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Practice report

Nurburgring WEC: Porsche fastest in delayed third practice

Mark Webber kept Porsche in command in a delayed third and final practice session for the WEC 6 Hours of Nurburgring, beating closest challenger Toyota by just under three tenths.

#1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley

#1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley

Vision Sport Agency

#1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley
#5 Toyota Racing Toyota TS050 Hybrid: Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima
#45 Manor Oreca 05 - Nissan: Matthew Rao, Richard Bradley, Roberto Merhi
#67 Ford Chip Ganassi Racing Team UK Ford GT: Marino Franchitti, Andy Priaulx, Harry Tincknell
#26 G-Drive Racing Oreca 05 - Nissan: Roman Rusinov, Alex Brundle, René Rast
#8 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro: Lucas di Grassi, Loic Duval, Oliver Jarvis
#42 Strakka Racing Gibson 015S - Nissan: Nick Leventis, Jonny Kane, Lewis Williamson
#7 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18: Marcel Fässler, Andre Lotterer
#71 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE: Davide Rigon, Sam Bird
#77 Dempsey Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR: Richard Lietz, Michael Christensen
#78 KCMG Porsche 911 RSR: Christian Ried, Wolf Henzler, Joël Camathias
#1 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber, Brendon Hartley
#4 ByKolles Racing CLM P1/01: Simon Trummer, Pierre Kaffer, Oliver Webb
#50 Larbre Competition Corvette C7.R: Paolo Ruberti, Yutaka Yamagishi, Pierre Ragues
#36 Signatech Alpine A460: Gustavo Menezes, Nicolas Lapierre, Stéphane Richelmi
#7 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18: Marcel Fässler, Andre Lotterer
#50 Larbre Competition Corvette C7.R: Paolo Ruberti, Yutaka Yamagishi, Pierre Ragues
#8 Audi Sport Team Joest Audi R18 e-tron quattro: Lucas di Grassi, Loic Duval, Oliver Jarvis
#78 KCMG Porsche 911 RSR: Christian Ried, Wolf Henzler, Joël Camathias
#86 Gulf Racing Porsche 911 RSR: Michael Wainwright, Adam Carroll, Ben Barker
#83 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia: Francois Perrodo, Emmanuel Collard, Rui Aguas
#2 Porsche Team Porsche 919 Hybrid: Romain Dumas, Neel Jani, Marc Lieb

The session began 45 minutes later than scheduled due to fog that prevented the medical helicopter from taking off, and was held in damp conditions when proceedings finally got underway.

But the track rapidly dried out, with the LMP1 runners quickly switching from wets to slicks – and by the halfway stage, they were setting times to rival Friday’s dry running.

In the end, Webber came within 0.005s of his benchmark from FP2 with a best time of 1m41.002s in the #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid, beating the #5 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Anthony Davidson by 0.291s.

Lucas di Grassi made it three different manufacturers in the top three as he set a time of 1m41.542s in the #8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, in which Loic Duval suffered a late spin at Turn 2.

The sister #7 Audi was fourth fastest with Andre Lotterer at the wheel, the German setting a best effort 1m41.999s, ahead of Marc Lieb in the #2 Porsche and Mike Conway in the #6 Toyota.

The #13 Rebellion R-One remained the quickest of the LMP1 privateer entries, 5.899s off the pace.

In LMP2, Rene Rast grabbed the top spot for the G-Drive team in the #26 Oreca, making the most of the conditions late in the session to set a 1m50.260s.

That was enough to beat the #44 Manor Oreca of Antonio Pizzonia by 0.723s.

Signatech’s pair of Alpines were third and fourth quickest, the #35 of David Cheng beating the #36 of Nicolas Lapierre.

Ferrari took a convincing one-two in the GTE Pro class, with Gianmaria Bruni putting the #51 car top of the pile in the closing stages with a 1m57.145s.

Davide Rigon was 0.220s shy in the #71 car, while Harry Tincknell put the best of the Ford GTs in third place, just over half a second of the pace in class.

The GTE Am division was topped by the #88 Porsche of David Heinemeier Hansson, who posted a best effort of 2m00.360s.

FP3 results:

Pos#DriversCarClassLapsTimeGap
1 1 Mark Webber
Timo Bernhard
Brendon Hartley
Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 24 1'41.002  
2 5 Anthony Davidson
Kazuki Nakajima
Sébastien Buemi
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 28 1'41.293 0.291
3 8 Lucas di Grassi
Loic Duval
Oliver Jarvis
Audi R18 LMP1 29 1'41.542 0.540
4 7 Andre Lotterer
Marcel Fassler
Audi R18 LMP1 29 1'41.999 0.997
5 2 Romain Dumas
Neel Jani
Marc Lieb
Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 24 1'42.239 1.237
6 6 Stéphane Sarrazin
Kamui Kobayashi
Mike Conway
Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 30 1'42.309 1.307
7 13 Alexandre Imperatori
Dominik Kraihamer
Matheo Tuscher
Rebellion R-One LMP1 23 1'46.901 5.899
8 12 Nick Heidfeld
Nicolas Prost
Mathias Beche
Rebellion R-One LMP1 26 1'47.323 6.321
9 4 Simon Trummer
Oliver Webb
Pierre Kaffer
CLM P1/01 LMP1 25 1'47.632 6.630
10 26 Roman Rusinov
René Rast
Alex Brundle
Oreca 05 LMP2 27 1'50.260 9.258
11 44 Antonio Pizzonia
Matthew Howson
Tor Graves
Oreca 05 LMP2 24 1'50.983 9.981
12 35 Nelson Panciatici
Ho-Pin Tung
David Cheng
Alpine A460 LMP2 26 1'51.246 10.244
13 36 Nicolas Lapierre
Gustavo Menezes
Stéphane Richelmi
Alpine A460 LMP2 28 1'51.387 10.385
14 45 Roberto Merhi
Richard Bradley
Matthew Rao
Oreca 05 LMP2 24 1'51.597 10.595
15 37 Vitaly Petrov
Viktor Shaytar
Kirill Ladygin
BR01 LMP2 22 1'51.968 10.966
16 43 Bruno Senna
Ricardo Gonzalez
Filipe Albuquerque
Ligier JS P2 LMP2 25 1'52.088 11.086
17 30 Scott Sharp
Ed Brown
Johannes van Overbeek
Ligier JS P2 LMP2 22 1'52.298 11.296
18 42 Nick Leventis
Jonny Kane
Lewis Williamson
Gibson 015S LMP2 27 1'52.537 11.535
19 27 Maurizio Mediani
David Markozov
Nicolas Minassian
BR01 LMP2 27 1'52.700 11.698
20 31 Pipo Derani
Ryan Dalziel
Chris Cumming
Ligier JS P2 LMP2 27 1'53.141 12.139
21 51 Gianmaria Bruni
James Calado
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE PRO 23 1'57.145 16.143
22 71 Sam Bird
Davide Rigon
Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE PRO 23 1'57.365 16.363
23 67 Harry Tincknell
 Andy Priaulx
Marino Franchitti
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 27 1'57.530 16.528
24 97 Darren Turner
Richie Stanaway
Aston Martin Vantage V8 LMGTE PRO 25 1'58.134 17.132
25 77 Richard Lietz
Michael Christensen
Porsche 911 RSR (2016) LMGTE PRO 20 1'58.371 17.369
26 95 Marco Sorensen
Nicki Thiim
Aston Martin Vantage V8 LMGTE PRO 27 1'58.581 17.579
27 66 Stefan Mücke
Olivier Pla
Ford GT LMGTE PRO 25 1'58.831 17.829
28 88 David Heinemeier Hansson
Patrick Long
Khaled Al Qubaisi
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 23 2'00.360 19.358
29 83 François Perrodo
Emmanuel Collard
Rui Aguas
Ferrari F458 Italia LMGTE AM 25 2'00.926 19.924
30 78 Christian Ried
Wolf Henzler
Joel Camathias
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 27 2'00.996 19.994
31 50 Paolo Ruberti
Pierre Ragues
Yutaka Yamagishi
Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06 LMGTE AM 22 2'01.057 20.055
32 98 Pedro Lamy
Paul Dalla Lana
Mathias Lauda
Aston Martin Vantage V8 LMGTE AM 26 2'01.633 20.631
33 86 Michael Wainwright
Adam Carroll
Ben Barker
Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE AM 22 2'02.005 21.003

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