Nissan's Westbrook leads practice
New Nissan driver Richard Westbrook topped the times in practice ahead of qualifying for the opening round of the FIA GT1 World Championship in Abu Dhabi
Westbrook, who has moved to Nissan from Ford for this season, set a best time of 1m52.777s around the Abu Dhabi short circuit in the second of the two practice sessions. That was less than a tenth of a second clear of Nicky Pastorelli in the best of the All-Inkl Lamborghinis.
Westbrook, who shares his JR Motorsports Nissan GT-R with Peter Dumbreck, said: "The car is good, but not quite there yet. We're heading in the right direction, but there is still some work to do for the race."
Third fastest was Frederic Makowiecki in the lead Marc VDS Ford on 1m52.846s, just 0.03s slower than Pastorelli. The Frenchman was in turn 0.01s ahead of Markus Winkelhock in the second All-Inkl Lamborghini.
The slower, first free practice session was headed by Stefan Mucke in the Young Driver AMR Aston Martin on a 1m53.216s lap. He was just two hundredths ahead of Dominik Schwager in the All-Inkl Lamborghini he shares with Pastorelli.
The top nine cars, including at least one from each of the five marques represented in the world championship, were covered by less than a second in the second session.
First free practice: Pos Drivers Team/Car Time Gap 1. Mucke/Turner Young Driver Aston 1m53.216s 2. Pastorelli/Schwager All-Inkl Lamborghini 1m53.239s + 0.023s 3. Hezemans/Catsburg Exim Corvette 1m53.326s + 0.110s 4. Dumbreck/Westbrook JR Nissan 1m53.333s + 0.117s 5. Bernoldi/Zonta Sumo Power Nissan 1m53.514s + 0.298s 6. Winkelhock/Basseng All-Inkl Lamborghini 1m53.558s + 0.342s 7. Luhr/Krumm JR Nissan 1m53.754s + 0.538s 8. Muller/Enge Young Driver Aston 1m53.804s + 0.588s 9. Wendlinger/Kox Swiss Lamborghini 1m53.826s + 0.610s 10. Piccione/Dusseldorp Hexis Aston Martin 1m53.848s + 0.632s 11. Martin/Makowiecki Marc VDS Ford 1m53.969s + 0.753s 12. Hennerici/Leinders Marc VDS Ford 1m54.006s + 0.790s 13. Brabham/Campbell-Walter Sumo Power Nissan 1m54.023s + 0.807s 14. Hohenadel/Piccini Hexis Aston Martin 1m54.351s + 1.135s 15. Matzke/Pavlovic Belgian Ford 1m54.512s + 1.296s 16. Rossi/Camara DKR Corvette 1m54.705s + 1.489s 17. Nilsson/Janak Swiss Lamborghini 1m54.947s + 1.731s 18. Leclerc/Giroix Belgian Ford 1m57.857s + 4.641s Pre-qualifying practice: Pos Drivers Team/Car Time Gap 1. Dumbreck/Westbrook JR Nissan 1m52.777s 2. Pastorelli/Schwager All-Inkl Lamborghini 1m52.815s + 0.038s 3. Martin/Makowiecki Marc VDS Ford 1m52.846s + 0.069s 4. Winkelhock/Basseng All-Inkl Lamborghini 1m52.858s + 0.081s 5. Mucke/Turner Young Driver Aston 1m53.082s + 0.305s 6. Hezemans/Catsburg Exim Corvette 1m53.170s + 0.393s 7. Muller/Enge Young Driver Aston 1m53.308s + 0.531s 8. Bernoldi/Zonta Sumo Power Nissan 1m53.373s + 0.596s 9. Luhr/Krumm JR Nissan 1m53.585s + 0.808s 10. Wendlinger/Kox Swiss Lamborghini 1m53.668s + 0.891s 11. Brabham/Campbell-Walter Sumo Power Nissan 1m53.815s + 1.038s 12. Rossi/Camara DKR Corvette 1m54.389s + 1.612s 13. Piccione/Dusseldorp Hexis Aston Martin 1m54.685s + 1.908s 14. Matzke/Pavlovic Belgian Ford 1m54.921s + 2.144s 15. Nilsson/Janak Swiss Lamborghini 1m55.199s + 2.422s 16. Leclerc/Giroix Belgian Ford 1m55.564s + 2.787s
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