Practice report
WEC Austin
Austin WEC: Porsche sets pace, Aston on top in GTE
Porsche monopolised the top positions in both Thursday free practice sessions for the Austin round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Gary Watkins
Edited: Sep 15, 2017, 7:24 AM
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The German manufacturer's pair of 919 Hybrids shared the honours across the two practice periods: Earl Bamber went fastest aboard the #2 car in FP1 and Neel Jani topped the times in the #1 Porsche in the second of the 90-minute sessions.
Bamber led the way with a 1m48.124s in the opening session before the times tumbled in FP2.
Jani ended up with fastest time of the day, a 1m45.860s, which put him just over half a second up on Bamber's second-session best of 1m46.401s in the #2 car.
The fastest of the Toyota TS050 Hybrids ended up nearly a second off the pace on a 1m46.819s from Kamui Kobayashi set in the second session.
Sebastien Buemi's 1m48.584s from opening practice left the #8 Toyota fourth in combined times.
Rebellion leads way in LMP2
The two Rebellion Oreca 07s jumped to the top of the LMP2 times midway through the second session.
Bruno Senna ended up fastest on a 1m54.601s, which put him just under three tenths up on Mathias Beche in the sister car.
Early session-two pacesetter Alex Lynn took third position in the G-Drive Oreca after earlier topping the times in the opening period.
Aston pips Ford in GTE class
Nicki Thiim set the pace in GTE Pro for Aston Martin, his 2m04.023s second-session best putting him just seven hundredths up on Harry Tincknell in the best of the Ganassi Ford GTs.
The two Fords had been quickest in the opening session, Stefan Mucke ending up two tenths clear off Andy Priaulx.
Pedro Lamy was quickest in GTE Am for Aston Martin in both sessions.
Second practice results:
Pos.#DriversCarClassTimeGap 1 1 
Andre Lotterer
Neel Jani
Nick Tandy Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 1'45.860 2 2 Timo Bernhard
Brendon Hartley
Earl Bamber Porsche 919 Hybrid LMP1 1'46.401 0.541 3 7 
Kamui Kobayashi
Mike Conway
Jose Maria Lopez Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'46.819 0.959 4 8 
Stéphane Sarrazin
Kazuki Nakajima
Sébastien Buemi Toyota TS050 Hybrid LMP1 1'48.839 2.979 5 31 
Bruno Senna
Julien Canal
Nicolas Prost Oreca 07 LMP2 1'54.601 8.741 6 13 Nelson Piquet Jr.
David Heinemeier Hansson
Mathias Beche Oreca 07 LMP2 1'54.770 8.910 7 26 
Roman Rusinov
Pierre Thiriet
Alex Lynn Oreca 07 LMP2 1'55.043 9.183 8 36 Nicolas Lapierre
Andre Negrao
Gustavo Menezes Alpine A470 LMP2 1'55.136 9.276 9 37 
David Cheng
Tristan Gommendy
Alex Brundle Oreca 07 LMP2 1'55.443 9.583 10 28 François Perrodo
Emmanuel Collard
Matthieu Vaxiviere Oreca 07 LMP2 1'55.818 9.958 11 24 Jean-Eric Vergne
Ben Hanley
Matt Rao Oreca 07 LMP2 1'55.864 10.004 12 38 Oliver Jarvis
Ho-Pin Tung
Thomas Laurent Oreca 07 LMP2 1'55.965 10.105 13 25 Vitaly Petrov
Simon Trummer
Roberto Gonzalez Oreca 07 LMP2 1'57.177 11.317 14 95 Marco Sorensen
Nicki Thiim Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE PRO 2'04.023 18.163 15 67 Harry Tincknell
Andy Priaulx Ford GT LMGTE PRO 2'04.097 18.237 16 92 Michael Christensen
Kevin Estre Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 2'05.208 19.348 17 91 
Richard Lietz
Frédéric Makowiecki Porsche 911 RSR LMGTE PRO 2'05.375 19.515 18 51 James Calado
Alessandro Pier Guidi Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE PRO 2'05.468 19.608 19 97 Darren Turner
Jonathan Adam
Daniel Serra Aston Martin Vantage LMGTE PRO 2'05.750 19.890 20 66 Stefan Mücke
Olivier Pla Ford GT LMGTE PRO 2'05.898 20.038 21 98 
Pedro Lamy
Paul Dalla Lana
Mathias Lauda Aston Martin Vantage V8 LMGTE AM 2'05.935 20.075 22 71 Sam Bird
Davide Rigon Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE PRO 2'06.241 20.381 23 61 
Matt Griffin
Mok Weng Sun
Keita Sawa Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'07.503 21.643 24 77 Christian Ried
Matteo Cairoli
Marvin Dienst Porsche 911 RSR (991) LMGTE AM 2'07.852 21.992 25 86 Michael Wainwright
Ben Barker
Nick Foster Porsche 911 RSR (991) LMGTE AM 2'07.981 22.121 26 54 Francesco Castellacci
Miguel Molina
Thomas Flohr Ferrari 488 GTE LMGTE AM 2'08.218 22.358
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