Shanghai WEC: Audi leads Toyota in final practice
Audi topped the third and final practice session for the WEC 6 Hours of Shanghai, Oliver Jarvis putting the #8 machine three tenths clear of the leading Toyota.
Once again, the hybrid LMP1 cars all set their quickest times in the opening minutes of the hour-long session, with Jarvis heading the charge on a 1m44.505s, 0.089s up on the Friday benchmark set by Porsche driver Brendon Hartley.
That was enough to head Stephane Sarrazin in the #6 Toyota TS050 Hybrid by 0.314s, with Porsche making it three different manufacturers in the top three thanks to Marc Lieb's early effort of 1m44.913s in the #2 machine, four tenths behind Jarvis.
Benoit Treluyer put the second of the Audi R18 e-tron quattros in fourth, 0.474s down on the sister #8 car, half a second ahead of Hartley in the #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid, which was fifth fastest after sweeping the timesheets on Friday.
The second Toyota, the #5, was forced into the pits at the start of the session, and could only record the sixth quickest time - 1.158s off the pace - when it returned to the track in Sebastien Buemi's hands.
Rebellion regained the upper hand over ByKolles in the duel for LMP1-L honours by eight tenths.
Signatech, Ford in the ascendancy
In LMP2, it was the points-leading #36 Signatech Alpine, wheeled by Nicolas Lapierre, that set the pace with a 1m54.355s - albeit a mere 0.005s up on the #30 ESM Ligier of Antonio Giovinazzi.
RGR Sport by Morand made it two Ligiers in the class top three thanks to Bruno Senna, who was a further second back in third place.
G-Drive, which led the way in both Friday session, was only fifth fastest, 1.3s down on the #36 car.
The order in GTE-Pro was also totally different to Friday, as Ford established supremacy over its class rivals thanks to a late flyer from Olivier Pla, who set the pace with a 2m01.329s in the #66.
Aston Martin took second and third places, Richie Stanaway in the #97 leading Nicki Thiim in the #95, followed by the second of the Chip Ganassi-run Fords.
Ferrari meanwhile went from being GTE pacesetters to also-rans, occupying fifth and sixth places in class.
In GTE-Am, Pedro Lamy's time of 2m03.845s ensured the #98 Aston Martin led the way.
Third practice results:
| Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 |  Lucas di Grassi  Loic Duval  Oliver Jarvis | Audi R18 | LMP1 | 1'44.505 | |
| 2 | 6 | Stéphane Sarrazin  Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway | Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'44.819 | 0.314 |
| 3 | 2 | Romain Dumas  Neel Jani  Marc Lieb | Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'44.913 | 0.408 |
| 4 | 7 | Andre Lotterer Marcel Fassler Benoit Tréluyer | Audi R18 | LMP1 | 1'44.979 | 0.474 |
| 5 | 1 |  Mark Webber Timo Bernhard  Brendon Hartley | Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'45.418 | 0.913 |
| 6 | 5 | Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi | Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'45.663 | 1.158 |
| 7 | 13 | Alexandre Imperatori  Dominik Kraihamer Matheo Tuscher | Rebellion R-One | LMP1 | 1'50.748 | 6.243 |
| 8 | 4 | Simon Trummer Oliver Webb Pierre Kaffer | CLM P1/01 | LMP1 | 1'51.602 | 7.097 |
| 9 | 36 | Nicolas Lapierre  Gustavo Menezes  Stéphane Richelmi | Alpine A460 | LMP2 | 1'54.355 | 9.850 |
| 10 | 30 |  Sean Gelael  Antonio Giovinazzi Tom Blomqvist | Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 1'54.360 | 9.855 |
| 11 | 43 | Bruno Senna  Ricardo Gonzalez  Filipe Albuquerque | Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 1'55.472 | 10.967 |
| 12 | 35 | Paul-Loup Chatin  Ho-Pin Tung David Cheng | Alpine A460 | LMP2 | 1'55.559 | 11.054 |
| 13 | 26 | Will Stevens  Roman Rusinov Alex Brundle | Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 1'55.604 | 11.099 |
| 14 | 31 | Pipo Derani Ryan Dalziel  Chris Cumming | Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 1'55.865 | 11.360 |
| 15 | 27 | Maurizio Mediani Nicolas Minassian Mikhail Aleshin | BR01 | LMP2 | 1'56.046 | 11.541 |
| 16 | 44 | Richard Bradley Matthew Rao Alex Lynn | Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 1'56.615 | 12.110 |
| 17 | 37 | Vitaly Petrov Viktor Shaytar Kirill Ladygin | BR01 | LMP2 | 1'56.703 | 12.198 |
| 18 | 45 | Mathias Beche  Tor Graves Roberto Gonzalez | Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 1'56.742 | 12.237 |
| 19 | 66 | Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla | Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 2'01.329 | 16.824 |
| 20 | 97 | Darren Turner Richie Stanaway | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE PRO | 2'02.044 | 17.539 |
| 21 | 95 |  Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE PRO | 2'02.393 | 17.888 |
| 22 | 67 | Harry Tincknell Andy Priaulx | Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 2'02.505 | 18.000 |
| 23 | 71 | Sam Bird Davide Rigon | Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 2'02.728 | 18.223 |
| 24 | 51 | Gianmaria Bruni James Calado | Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 2'03.047 | 18.542 |
| 25 | 98 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda | Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE AM | 2'03.845 | 19.340 |
| 26 | 77 | Richard Lietz Michael Christensen | Porsche 911 RSR (2016) | LMGTE PRO | 2'03.900 | 19.395 |
| 27 | 83 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Rui Aguas | Ferrari F458 Italia | LMGTE AM | 2'04.179 | 19.674 |
| 28 | 50 | Pierre Ragues Ricky Taylor Romain Brandela | Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06 | LMGTE AM | 2'04.326 | 19.821 |
| 29 | 88 | David Heinemeier Hansson Patrick Long  Khaled Al Qubaisi | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'05.007 | 20.502 |
| 30 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Adam Carroll Ben Barker | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'05.224 | 20.719 |
| 31 | 78 | Christian Ried Wolf Henzler Joel Camathias | Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 2'06.358 | 21.853 |
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About this article
| Series | WEC |
| Event | Shanghai |
| Location | Shanghai International Circuit |
| Drivers | Oliver Jarvis |
| Teams | Team Joest |
| Author | Jamie Klein |
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