Fuji WEC: Audi fastest in Friday practice
Audi ended up with the quickest times of the day in the opening two sessions of free practice ahead of Sunday's sixth round of the World Endurance Championship at Fuji
Anthony Davidson was fastest for Toyota in practice one in the morning, but Audi took the top two spots on the timesheets in the faster afternoon session.
Loic Duval was half a second quicker than team-mate Marcel Fassler in the two Audi R18 e-tron quattros. The Frenchman set his best lap of 1m27.333s in the closing minutes of the session to leapfrog Fassler.
Prior to Duval's lap, the two Audis and the two Toyota TS030 HYBRIDs had been separated by just over three tenths of a second.
Stephane Sarrazin set the fastest Toyota lap of the two sessions with a 1m27.977s, which was four thousandths ahead of Kazuki Nakajima in the sister car.
The LMP2 order was led by Mike Conway in the best of the G-Drive/Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 03s.
The Briton's time of 1m32.662s was half a second ahead of nearest challenger Bjorn Wirdheim in the Greaves Motorsport Zytek-Nissan Z11SN run at Fuji under the Gainer International banner.
Aston Martin driver Frederic Makowiecki's first-session lap of 1m39.548s was the fastest time of the day in GTE Pro. That put him exactly three tenths ahead of team-mate Richie Stanaway, who topped the times in second practice.
Paolo Ruberti was quickest in GTE Am aboard the Proton Competition Porsche 911 GT3-RSR.
Practice one: Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time 1. P1 Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler Audi 1m28.438s 2. P1 Kristensen/Duval/McNish Audi 1m28.676s 3. P1 Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin Toyota 1m28.777s 4. P1 Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima Toyota 1m28.962s 5. P1 Belicchi/Beche Rebellion Lola-Toyota 1m30.654s 6. P2 Rusinov/Martin/Conway Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 1m33.619s 7. P2 Bradley/Koizumi/Matsuda KCMG Morgan-Nissan 1m34.142s 8. P2 Perez Companc/Minassian/Kaffer Pecom ORECA-Nissan 1m34.580s 9. P2 Graves/Walker/Nakano Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 1m34.729s 10. P2 Hiranaka/Ueda/Wirdheim Greaves Zytek-Nissan 1m34.810s 11. P2 Pla/Heinemeier Hansson/Brundle OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m35.009s 12. P2 Weeda/Rossiter/Liuzzi Lotus 1m35.639s 13. P2 Holzer/Kraihamer/Charouz Lotus 1m35.744s 14. P2 Baguette/Gonzalez/Plowman OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m36.029s 15. P2 Nicolet/Ihara OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m36.166s 16. GTE P Turner/Mucke/Makowiecki Aston Martin 1m39.548s 17. GTE P Bergmeister/Pilet Manthey Porsche 1m40.335s 18. GTE P Lamy/Stanaway Aston Martin 1m40.793s 19. GTE P Lieb/Lietz Manthey Porsche 1m40.923s 20. GTE P Bruni/Fisichella AF Ferrari 1m40.947s 21. GTE P Kobayashi/Vilander AF Ferrari 1m41.088s 22. GTE A Narac/Vernay/Palttala Imsa Porsche 1m41.902s 23. GTE A Nygaard/Poulsen/Senna Aston Martin 1m41.939s 24. GTE A Ried/Roda/Ruberti Proton Porsche 1m42.047s 25. GTE A Hall/Campbell-Walter/Adam Aston Martin 1m42.236s 26. GTE A Potolicchio/Aguas/Rigon 8Star Ferrari 1m42.497s 27. GTE A Gerber/Griffin/Cioci AF Ferrari 1m42.587s 28. GTE A Krohn/Jonsson/Mediani Krohn Ferrari 1m42.622s 29. GTE A Bornhauser/Canal/Rees Larbre Corvette 1m42.937s Practice two: Pos Cl Drivers Team/Car Time 1. P1 Kristensen/Duval/Mcnish Audi 1m27.333s 2. P1 Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler Audi 1m27.865s 3. P1 Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin Toyota 1m27.977s 4. P1 Wurz/Lapierre/Nakajima Toyota 1m27.981s 5. P1 Belicchi/Beche Rebellion Lola-Toyota 1m30.080s 6. P2 Rusinov/Martin/Conway Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 1m32.662s 7. P2 Hiranaka/Ueda/Wirdheim Greaves Zytek-Nissan 1m33.228s 8. P2 Pla/Heinemeier Hansson/Brundle OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m33.463s 9. P2 Perez Companc/Minassian/Kaffer Pecom ORECA-Nissan 1m33.501s 10. P2 Baguette/Gonzalez/Plowman OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m33.714s 11. P2 Bradley/Koizumi/Matsuda KCMG Morgan-Nissan 1m33.985s 12. P2 Graves/Walker/Nakano Delta-ADR ORECA-Nissan 1m34.021s 13. P2 Weeda/Rossiter/Liuzzi Lotus 1m35.289s 14. P2 Nicolet/Ihara OAK Morgan-Nissan 1m35.672s 15. P2 Holzer/Kraihamer/Charouz Lotus 1m35.769s 16. GTE P Lamy/Stanaway Aston Martin 1m39.848s 17. GTE P Bruni/Fisichella AF Ferrari 1m40.154s 18. GTE P Lieb/Lietz Manthey Porsche 1m40.159s 19. GTE P Turner/Mucke/Makowiecki Aston Martin 1m40.518s 20. GTE P Bergmeister/Pilet Manthey Porsche 1m40.655s 21. GTE A Ried/Roda/Ruberti Proton Porsche 1m40.707s 22. GTE A Narac/Vernay/Palttala Imsa Porsche 1m41.389s 23. GTE A Hall/Campbell-Walter/Adam Aston Martin 1m41.663s 24. GTE A Gerber/Griffin/Cioci AF Ferrari 1m41.722s 25. GTE A Bornhauser/Canal/Rees Larbre Corvette 1m42.015s 26. GTE A Potolicchio/Aguas/Rigon 8Star Ferrari 1m42.015s 27. GTE A Nygaard/Poulsen/Senna Aston Martin 1m42.117s 28. GTE A Krohn/Jonsson/Mediani Krohn Ferrari 1m42.481s 29. GTE P Kobayashi/Vilander AF Ferrari
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