Nurburgring WEC: Audi on top in damp first practice

The No.7 Audi R18 etron quattro set a best lap of 1m39.201s in the 90-minute session, with Andre Lotterer setting the best lap of 1:39.201.

Despite being on schedule to eclipse Lotterer's time, Neel Jani aborted his lap in the No.18 Porsche 919 Hybrid. The Swiss driver's previous lap had seen him get to within 0.076s of the quickest Audi lap.

The top two positions were transposed for third and fourth, with the No.8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro leading the No.17 Porsche, which led the timing screens for much of the first 30-minute with Mark Webber at the wheel.

Toyota continued to be off the pace as its 2015 development has effectively been halted. The No.2 TS 040 headed the sister No.1 machine by 0.7 for fifth and sixth positions.

LMP2 saw the G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan head the timing screens, with Colombian racer Gustavo Yacaman setting a best time of 1:46.631 to lead the other G-Drive Ligier of Sam Bird by almost exactly a second.

In the two LMGTE classes, Ferrari ruled the roost with the No.51 reigning champion AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia of Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander top in LMGTE Pro.

AF Corse also led the way in LMGTE Am with Rui Aguas setting a best of 1m57.876, in the Ferrari he shares with Francois Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard.

There was one red flag, caused by Simon Trummer, who spun his Kolles run CLM P1/01-AER in to the gravel at the final corner.

The session had been relatively trouble free until this point with only a brief on-track stoppage for Le Mans winner Earl Bamber in the No.88 Abu-Dhabi Proton Racing Porsche 911 SR and Alex Wurz running wide and off track at turn one in the No.2 Toyota TS 040.

Marc Lieb also had a quick gyration at turn one in the No.18 Porsche 919 Hybrid.

There were problems for the two ESM Ligier-HPD cars as they were confined to their pit boxes for the majority of the session.

The No.43 Morand Morgan did not take part in the session after being impounded by officials on Thursday evening. It remains unclear as to whether the car will take part at all this weekend.

Pos	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Marcel Fässler André Lotterer Benoît Tréluyer	Audi	1'39.201		40
2	Romain Dumas Neel Jani Marc Lieb	Porsche	1'39.277	0.076	38
3	Lucas di Grassi Loïc Duval Oliver Jarvis	Audi	1'39.910	0.709	40
4	Timo Bernhard Mark Webber Brendon Hartley	Porsche	1'39.915	0.714	35
5	Alexander Wurz S.Sarrazin Mike Conway	Toyota	1'41.812	2.611	27
6	Anthony Davidson Sébastien Buemi Kazuki Nakajima	Toyota	1'42.541	3.340	35
7	Gustavo Yacamán Luis Derani Ricardo González	Ligier/Nissan	1'46.631	7.430	27
8	Nicolas Prost Mathias Beche Nick Heidfeld	Rebellion/AER	1'47.433	8.232	23
9	Roman Rusinov Julien Canal Sam Bird	Ligier/Nissan	1'47.623	8.422	15
10	A.Imperatori D.Kraihamer Daniel Abt	Rebellion/AER	1'49.171	9.970	15
11	Nick Leventis Danny Watts Jonny Kane	Dome/Nissan	1'49.242	10.041	26
12	Simon Trummer Pierre Kaffer	CLM/AER	1'49.274	10.073	26
13	N.Panciatici Paul-Loup Chatin V.Capillaire	Alpine/Nissan	1'49.490	10.289	39
14	Scott Sharp Ryan Dalziel David Hansson	Ligier/HPD	1'50.096	10.895	7
15	Matt Howson Richard Bradley Nick Tandy	ORECA/Nissan	1'53.098	13.897	13
16	Ed Brown J.van Overbeek Jon Fogarty	Ligier/HPD	1'54.076	14.875	6
17	Gianmaria Bruni Toni Vilander	Ferrari	1'55.661	16.460	37
18	Davide Rigon James Calado	Ferrari	1'56.035	16.834	33
19	Patrick Pilet F.Makowiecki	Porsche	1'56.956	17.755	18
20	Richard Lietz M.Christensen	Porsche	1'57.213	18.012	10
21	Fernando Rees Alex MacDowall Richie Stanaway	Aston Martin	1'57.295	18.094	34
22	François Perrodo Emmanuel Collard Rui Águas	Ferrari	1'57.876	18.675	33
23	Paul Dalla Lana Pedro Lamy Mathias Lauda	Aston Martin	1'58.019	18.818	25
24	Darren Turner Stefan Mücke Jonathan Adam	Aston Martin	1'58.320	19.119	31
25	Christian Ried K.Al Qubaisi Earl Bamber	Porsche	1'59.034	19.833	18
26	Patrick Dempsey Patrick Long Marco Seefried	Porsche	1'59.074	19.873	33
27	Marco Sørensen C.Nygaard	Aston Martin	1'59.150	19.949	23
28	Gianluca Roda Paolo Ruberti Kristian Poulsen	Chevrolet	1'59.220	20.019	28
29	F.Castellacci Roald Goethe Stuart Hall	Aston Martin	1'59.812	20.611	30
30	Viktor Shaitar Andrea Bertolini Aleksey Basov	Ferrari	2'07.291	28.090	19
31	Pierre Ragues Oliver Webb Archie Hamilton	Morgan/SARD		-	19