotterer
Benoît Tréluyer
Audi 1'42.360 0.239 25
Romain Dumas
Neel Jani
Marc Lieb
Porsche 1'42.457 0.336 13
Alexander Wurz
S.Sarrazin
Mike Conway
Toyota 1'42.749 0.628 27
Anthony Davidson
Sebastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima
Toyota 1'43.565 1.444 35
Gustavo Yacaman
Luis Derani
Ricardo González
Ligier/Nissan 1'50.213 8.092 37
Roman Rusinov
Julien Canal
Sam Bird
Ligier/Nissan 1'50.267 8.146 29
Matt Howson
Richard Bradley
Nick Tandy
ORECA/Nissan 1'50.779 8.658 27
10  N.Panciatici
Paul-Loup Chatin
V.Capillaire
Alpine/Nissan 1'50.833 8.712 25
11  Scott Sharp
Ryan Dalziel
David Hansson
HPD 1'51.383 9.262 33
12  Nick Leventis
Danny Watts
Jonny Kane
Dome/Nissan 1'52.719 10.598 26
13  Ed Brown
Jon Fogarty
David Brabham
HPD 1'53.806 11.685 25
14  Simon Trummer
Vitantonio Liuzzi
Christian Klien
CLM/AER 1'54.194 12.073 25
15  Jacques Nicolet
Jean-Marc Merlin
Erik Maris
Ligier/Nissan 1'54.981 12.860 35
16  C.Nygaard
Marco Sørensen
Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin 2'01.393 19.272 38
17  Gianmaria Bruni
Toni Vilander
Ferrari 2'01.680 19.559 34
18  Darren Turner
Stefan Mücke
Aston Martin 2'01.707 19.586 26
19  Patrick Pilet
F.Makowiecki
Porsche 2'01.754 19.633 29
20  Richard Lietz
M.Christensen
Porsche 2'01.810 19.689 30
21  Alex MacDowall
Fernando Rees
Richie Stanaway
Aston Martin 2'01.827 19.706 33
22  Davide Rigon
James Calado
Ferrari 2'02.115 19.994 38
23  Christian Ried
K.Al Qubaisi
Klaus Bachler
Porsche 2'02.350 20.229 31
24  Viktor Shaitar
Andrea Bertolini
Aleksey Basov
Ferrari 2'02.427 20.306 34
25  Gianluca Roda
Paolo Ruberti
Kristian Poulsen
Chevrolet 2'02.503 20.382 34
26  François Perrodo
Emmanuel Collard
Rui Aguas
Ferrari 2'02.689 20.568 35
27  F.Castellacci
Roald Goethe
Stuart Hall
Aston Martin 2'02.781 20.660 32
28  Patrick Dempsey
Patrick Long
Marco Seefried
Porsche 2'03.138 21.017 31
29  Paul Dalla Lana
Pedro Lamy
Mathias Lauda
Aston Martin 2'03.428 21.307 32

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