Nurburgring WEC: Audi on top in damp first practice
Audi topped the first free practice session at a damp but steadily drying out Nurburgring as teams prepare for the fourth round of the 2015 World Endurance Championship on Sunday.
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 |
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