Fuji WEC: Porsche outpaces Audi in Friday practice

Brendon Hartley went fastest in the #17 Porsche 919 Hybrid with a 1m24.460s set in the second of the two 90-minute sessions.

That put him just under half a tenth ahead of Audi driver Andre Lotterer's 1m24.497s, which topped the times in the opening session in the morning.

The second Porsche was the only other car to break the 1m25s barrier around the 2.84-mile Fuji Speedway with a 1m24.876s from Neel Jani.

The second Audi R18 e-tron quattro was fourth fastest with a 1m25.142s from Lucas di Grassi in practice two.

Porsche tried both the high-downforce configuration it has raced in the WEC since the Nurburgring round in August and a lower-downforce Le Mans-spec bodywork in the opening session.

That validated its simulations that the high-downforce version was faster around Fuji and both cars ran in this spec in the afternoon.

Toyota's best time of the day, a 1m26.242s from Sebastien Buemi set in the morning, left the Japanese manufacturer 1.7 seconds off the pace on its home circuit.

Sam Bird was fastest in LMP2 for the G-Drive Racing squad, posting a 1m32.131s aboard his Ligier-Nissan JSP2 in the afternoon to end up nearly six tenths clear of Nelson Panciatici in the Signatech Alpine ORECA-Nissan 03R.

AF Corse Ferrari driver Toni Vilander was fastest in GTE Pro with his second-session best of 1m39.922s.

That put him just one hundredth up on Frederic Makowiecki's fastest time for the Manthey Porsche team in the morning.

The best time for Aston Martin, which has been given an air-restrictor break for Fuji, was a 1m40.021s recorded by Marco Sorensen in second practice.

Paolo Ruberti led the way in GTE Am for the Larbre Chevrolet team courtesy of a 1m40.734s.

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