Porsche leads Audi in Friday practice at Fuji

A lockup for the leading Porsche

The Fuji Speedway in the Japanese Alps welcomed the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) in bright sunshine with temperatures of over 20 degrees Celsius. The Porsche Team had two positive free practice sessions, each 90 minutes long, in preparation for the sixth of eight World Championship rounds. The two Porsche 919 Hybrids with the driver trios of Timo Bernhard (DE)/Brendon Hartley (NZ)/Mark Webber (AU) and Romain Dumas (FR)/Neel Jani (CH)/Marc Lieb (DE) were fourth and second in the morning and first and third in the afternoon.

Intense work on the aerodynamic set-up of the Le Mans Prototypes meant more bodywork parts than usual had to be ready in the garage. Featuring a very long 1,500 meter straight, but also many tight corners, the circuit, that is only 4.549 kilometers long, places contradicting challenges regarding the car’s downforce level. The team used both components with which it won on the high-speed circuit of Le Mans as well as those that were fitted to the winning car at the rather windy Nürburgring and Circuit of The Americas tracks. In the end the team tended to go for a relatively high downforce level and paid the price for this with lower top speeds on the straight. Another aspect is a change of weather conditions that is forecast: When the six-hour race is held on Sunday (start time is 11:00 hrs. local time) Mount Fuji might well be covered in rain clouds.

In Japan Porsche wants to extend its lead in the manufacturers’ championship and catch up to the leading Audi trio in the drivers’ standings. Not an easy task: the prototype from Ingolstadt showed a strong performance on the first day of practice.

Quotes after free practice:
Andreas Seidl, Team Principal: “We enjoyed a very productive first day with the track dry all the time. Both cars ran smoothly all day. In the morning session we did an aero comparison on car number 17, which gave us a clear result. In the second session we were focusing on tire testing on long runs. It is remarkable that, while doing this, Brendon Hartley’s fastest lap of 1:24.460 minutes was more than two seconds faster than last year’s pole position. The weather forecast for Sunday predicts rain, which will certainly add extra excitement to the race."

Webber watches intently

Drivers Porsche 919 Hybrid number 17
Timo Bernhard (34, Germany): “We have done lots of basic set-up work, made sure we got the hybrid settings right, and worked out which aero package would be best for this varied circuit. It didn’t take us long to decide to go for a higher downforce configuration. This certainly costs top speed, but makes the car much better to drive."

Brendon Hartley (25, New Zealand): “It looks quite close here between us and the Audi from what I saw on the average lap times. We still have a bit of work to do for the long runs, but the single lap pace seems to be quite good. In the last sector, with its corners that come one after another, it is tricky to get by the traffic, but that is part of the game."

Mark Webber (39, Australia): “We have had a good first day here. Fuji’s very long straight, combined with the tight corners in the last sector, obviously requires a good compromise for the aero set-up. We are still chasing the track a little bit, but gathered lots of good data and had zero problems."

Drivers Porsche 919 Hybrid number 18
Romain Dumas (37, France): “We have been good in both sessions, but the competition is good as well. For a long time it wasn’t that close with Audi. In the morning session we split the job between the cars to find out the best possible aero configuration. We will go for a rather high downforce level."

Neel Jani (31, Switzerland): “I did a race stint in the second session to check how the car and the tires perform on the long run and to get a feeling for it. When the car is understeery, the tires are under pressure. We try to help the tires the best way we can with the set-up. We are not completely where we want to be and will keep working on improvements."

Marc Lieb (35, Germany): “The grip level at the front axle is relatively low here. The car was instantly good in fast corners, but the slow corners at the very end of the lap were tricky for us. We made some changes and they worked well in the afternoon. The car was less understeery, and, also with a full fuel tank, the balance improved."

PRACTICE ONE TIMES:

Pos	Class	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Behind	Laps
1	LMP1	M. Fassler, A.Lotterer, B.Treluyer	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi	1m24.497s	0.000s	36
2	LMP1	R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb	Porsche Team	Porsche	1m25.230s	0.733s	37
3	LMP1	L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi	1m25.830s	1.333s	33
4	LMP1	T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley	Porsche Team	Porsche	1m26.045s	1.548s	30
5	LMP1	A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.Nakajima	Toyota Racing	Toyota	1m26.633s	2.136s	32
6	LMP1	A.Wurz, S.Sarrazin, M.Conway	Toyota Racing	Toyota	1m26.724s	2.227s	38
7	LMP1	N.Prost, M.Beche	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion/AER	1m30.867s	6.370s	32
8	LMP1	A.Imperatori, D.Kraihamer, D.Abt	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion/AER	1m31.357s	6.860s	14
9	LMP1	S.Trummer, P.Kaffer	Team ByKolles	CLM/AER	1m31.810s	7.313s	31
10	LMP2	N.Panciatici, P-L.Chatin, V.Capillaire	Signatech Alpine	Alpine/Nissan	1m32.701s	8.204s	49
11	LMP2	G.Yacaman, L.Derani, R.Gonzalez	G-Drive Racing	Ligier/Nissan	1m32.778s	8.281s	43
12	LMP2	M.Howson, R.Bradley, N.Tandy	KCMG	ORECA/Nissan	1m32.872s	8.375s	46
13	LMP2	P.Ragues, O.Webb, C.Cumming	Team SARD Morand	Morgan/SARD	1m32.999s	8.502s	43
14	LMP2	N.Leventis, D.Watts, J.Kane	Strakka Racing	Gibson/Nissan	1m33.407s	8.910s	26
15	LMP2	R.Rusinov, J.Canal, S.Bird	G-Drive Racing	Ligier/Nissan	1m33.828s	9.331s	35
16	LMP2	S.Sharp, R.Dalziel, D.Hansson	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier/HPD	1m34.242s	9.745s	39
17	LMP2	E.Brown, J.van Overbeek, J.Fogarty	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier/HPD	1m34.638s	10.141s	41
18	GTE Pro	P.Pilet, F.Makowiecki	Porsche Team Manthey	Porsche	1m39.931s	15.434s	33
19	GTE Pro	D.Rigon, J.Calado	AF Corse	Ferrari	1m39.958s	15.461s	44
20	GTE Pro	G.Bruni, T.Vilander	AF Corse	Ferrari	1m39.963s	15.466s	44
21	GTE Pro	C.Nygaard, M.Sorensen	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	1m40.193s	15.696s	41
22	GTE Pro	R.Lietz, M.Christensen	Porsche Team Manthey	Porsche	1m40.201s	15.704s	31
23	GTE Pro	A.MacDowall, F.Rees, S.Mucke	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	1m40.269s	15.772s	42
24	GTE Pro	D.Turner, J.Adam	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	1m40.546s	16.049s	41
25	GTE Am	G.Roda, P.Ruberti, N.Sylvest	Larbre Competition	Chevrolet	1m40.659s	16.162s	37
26	GTE Am	V.Shaitar, A.Bertolini, A.Basov	SMP Racing	Ferrari	1m40.691s	16.194s	30
27	GTE Am	P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	1m40.830s	16.333s	43
28	GTE Am	F.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.Aguas	AF Corse	Ferrari	1m41.105s	16.608s	37
29	GTE Am	F.Castellacci, L.Griffin, S.Hall	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	1m41.354s	16.857s	40
30	GTE Am	P.Dempsey, P.Long, M.Seefried	Dempsey Racing – Proton	Porsche	1m41.580s	17.083s	36
31	GTE Am	C.Ried, K.Al Qubaisi, E.Bamber	Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing	Porsche	1m42.137s	17.640s	38

PRACTICE TWO TIMES:

Pos	Class	Driver	Team	Car	Time	Behind	Laps
1	LMP1	T.Bernhard, M.Webber, B.Hartley	Porsche Team	Porsche	1m24.460s	0.000s	55
2	LMP1	M.Fassler, A.Lotterer, B.Treluyer	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi	1m24.843s	0.383s	55
3	LMP1	R.Dumas, N.Jani, M.Lieb	Porsche Team	Porsche	1m24.876s	0.416s	53
4	LMP1	L.di Grassi, L.Duval, O.Jarvis	Audi Sport Team Joest	Audi	1m25.142s	0.682s	47
5	LMP1	A.Davidson, S.Buemi, K.Nakajima	Toyota Racing	Toyota	1m26.242s	1.782s	45
6	LMP1	A.Wurz, S.Sarrazin, M.Conway	Toyota Racing	Toyota	1m27.149s	2.689s	53
7	LMP1	N.Prost, M.Beche	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion/AER	1m29.941s	5.481s	31
8	LMP1	S.Trummer, P.Kaffer	Team ByKolles	CLM/AER	1m30.727s	6.267s	16
9	LMP1	A.Imperatori, D.Kraihamer, D.Abt	Rebellion Racing	Rebellion/AER	1m31.094s	6.634s	28
10	LMP2	R.Rusinov, J.Canal, S.Bird	G-Drive Racing	Ligier/Nissan	1m32.131s	7.671s	36
11	LMP2	M.Howson, R.Bradley, N.Tandy	KCMG	ORECA/Nissan	1m32.951s	8.491s	50
12	LMP2	G.Yacaman, L.Derani, R.Gonzalez	G-Drive Racing	Ligier/Nissan	1m32.990s	8.530s	41
13	LMP2	P.Ragues, O.Webb, C.Cumming	Team SARD Morand	Morgan/SARD	1m33.526s	9.066s	42
14	LMP2	N.Leventis, D.Watts, J.Kane	Strakka Racing	Gibson/Nissan	1m33.545s	9.085s	50
15	LMP2	N.Panciatici, P-L.Chatin, V.Capillaire	Signatech Alpine	Alpine/Nissan	1m33.619s	9.159s	47
16	LMP2	S.Sharp, R.Dalziel, D.Hansson	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier/HPD	1m34.664s	10.204s	30
17	LMP2	E.Brown, J.van Overbeek, J.Fogarty	Extreme Speed Motorsports	Ligier/HPD	1m35.497s	11.037s	41
18	GTE Pro	G.Bruni, T.Vilander	AF Corse	Ferrari	1m39.922s	15.462s	48
19	GTE Pro	D.Rigon, J.Calado	AF Corse	Ferrari	1m40.021s	15.561s	40
20	GTE Pro	C.Nygaard, M.Sorensen	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	1m40.092s	15.632s	43
21	GTE Pro	R.Lietz, M.Christensen	Porsche Team Manthey	Porsche	1m40.104s	15.644s	36
22	GTE Pro	P.Pilet, F.Makowiecki	Porsche Team Manthey	Porsche	1m40.414s	15.954s	40
23	GTE Pro	A.MacDowall, F.Rees, S.Mucke	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	1m40.684s	16.224s	45
24	GTE Am	F.Castellacci, L.Griffin, S.Hall	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	1m40.706s	16.246s	44
25	GTE Pro	D.Turner, J.Adam	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	1m40.720s	16.260s	48
26	GTE Am	G.Roda, P.Ruberti, N.Sylvest	Larbre Competition	Chevrolet	1m40.734s	16.274s	43
27	GTE Am	P.Dempsey, P.Long, M.Seefried	Dempsey Racing – Proton	Porsche	1m40.958s	16.498s	38
28	GTE Am	P.D.Lana, P.Lamy, M.Lauda	Aston Martin Racing	Aston Martin	1m41.006s	16.546s	40
29	GTE Am	V.Shaitar, A.Bertolini, A.Basov	SMP Racing	Ferrari	1m41.599s	17.139s	42
30	GTE Am	F.Perrodo, E.Collard, R.Aguas	AF Corse	Ferrari	1m41.963s	17.503s	46
31	GTE Am	C.Ried, K.Al Qubaisi, E.Bamber	Abu Dhabi-Proton Racing	Porsche	1m42.396s	17.936s	39