Having set the pace in the morning, Hartley pulled out a 1m44.594s out of the bag on his first flying lap in FP2, which proved enough to top a relatively uneventful session by a full 1.617s.

Loic Duval was responsible for the second-quickest time of the afternoon, the Frenchman setting a 1m46.211s in the #8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro early on.

Recovering from a slow start to the day, Marc Lieb took the points-leading #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid to third, 1.670s behind the sister car but just 0.053s shy of compatriot Duval.

Toyota's best placed car was fourth, with Anthony Davidson setting the fastest lap for the #5 TS050 Hybrid with a 1m46.812s, 2.218s off the pace.

Completing the six LMP1-H machines were the #7 Audi, Marcel Fassler setting a time good enough for fifth quickest, ahead of Mike Conway in the #6 Toyota.

The #4 ByKolles machine beat the #13 Rebellion to top the two-car privateer LMP1 category, but not without causing a full-course yellow by stopping at the exit of the pitlane midway through the session.

G-Drive holds station in LMP2, Ferrari leads GTE

G-Drive stayed on top in the LMP2 fight, a late effort of 1m54.627s by Will Stevens putting the Russian-entered squad's #26 Oreca clear of the two Manor cars.

GP2 regular Alex Lynn put the #44 car second on a 1m54.856s, followed by Rebellion convert Mathias Beche in the #45 on a 1m55.028s.

The points-leading #36 Signatech Alpine was only fifth-fastest, one place behind its nearest championship rival, the #43 RGR Sport by Morand Ligier.

In the GTE-Pro division, Ferrari took the top two spots, Gianmaria Bruni leading the way in the #51 car with a 2m02.481s - 0.260s on the sister #71 machine of Davide Rigon.

Ford provided the Italian marque's closest opposition, as Olivier Pla set a 2m03.695s to go third in the #66 car ahead of the two Aston Martins.

David Heinemeier Hansson's first flying lap meanwhile was sufficient for the #88 Abu Dhabi-Proton Porsche to end top of the timesheets in GTE-Am.

Second practice times:

Cla	#	Drivers	Car	Class	Time	Gap
1	1	Mark Webber Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley	Porsche 919 Hybrid	LMP1	1'44.594
2	8	Lucas di Grassi Loic Duval Oliver Jarvis	Audi R18	LMP1	1'46.211	1.617
3	2	Romain Dumas Neel Jani Marc Lieb	Porsche 919 Hybrid	LMP1	1'46.264	1.670
4	5	Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'46.812	2.218
5	7	Andre Lotterer Marcel Fassler Benoit Tréluyer	Audi R18	LMP1	1'47.152	2.558
6	6	Stéphane Sarrazin Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway	Toyota TS050 Hybrid	LMP1	1'47.860	3.266
7	4	Simon Trummer Oliver Webb Pierre Kaffer	CLM P1/01	LMP1	1'51.911	7.317
8	13	Alexandre Imperatori Dominik Kraihamer Matheo Tuscher	Rebellion R-One	LMP1	1'52.538	7.944
9	26	Will Stevens Roman Rusinov Alex Brundle	Oreca 05	LMP2	1'54.627	10.033
10	44	Richard Bradley Matthew Rao Alex Lynn	Oreca 05	LMP2	1'54.856	10.262
11	45	Mathias Beche Tor Graves Roberto Gonzalez	Oreca 05	LMP2	1'55.028	10.434
12	43	Bruno Senna Ricardo Gonzalez Filipe Albuquerque	Ligier JS P2	LMP2	1'55.266	10.672
13	36	Nicolas Lapierre Gustavo Menezes Stéphane Richelmi	Alpine A460	LMP2	1'55.503	10.909
14	31	Pipo Derani Ryan Dalziel Chris Cumming	Ligier JS P2	LMP2	1'55.727	11.133
15	30	Sean Gelael Antonio Giovinazzi Tom Blomqvist	Ligier JS P2	LMP2	1'55.969	11.375
16	27	Maurizio Mediani Nicolas Minassian Mikhail Aleshin	BR01	LMP2	1'56.524	11.930
17	37	Vitaly Petrov Viktor Shaytar Kirill Ladygin	BR01	LMP2	1'56.530	11.936
18	35	Paul-Loup Chatin Ho-Pin Tung David Cheng	Alpine A460	LMP2	1'57.397	12.803
19	51	Gianmaria Bruni James Calado	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE PRO	2'02.481	17.887
20	71	Sam Bird Davide Rigon	Ferrari 488 GTE	LMGTE PRO	2'02.741	18.147
21	66	Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	2'03.695	19.101
22	97	Darren Turner Richie Stanaway	Aston Martin Vantage V8	LMGTE PRO	2'03.883	19.289
23	95	Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim	Aston Martin Vantage V8	LMGTE PRO	2'04.163	19.569
24	67	Harry Tincknell Andy Priaulx	Ford GT	LMGTE PRO	2'04.318	19.724
25	77	Richard Lietz Michael Christensen	Porsche 911 RSR (2016)	LMGTE PRO	2'05.133	20.539
26	88	David Heinemeier Hansson Patrick Long Khaled Al Qubaisi	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'05.428	20.834
27	78	Christian Ried Wolf Henzler Joel Camathias	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'05.561	20.967
28	98	Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin Vantage V8	LMGTE AM	2'05.598	21.004
29	86	Michael Wainwright Adam Carroll Ben Barker	Porsche 911 RSR	LMGTE AM	2'05.602	21.008
30	83	François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Rui Aguas	Ferrari F458 Italia	LMGTE AM	2'06.890	22.296
31	50	Pierre Ragues Ricky Taylor Romain Brandela	Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06	LMGTE AM	2'07.601	23.007