Nurburgring WEC: Lieb leads Porsche 1-2 in first practice
Marc Lieb edged out Brendon Hartley as Porsche blocked out the top positions in first free practice for Sunday's Nurburgring World Endurance Championship round

The Le Mans 24 Hours winner set a best time of 1m41.703s in the #2 Porsche 919 Hybrid, which put him 0.047 seconds clear of the 1m41.750s set by Hartley.
Best of the rest behind the Porsche was the #7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, which ended up only two tenths back on a 1m41.903s set by Andre Lotterer
The second Audi was a further two tenths behind in the hands of Loic Duval.
The best of the Toyota TS050 HYBRIDs took fifth position with a 1m42.593s from Anthony Davidson.
All three LMP1 manufacturers are running revised high-downforce bodywork for the first time at the 'Ring.
Times are not comparable with those from last year's Nurburgring WEC event because the slow chicane is in use on the back straight rather than the quicker version.
The Jota-run G-Drive ORECA-Nissan 05 led the way in LMP2 with a 1m50.748s from WEC returnee Alex Brundle.
That put him seven tenths up on the fastest of the Manor ORECAs in which Matt Howson set a 1m51.436s.
James Calado ended up quickest in GTE Pro for the factory AF Corse Ferrari squad.
His time of 1m58.402s in the #51 Ferrari 488 GTE was two tenths clear of Darren Turner's Aston Marin Vantage GTE.
Aston led the way in GTE Am with a 1m59.949s from Pedro Lamy.
The opening 90-minute session of free practice was red flagged for approximately 20 minutes after a computer system glitch left race control unable to message the teams.
The session was extended by 20 minutes as a result.
PRACTICE RESULTS:
Pos | Class | Driver | Team | Car | Time | Gap | Laps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | LMP1 | R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb | Porsche Team | Porsche | 1m41.703s | - | 34 |
2 | LMP1 | T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley | Porsche Team | Porsche | 1m41.750s | 0.047s | 42 |
3 | LMP1 | M.Fassler, A.Lotterer | Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi | 1m41.903s | 0.200s | 30 |
4 | LMP1 | L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis | Audi Sport Team Joest | Audi | 1m42.154s | 0.451s | 42 |
5 | LMP1 | A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.Nakajima | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota | 1m42.593s | 0.890s | 34 |
6 | LMP1 | S.Sarrazin, M.Conway, K.Kobayashi | Toyota Gazoo Racing | Toyota | 1m43.635s | 1.932s | 35 |
7 | LMP1 | M.Tuscher, D.Kraihamer, A.Imperatori | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion/AER | 1m48.360s | 6.657s | 29 |
8 | LMP1 | N.Prost, N.Heidfeld, M.Beche | Rebellion Racing | Rebellion/AER | 1m48.364s | 6.661s | 28 |
9 | LMP1 | S.Trummer, O.Webb, P.Kaffer | ByKOLLES Racing Team | CLM/AER | 1m48.984s | 7.281s | 27 |
10 | LMP2 | R.Rusinov, R.Rast, A.Brundle | G-Drive Racing | ORECA/Nissan | 1m50.748s | 9.045s | 37 |
11 | LMP2 | T.Graves, A.Pizzonia, M.Howson | Manor | ORECA/Nissan | 1m51.436s | 9.733s | 30 |
12 | LMP2 | N.Leventis, L.Williamson, J.Kane | Strakka Racing | Gibson/Nissan | 1m51.469s | 9.766s | 39 |
13 | LMP2 | R.Dalziel, P.Derani, C.Cumming | Extreme Speed Motorsports | Ligier/Nissan | 1m51.669s | 9.966s | 39 |
14 | LMP2 | M.Rao, R.Bradley, R.Merhi | Manor | ORECA/Nissan | 1m52.333s | 10.630s | 32 |
15 | LMP2 | R.Gonzalez, B.Senna, F.Albuquerque | RGR Sport by Morand | Ligier/Nissan | 1m52.471s | 10.768s | 28 |
16 | LMP2 | V.Petrov, V.Shaytar, K.Ladygin | SMP Racing | BR Engineering/Nissan | 1m52.647s | 10.944s | 28 |
17 | LMP2 | D.Cheng, H-Pin Tung, N.Panciatici | Baxi DC Racing Alpine | Alpine/Nissan | 1m52.825s | 11.122s | 34 |
18 | LMP2 | N.Minassian, M.Mediani | SMP Racing | BR Engineering/Nissan | 1m52.845s | 11.142s | 30 |
19 | LMP2 | S.Sharp, E.Brown, J.van Overbeek | Extreme Speed Motorsports | Ligier/Nissan | 1m53.983s | 12.280s | 35 |
20 | GTE Pro | G.Bruni, J.Calado | AF Corse | Ferrari | 1m58.402s | 16.699s | 38 |
21 | GTE Pro | R.Stanaway, D.Turner | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 1m58.601s | 16.898s | 34 |
22 | GTE Pro | N.Thiim, M.Sorensen | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 1m58.982s | 17.279s | 37 |
23 | GTE Pro | D.Rigon, S.Bird | AF Corse | Ferrari | 1m59.498s | 17.795s | 38 |
24 | GTE Pro | S.Mucke, O.Pla | Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK | Ford | 1m59.560s | 17.857s | 29 |
25 | GTE Pro | M.Franchitti, A.Priaulx, H.Tincknell | Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK | Ford | 1m59.784s | 18.081s | 33 |
26 | GTE Am | P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda | Aston Martin Racing | Aston Martin | 1m59.949s | 18.246s | 35 |
27 | GTE Pro | R.Lietz, M.Christensen | Dempsey Racing - Proton | Porsche | 2m00.483s | 18.780s | 34 |
28 | GTE Am | Y.Yamagishi, P.Ragues, P.Ruberti | Larbre Competition | Chevrolet | 2m00.755s | 19.052s | 37 |
29 | GTE Am | F.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.Aguas | AF Corse | Ferrari | 2m00.890s | 19.187s | 35 |
30 | GTE Am | K.Al Qubaisi, D.H.Hansson, P.Long | Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing | Porsche | 2m01.369s | 19.666s | 33 |
31 | GTE Am | C.Ried, W.Henzler, J.Camathias | KCMG | Porsche | 2m01.487s | 19.784s | 36 |
32 | GTE Am | M.Wainwright, A.Carroll, B.Barker | Gulf Racing | Porsche | 2m01.509s | 19.806s | 32 |
33 | LMP2 | G.Menezes, N.Lapierre, S.Richelmi | Signatech Alpine | Alpine/Nissan | 2m32.739s | 51.036s | 4 |
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