Practice report
WEC Nürburgring
Nurburgring WEC: Audi on top in damp first practice
Audi topped the first free practice session at a damp but steadily drying out Nurburgring as teams prepare for the fourth round of the 2015 World Endurance Championship on Sunday.
Giorgio Piola
Edited: Aug 28, 2015, 2:10 PM
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The No.7 Audi R18 etron quattro set a best lap of 1m39.201s in the 90-minute session, with Andre Lotterer setting the best lap of 1:39.201.
Despite being on schedule to eclipse Lotterer's time, Neel Jani aborted his lap in the No.18 Porsche 919 Hybrid. The Swiss driver's previous lap had seen him get to within 0.076s of the quickest Audi lap.
The top two positions were transposed for third and fourth, with the No.8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro leading the No.17 Porsche, which led the timing screens for much of the first 30-minute with Mark Webber at the wheel.
Toyota continued to be off the pace as its 2015 development has effectively been halted. The No.2 TS 040 headed the sister No.1 machine by 0.7 for fifth and sixth positions.
LMP2 saw the G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan head the timing screens, with Colombian racer Gustavo Yacaman setting a best time of 1:46.631 to lead the other G-Drive Ligier of Sam Bird by almost exactly a second.
In the two LMGTE classes, Ferrari ruled the roost with the No.51 reigning champion AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander top in LMGTE Pro.
AF Corse also led the way in LMGTE Am with Rui Aguas setting a best of 1m57.876, in the Ferrari he shares with Francois Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard.
There was one red flag, caused by Simon Trummer, who spun his Kolles run CLM P1/01-AER in to the gravel at the final corner.
The session had been relatively trouble free until this point with only a brief on-track stoppage for Le Mans winner Earl Bamber in the No.88 Abu-Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche 911 SR and Alex Wurz running wide and off track at turn one in the No.2 Toyota TS 040.
Marc Lieb also had a quick gyration at turn one in the No.18 Porsche 919 Hybrid.
There were problems for the two ESM Ligier-HPD cars as they were confined to their pit boxes for the majority of the session.
The No.43 Morand Morgan did not take part in the session after being impounded by officials on Thursday evening. It remains unclear as to whether the car will take part at all this weekend.
Pos Driver Car Time Gap Laps 1 Marcel Fässler
André Lotterer
Benoît Tréluyer Audi 1'39.201 40 2 Romain Dumas
Neel Jani
Marc Lieb Porsche 1'39.277 0.076 38 3 Lucas di Grassi
Loïc Duval
Oliver Jarvis Audi 1'39.910 0.709 40 4 Timo Bernhard
Mark Webber
Brendon Hartley Porsche 1'39.915 0.714 35 5 Alexander Wurz
S.Sarrazin
Mike Conway Toyota 1'41.812 2.611 27 6 Anthony Davidson
Sébastien Buemi
Kazuki Nakajima Toyota 1'42.541 3.340 35 7 Gustavo Yacamán
Luis Derani
Ricardo González Ligier/Nissan 1'46.631 7.430 27 8 Nicolas Prost
Mathias Beche
Nick Heidfeld Rebellion/AER 1'47.433 8.232 23 9 Roman Rusinov
Julien Canal
Sam Bird Ligier/Nissan 1'47.623 8.422 15 10 A.Imperatori
D.Kraihamer
Daniel Abt Rebellion/AER 1'49.171 9.970 15 11 Nick Leventis
Danny Watts
Jonny Kane Dome/Nissan 1'49.242 10.041 26 12 Simon Trummer
Pierre Kaffer CLM/AER 1'49.274 10.073 26 13 N.Panciatici
Paul-Loup Chatin
V.Capillaire Alpine/Nissan 1'49.490 10.289 39 14 Scott Sharp
Ryan Dalziel
David Hansson Ligier/HPD 1'50.096 10.895 7 15 Matt Howson
Richard Bradley
Nick Tandy ORECA/Nissan 1'53.098 13.897 13 16 Ed Brown
J.van Overbeek
Jon Fogarty Ligier/HPD 1'54.076 14.875 6 17 Gianmaria Bruni
Toni Vilander Ferrari 1'55.661 16.460 37 18 Davide Rigon
James Calado Ferrari 1'56.035 16.834 33 19 Patrick Pilet
F.Makowiecki Porsche 1'56.956 17.755 18 20 Richard Lietz
M.Christensen Porsche 1'57.213 18.012 10 21 Fernando Rees
Alex MacDowall
Richie Stanaway Aston Martin 1'57.295 18.094 34 22 François Perrodo
Emmanuel Collard
Rui Águas Ferrari 1'57.876 18.675 33 23 Paul Dalla Lana
Pedro Lamy
Mathias Lauda Aston Martin 1'58.019 18.818 25 24 Darren Turner
Stefan Mücke
Jonathan Adam Aston Martin 1'58.320 19.119 31 25 Christian Ried
K.Al Qubaisi
Earl Bamber Porsche 1'59.034 19.833 18 26 Patrick Dempsey
Patrick Long
Marco Seefried Porsche 1'59.074 19.873 33 27 Marco Sørensen
C.Nygaard Aston Martin 1'59.150 19.949 23 28 Gianluca Roda
Paolo Ruberti
Kristian Poulsen Chevrolet 1'59.220 20.019 28 29 F.Castellacci
Roald Goethe
Stuart Hall Aston Martin 1'59.812 20.611 30 30 Viktor Shaitar
Andrea Bertolini
Aleksey Basov Ferrari 2'07.291 28.090 19 31 Pierre Ragues
Oliver Webb
Archie Hamilton Morgan/SARD - 19
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