Porsche Quickest on Friday in Shanghai

Photo: Porsche

Porsche ended Friday on the top of the time charts in Shanghai, following a pair of Free Practice sessions in preparation for Sunday’s FIA World Endurance Championship round.

Mark Webber led the way in Free Practice 2, reeling off a 1:45.111 lap time in his championship-leading No. 17 Porsche 919 Hybrid that was good enough to be quickest of the day.

Webber edged out the sister No. 18 Porsche of Neel Jani by 0.240 seconds, with the No. 8 Audi R18 e-tron quattro third quickest in FP2 but fourth on the day, thanks to Andre Lotterer’s 1:45.707 lap from the morning.

The pair of Toyota TS040 Hybrids again brought up the rear of the LMP1 hybrids in fifth and sixth, respectively, ahead of the No. 13 Rebellion R-One AER, which was quickest of the privateers.

KCMG was quickest in LMP2, in a day that saw the Hong Kong-based team reprimanded for Richard Bradley’s actions in Fuji.

The No. 47 Oreca 05 Nissan was quickest in both sessions, with Nick Tandy’s 1:54.185 from FP2 standing as the quickest of the day and one-tenth clear of the competition.

GTE-Pro was led by AF Corse, with the No. 71 Ferrari F458 Italia of James Calado laying down a 2:03.028 in FP2 to edge out the sister No. 51 entry of defending class champions Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander.

The No. 99 Aston Martin Vantage V8 of Fernando Rees was third quickest on the day, showing improved form.

SMP Racing, meanwhile, led the way in GTE-Am, thanks to a 2:04.527 lap time by Victor Shaytar in the No. 72 Ferrari.

Shaytar’s time was 0.067 seconds faster than Paolo Ruberti, who put his Larbre Competition Corvette C7.R second on the time sheets on the day after setting the pace in FP1.

Free Practice 3 gets underway Saturday at 9 a.m. local time.

RESULTS: Free Practice 2

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John