WEC Shanghai: #1 Porsche leads Audi in free practice

The #1 Porsche 919 Hybrid topped the times in each of the 90-minute practice periods with Brendon Hartley driving.

The Kiwi was just a couple of tenths faster than nearest rival Lucas di Grassi in the #8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro in the first session, before setting a 1m44.594s in the afternoon to end up 1.6s clear of same car with Loic Duval at the wheel.

Duval's time of 1m46.211s stood as the second best of the opening day of the Shanghai event.

Marc Lieb was third fastest with an afternoon time of 1m46.264s in the #2 Porsche, which lost running in the morning with a change of hybrid-system battery.

Anthony Davidson ended up fourth in the best of the Toyota TS050 HYBRIDs on 1m46.812s.

The second Audi with Benoit Treluyer driving took fifth ahead of the second Toyota in which Kamui Kobayashi set the car's best time in the morning.

The ByKolles team outpaced privateer LMP1 rival Rebellion Racing, Pierre Kaffer's 1m51.911s aboard the CLM-AER P1/01 putting him over half a second clear of Alexandre Imperatori

The G-Drive Racing ORECA-Nissan 05 was quickest in LMP2 in both sessions.

Will Stevens ended up with the fastest P2 time of the day with a 1m54.627s, which put him two tenths up on the best of the Manor ORECAs with Alex Lynn driving and a further two tenths up on Mathias Beche in the team's second car.

The two AF Corse Ferraris were quickest in GTE Pro with Gianmaria Bruni and Davide Rigon driving.

Bruni's 2m02.481s in the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE put him three tenths up on his team-mate.

Olivier Pla was third fastest in class in the best of the Ganassi Ford GTs, which was over a second shy of best Ferrari time.

David Heinemeier Hansson topped the GTE Am ranks for the Proton Porsche squad.

FP1 TIMES

Pos	Class	Driver	Team	Car	Gap	Laps
1	LMP1	T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley	Porsche Team	Porsche	1m46.781s	35
2	LMP1	L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi	0.198s	38
3	LMP1	A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.Nakajima	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota	0.664s	39
4	LMP1	S.Sarrazin, M.Conway, K.Kobayashi	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota	0.851s	39
5	LMP1	M.Fassler, A.Lotterer, B.Treluyer	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi	1.046s	14
6	LMP1	R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb	Porsche Team	Porsche	1.657s	10
7	LMP1	M.Tuscher, D.Kraihamer, A.Imperatori	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion/AER	5.298s	33
8	LMP1	S.Trummer, O.Webb, P.Kaffer	ByKOLLES Racing Team	CLM/AER	6.375s	30
9	LMP2	R.Rusinov, A.Brundle, W.Stevens	G-Drive Racing	ORECA/Nissan	9.172s	34
10	LMP2	G.Menezes, N.Lapierre, S.Richelmi	Signatech Alpine	Alpine/Nissan	9.327s	35
11	LMP2	N.Minassian, M.Mediani, M.Aleshin	SMP Racing	BR Engineering/Nissan	9.609s	37
12	LMP2	R.Gonzalez, B.Senna, F.Albuquerque	RGR Sport by Morand	Ligier/Nissan	9.755s	32
13	LMP2	D.Cheng, H-Pin Tung, P-L.Chatin	Baxi DC Racing Alpine	Alpine/Nissan	10.108s	29
14	LMP2	R.Dalziel, P.Derani, C.Cumming	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier/Nissan	10.296s	29
15	LMP2	M.Rao, R.Bradley, A.Lynn	Manor	ORECA/Nissan	10.344s	31
16	LMP2	A.Giovinazzi, T.Blomqvist, S.Gelael	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier/Nissan	10.551s	38
17	LMP2	T.Graves, R.Gonzalez, M.Beche	Manor	ORECA/Nissan	11.033s	34
18	LMP2	V.Petrov, V.Shaytar, K.Ladygin	SMP Racing	BR Engineering/Nissan	11.065s	29
19	GTE Pro	G.Bruni, J.Calado	AF Corse	Ferrari	16.971s	36
20	GTE Pro	R.Lietz, M.Christensen	Dempsey Racing - Proton	Porsche	17.086s	31
21	GTE Pro	S.Mucke, O.Pla	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Ford	17.129s	27
22	GTE Pro	N.Thiim, M.Sorensen	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	17.315s	32
23	GTE Pro	D.Rigon, S.Bird	AF Corse	Ferrari	17.327s	35
24	GTE Pro	R.Stanaway, D.Turner	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	17.568s	34
25	GTE Pro	A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Ford	17.706s	33
26	GTE Am	P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	17.722s	35
27	GTE Am	C.Ried, W.Henzler, J.Camathias	KCMG	Porsche	18.794s	34
28	GTE Am	K.Al Qubaisi, D.H.Hansson, P.Long	Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing	Porsche	18.909s	36
29	GTE Am	F.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.Aguas	AF Corse	Ferrari	19.320s	34
30	GTE Am	M.Wainwright, A.Carroll, B.Barker	Gulf Racing	Porsche	19.324s	35
31	GTE Am	P.Ragues, R.Taylor, R.Brandela	Larbre Competition	Chevrolet	19.522s	33

FP2 TIMES

Pos	Class	Driver	Team	Car	Gap	Laps
1	LMP1	T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley	Porsche Team	Porsche	1m44.594s	33
2	LMP1	L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi	1.617s	42
3	LMP1	R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb	Porsche Team	Porsche	1.670s	44
4	LMP1	A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.Nakajima	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota	2.218s	31
5	LMP1	M.Fassler, A.Lotterer, B.Treluyer	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi	2.558s	35
6	LMP1	S.Sarrazin, M.Conway, K.Kobayashi	Toyota Gazoo Racing	Toyota	3.266s	38
7	LMP1	S.Trummer, O.Webb, P.Kaffer	ByKOLLES Racing Team	CLM/AER	7.317s	16
8	LMP1	M.Tuscher, D.Kraihamer, A.Imperatori	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion/AER	7.944s	42
9	LMP2	R.Rusinov, A.Brundle, W.Stevens	G-Drive Racing	ORECA/Nissan	10.033s	34
10	LMP2	M.Rao, R.Bradley, A.Lynn	Manor	ORECA/Nissan	10.262s	33
11	LMP2	T.Graves, R.Gonzalez, M.Beche	Manor	ORECA/Nissan	10.434s	37
12	LMP2	R.Gonzalez, B.Senna, F.Albuquerque	RGR Sport by Morand	Ligier/Nissan	10.672s	32
13	LMP2	G.Menezes, N.Lapierre, S.Richelmi	Signatech Alpine	Alpine/Nissan	10.909s	36
14	LMP2	R.Dalziel, P.Derani, C.Cumming	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier/Nissan	11.133s	35
15	LMP2	A.Giovinazzi, T.Blomqvist, S.Gelael	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier/Nissan	11.375s	35
16	LMP2	N.Minassian, M.Mediani, M.Aleshin	SMP Racing	BR Engineering/Nissan	11.930s	37
17	LMP2	V.Petrov, V.Shaytar, K.Ladygin	SMP Racing	BR Engineering/Nissan	11.936s	30
18	LMP2	D.Cheng, H-Pin Tung, P-L.Chatin	Baxi DC Racing Alpine	Alpine/Nissan	12.803s	39
19	GTE Pro	G.Bruni, J.Calado	AF Corse	Ferrari	17.887s	33
20	GTE Pro	D.Rigon, S.Bird	AF Corse	Ferrari	18.147s	37
21	GTE Pro	S.Mucke, O.Pla	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Ford	19.101s	21
22	GTE Pro	R.Stanaway, D.Turner	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	19.289s	38
23	GTE Pro	N.Thiim, M.Sorensen	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	19.569s	37
24	GTE Pro	A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell	Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK	Ford	19.724s	33
25	GTE Pro	R.Lietz, M.Christensen	Dempsey Racing - Proton	Porsche	20.539s	31
26	GTE Am	K.Al Qubaisi, D.H.Hansson, P.Long	Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing	Porsche	20.834s	37
27	GTE Am	C.Ried, W.Henzler, J.Camathias	KCMG	Porsche	20.967s	36
28	GTE Am	P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	21.004s	36
29	GTE Am	M.Wainwright, A.Carroll, B.Barker	Gulf Racing	Porsche	21.008s	30
30	GTE Am	F.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.Aguas	AF Corse	Ferrari	22.296s	37
31	GTE Am	P.Ragues, R.Taylor, R.Brandela	Larbre Competition	Chevrolet	23.007s	32