Mexico WEC: Porsche stays on top in Saturday practice
Porsche claimed fastest time across the final free practice sessions ahead of qualifying for Sunday's Mexico City round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
#2 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber, Brendon Hartley
JEP / Motorsport Images
Brendon Hartley posted the fastest time of the weekend so far with a 1m25.007s in the #2 919 Hybrid during the 90-minute morning session, before Nick Tandy went fastest with a 1m25.678s in the one-hour afternoon period.
The #1 Porsche subsequently lost the time for a pitlane speeding infringement by Tandy.
Toyota had trailed the Porsches in Friday's session and this morning, but Sebastien Buemi knocked nearly a second off the best time by one of the TS050 Hybrids in the afternoon to end up at the top of the timesheets on 1m25.789s.
Tandy finished second in the afternoon times with a 1m25.983s set after his pitlane speeding infringement. Mike Conway took third on a 1m26.069s in the second of the Toyotas.
The #2 Porsche ended the final session fourth in that session, with a 1m26.127s from Timo Bernhard.
DC Racing on top in LMP2
The Jackie Chan DC Racing squad was fastest in LMP2 in both Saturday sessions with its pair of Oreca 07s.
Ho-Pin Tung set the pace in the morning on a 1m33.390s, while Alex Brundle went faster by two tenths in the afternoon with a 1m33.130s.
Nicolas Lapierre was just over one hundredth slower than Brundle in the afternoon with a 1m33.144s aboard the Signatech Alpine.
Third fastest P2 time of the day was a 1m33.150s set by Alex Lynn in the G-Drive Oreca.
Ferrari leads Ford in GTE Pro
Ferrari posted the quickest GTE Pro time of the day courtesy of a 1m39.722s from Sam Bird in the #71 AF Corse-run 488 GTE in the afternoon.
That was just over a tenth clear of Stefan Mucke in the fastest of the Chip Ganassi Fords GTs.
The German's 1m39.886s just eclipsed the 1m39.931s with which Marco Sorensen had topped the class order in the morning in the fastest of the Aston Martin Vantage GTEs.
Ben Barker set the pace in GTE Am for the Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR in the afternoon.
His 1m41.069s was just five thousandths quicker than Matteo Cairoli in the Dempsey-Proton Porsche.
Third practice results:
Pos. | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 8 | Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'25.789 | |
2 | 1 | Andre Lotterer Neel Jani Nick Tandy |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'25.983 | 0.194 |
3 | 7 | Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway Jose Maria Lopez |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'26.069 | 0.280 |
4 | 2 | Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley Earl Bamber |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'26.127 | 0.338 |
5 | 37 | David Cheng Tristan Gommendy Alex Brundle |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'33.130 | 7.341 |
6 | 36 | Nicolas Lapierre Andre Negrao Gustavo Menezes |
Alpine A470 | LMP2 | 1'33.144 | 7.355 |
7 | 26 | Roman Rusinov Pierre Thiriet Alex Lynn |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'33.150 | 7.361 |
8 | 38 | Oliver Jarvis Ho-Pin Tung Thomas Laurent |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'33.191 | 7.402 |
9 | 28 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Matthieu Vaxiviere |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'33.720 | 7.931 |
10 | 31 | Bruno Senna Julien Canal Nicolas Prost |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'33.793 | 8.004 |
11 | 25 | Vitaly Petrov Simon Trummer Roberto Gonzalez |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'34.318 | 8.529 |
12 | 24 | Jean-Eric Vergne Ben Hanley Matt Rao |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'34.539 | 8.750 |
13 | 13 | Nelson Piquet Jr. David Heinemeier Hansson Mathias Beche |
Oreca 07 | LMP2 | 1'34.655 | 8.866 |
14 | 71 | Sam Bird Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 1'39.722 | 13.933 |
15 | 66 | Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 1'39.886 | 14.097 |
16 | 92 | Michael Christensen Kevin Estre |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 1'39.982 | 14.193 |
17 | 91 | Richard Lietz Frédéric Makowiecki |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE PRO | 1'40.005 | 14.216 |
18 | 97 | Darren Turner Jonathan Adam Daniel Serra |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 1'40.073 | 14.284 |
19 | 67 | Harry Tincknell Andy Priaulx |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 1'40.510 | 14.721 |
20 | 51 | James Calado Alessandro Pier Guidi |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 1'40.793 | 15.004 |
21 | 95 | Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 1'40.797 | 15.008 |
22 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Ben Barker Nick Foster Jr. |
Porsche 911 RSR (991) | LMGTE AM | 1'41.069 | 15.280 |
23 | 77 | Christian Ried Matteo Cairoli Marvin Dienst |
Porsche 911 RSR (991) | LMGTE AM | 1'41.074 | 15.285 |
24 | 61 | Matt Griffin Mok Weng Sun Keita Sawa |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 1'42.012 | 16.223 |
25 | 54 | Francesco Castellacci Miguel Molina Thomas Flohr |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE AM | 1'42.033 | 16.244 |
26 | 98 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage | LMGTE PRO | 1'42.709 | 16.920 |
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