Loic Duval’s 1:47.235, which was than a second quicker than the fastest time in FP1, put the #8 Audi R18 atop the time sheets in the second free practice session of the weekend, which ran into the night at CoTA.
In the session, Audi managed to finish up 1-2, seven tenths quicker than the challenging #1 Porsche in third. The quickest time set in the #7 Audi was by Andre Lotterer at the start of the session, the German setting a 1:47.330.
That left the #1 and #2 Porsches third and fourth, with the Toyotas fifth and sixth once again, nine tenths and 2.1 seconds back from Duval’s quickest time. Sebastien Buemi set the #5 TS050’s quickest time in fifth, within a few thousands off Marc Lieb in the second of the Porsches.
In LMP1 L, it was ByKolles who led the way, with a 1:54.361, a few tenths quicker than Rebellion Racing’s best. The CLM did however stop on track on its in-lap at the end of the session while Simon Trummer was driving.
The #36 Alpine led the way in LMP2 meanwhile, with Gustavo Menezes setting a 1:56.318 banker lap 20 minutes into the night session. The #43 RGR Ligier ended the day second, ahead of the #26 G-Drive Oreca which went fastest in FP1 third. The gaps between the three was three and seven tenths respectively.
After spending much of the time at the bottom of the P2 running order, the #35 Baxi DC Alpine ended up fourth as a result of a 1:57.631 by Nelson Panciatici. And Lewis Williamson, who was at the top of P2 during the opening flurry of times, set the Strakka Gibson’s best time, a 1:57.859, to go fifth.
Ford once again ran quickest of the GTE runners, with Stefan Mucke setting a series of fast lap times during his stint in the car, the best being a 2:04.714, which was seven tenths quicker than the nearest runner, the #95 Aston Martin.
Nicki Thiim was the fastest in the aforementioned Aston after an early time 30 minutes in, and was good enough to prevent it from being a Ford 1-2 at the top. The #67 Ford GT finished the day’s track time third just two tenths shy of the Vantage. The #51 AF Corse 488 went fourth fastest, with the #97 Aston Martin bookending the top five.
Aston did however run quickest in the Am division, with Pedro Lamy’s 2:06.092 quicker than most of the Pro field for the majority of the session.
Second in the class after a late flying lap was the Gulf Racing Porsche, which courtesy of Ben Barker, had a 207.739 to its name. The #83 AF Corse Ferrari rounded out the top three, Rui Aguas’ 2:07.804 the 458’s best tour.
Free Practice 3 starts at 10:30am tomorrow, local time in Texas.
