Audi Sport rounded off Friday’s track action by finishing top of the times again, in the second Free Practice session of the weekend. This time it was the #7 Audi R18 of Benôit Tréluyer that went quickest for the German marque after a lap of 1:41.526. The sister #8 Audi ended up second, with Oliver Jarvis, who led the session early, managing a time under three tenths off the Frenchman.
However, Tréluyer admitted that the car’s pace ‘is not one we cannot maintain over a full stint.’
Quickest of the non-Audi runners was once again the #17 Porsche 919 Hybrid of Brendon Hartley who set a 1:42.046. The #18 919 finished fourth fastest and a further half second back; the team did well to get the car out at all after a confirmed driveshaft failure set it back in FP1.
This left Toyota at the tail end of the LMP1 factory entries, the #2 leading the #1. ByKolles’s CLM could only muster a best lap good enough to finish amongst the LMP2 runners.
Ligiers dominated the LMP2 class again. G-Drive Racing headed the pack, with their faster JSP2, the #28 going over a second and a half quicker than the best of the rest, which in this case was the KCMG Oreca 03.
Strakka Racing continued to gather data for the DOME S103 at the circuit, while giving Nick Leventis extended running in the new car ahead of Qualifying. They went over a second quicker than their best time in the first session, and ended up fourth in class.
Porsche Team Manthey headed the GTE Pro runners, the #91 ahead of the #92 with the headline lap time from the team being a 2:01.499. It wasn’t quite as quick as the best GTE time from FP1 set by Nicki Thiim in the #95 Aston Martin however, a 2:01.393.
GTE Am’s best tour came from the #98 Aston Martin Vantage of Pedro Lamy, Paul Dalla Lana and Mathias Lauda. Their time of 2:02.434 was just under two tenths quicker than the #72 SMP Ferrari 458 which ended the session second in the class.
The WEC’s track action continues tomorrow morning with Free Practice 3 at 9:00am local time (GMT+1).
Stephen Kilbey
