Fuji WEC: Audi leads Toyota in opening practice
Marcel Fassler led the way in the opening practice session for the WEC 6 Hours of Fuji, putting the #7 Audi half a second clear of the #6 Toyota of Kamui Kobayashi.
Photo by: Vision Sport Agency
Fassler set the benchmark time, a 1m25.030s, in the opening stages of the 90-minute session, with Kobayashi quickly slotting in behind with a 1m25.556s.
And that was how the order at the top of the timesheets would remain for the duration, although It wasn't all plain sailing for the #7 car, as Andre Lotterer caused a full-course caution at the halfway mark when he went off track and hit the barriers at the last corner.
The German was however able to make it back to the pits for Benoit Treluyer to take his turn at the wheel.
Loic Duval's early effort of 1m25.838 in the sister #8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro proved good enough for third, ahead of the #6 Toyota TS050 Hybrid of Sebastien Buemi, who leapfrogged the two Porsches on his final flying lap, a 1m25.885s.
There was drama for the points-leading #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid, which sat out all but the final 20 minutes of the session after suffering an oil leak on its out lap.
After a change of front-axle gearbox, Neel Jani set the fifth fastest time, a 1m25.962s, slotting just ahead of the #1 Porsche, which had its best time of 1m26.097s set by Mark Webber.
Rebellion came out on top in the two-way LMP1-L battle, the #13 R-One edging the #4 ByKolles CLM by seven tenths.
G-Drive tops LMP2
In the LMP2 class, Alex Brundle put the #26 G-Drive Oreca he shares with Roman Runsinov and the returning Will Stevens, standing in for Rene Rast, on top with a best time of 1m33.204s.
Next up was the #31 ESM Ligier of Pipo Derani, followed by the #42 Strakka Gibson of Jonny Kane.
Of the class newcomers, the #30 ESM machine of Sean Gelael, Antonio Giovinazzi and Giedo van der Garde was seventh quickest, while Williams F1 development driver Alex Lynn's #45 Manor was 11th after suffering a mechanical problem.
Ford in control in GTE
Ford led the way in the GTE-Pro division, Andy Priaulx putting the #67 car (that he shares only with Harry Tincknell this weekend) three tenths up on the #77 Proton-Dempsey Porsche of Michael Christensen.
The best of the AF Corse cars, the #51, was third quickest ahead of the #66 Ford, while Aston Martin ended up sixth and seventh, the latter 1.3s off the pace of Priaulx.
The GTE-Am class was topped by the #83 AF Corse Ferrari, which was two tenths faster than the #98 Aston Martin.
First practice results:
Cla | # | Drivers | Car | Class | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 7 | Andre Lotterer Marcel Fassler Benoit Tréluyer |
Audi R18 | LMP1 | 1'25.030 | |
2 | 6 | Stéphane Sarrazin Kamui Kobayashi Mike Conway |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'25.556 | 0.526 |
3 | 8 | Lucas di Grassi Loic Duval Oliver Jarvis |
Audi R18 | LMP1 | 1'25.838 | 0.808 |
4 | 5 | Anthony Davidson Kazuki Nakajima Sébastien Buemi |
Toyota TS050 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'25.885 | 0.855 |
5 | 2 | Romain Dumas Neel Jani Marc Lieb |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'25.962 | 0.932 |
6 | 1 | Mark Webber Timo Bernhard Brendon Hartley |
Porsche 919 Hybrid | LMP1 | 1'26.097 | 1.067 |
7 | 13 | Alexandre Imperatori Dominik Kraihamer Matheo Tuscher |
Rebellion R-One | LMP1 | 1'30.917 | 5.887 |
8 | 4 | Simon Trummer Oliver Webb Pierre Kaffer |
CLM P1/01 | LMP1 | 1'31.549 | 6.519 |
9 | 26 | Will Stevens Roman Rusinov Alex Brundle |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 1'33.204 | 8.174 |
10 | 31 | Pipo Derani Ryan Dalziel Chris Cumming |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 1'33.475 | 8.445 |
11 | 42 | Jonny Kane Lewis Williamson |
Gibson 015S | LMP2 | 1'33.486 | 8.456 |
12 | 43 | Bruno Senna Ricardo Gonzalez Filipe Albuquerque |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 1'33.527 | 8.497 |
13 | 44 | Roberto Merhi Richard Bradley Matthew Rao |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 1'33.676 | 8.646 |
14 | 37 | Vitaly Petrov Viktor Shaytar Kirill Ladygin |
BR01 | LMP2 | 1'34.069 | 9.039 |
15 | 30 | Giedo van der Garde Sean Gelael Antonio Giovinazzi |
Ligier JS P2 | LMP2 | 1'34.250 | 9.220 |
16 | 35 | Paul-Loup Chatin Ho-Pin Tung David Cheng |
Alpine A460 | LMP2 | 1'34.316 | 9.286 |
17 | 36 | Nicolas Lapierre Gustavo Menezes Stéphane Richelmi |
Alpine A460 | LMP2 | 1'34.396 | 9.366 |
18 | 27 | Maurizio Mediani Nicolas Minassian Mikhail Aleshin |
BR01 | LMP2 | 1'34.503 | 9.473 |
19 | 45 | Shinji Nakano Tor Graves Alex Lynn |
Oreca 05 | LMP2 | 1'34.818 | 9.788 |
20 | 67 | Harry Tincknell Andy Priaulx |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 1'39.216 | 14.186 |
21 | 77 | Richard Lietz Michael Christensen |
Porsche 911 RSR (2016) | LMGTE PRO | 1'39.545 | 14.515 |
22 | 51 | Gianmaria Bruni James Calado |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 1'39.697 | 14.667 |
23 | 66 | Stefan Mücke Olivier Pla |
Ford GT | LMGTE PRO | 1'39.716 | 14.686 |
24 | 71 | Sam Bird Davide Rigon |
Ferrari 488 GTE | LMGTE PRO | 1'39.743 | 14.713 |
25 | 95 | Marco Sorensen Nicki Thiim |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE PRO | 1'40.176 | 15.146 |
26 | 97 | Darren Turner Richie Stanaway |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE PRO | 1'40.590 | 15.560 |
27 | 83 | François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Rui Aguas |
Ferrari F458 Italia | LMGTE AM | 1'40.775 | 15.745 |
28 | 98 | Pedro Lamy Paul Dalla Lana Mathias Lauda |
Aston Martin Vantage V8 | LMGTE AM | 1'40.935 | 15.905 |
29 | 50 | Pierre Ragues Ricky Taylor Yutaka Yamagishi |
Chevrolet Corvette C7-Z06 | LMGTE AM | 1'41.287 | 16.257 |
30 | 78 | Christian Ried Wolf Henzler Joel Camathias |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 1'41.292 | 16.262 |
31 | 88 | David Heinemeier Hansson Patrick Long Khaled Al Qubaisi |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 1'41.458 | 16.428 |
32 | 86 | Michael Wainwright Adam Carroll Ben Barker |
Porsche 911 RSR | LMGTE AM | 1'41.795 | 16.765 |
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