Nick Heidfeld put in an impressive lap to top the final practice session at Silverstone for the opening round of the FIA World Endurance Championship ahead of the works #2 Audi of Tom Kristensen.
Following on from the mixed weather of Friday the session opened with bright sunshine and a drying track, the sun wouldn’t stay for long as the clouds rolled in over the Northamptonshire circuit catching out many drivers as they tried different tyre choices.
The session saw an early red flag for the recovery of the #88 Proton Competition Porsche of Christian Reid who had a heavy impact at Copse causing considerable damage to the right-rear of the GTE Am car, leaving the team with a lot of work to do before qualifying this afternoon.
In the LMP1 class times were traded between the works Audi’s and Toyota’s through most of the session. The #8 Toyota of Stephan Sarrazin coming unstuck at Vale and sliding off in to the gravel and would require assistance from the marshals to recover to track. As the session drew to a close Tom Kristensen was looking like he would top the time sheets as he posted the fastest times briefly before the privateer Rebellion Lola sprung to the top at the hands of Nick Heidfeld. The #13 Rebellion would also post an impressive time as the session closed moving up to third place ahead of the #7 and #8 works Toyota’s. Local team Strakka finished sixth place while the #1 Audi finished eighth place after a session which saw the car undergoing set up changes throughout.
LMP2 Top of the timesheets – OAK Racing – Photo: Chris Gurton Photography
Alex Brundle would impress in the LMP2 category as the #24 finished the session in seventh overall with the sister #35 car in ninth. The #26 G-Drive racing would round out the top 3 for the class while WEC debutants KCMG finished the session in a comfortable fourth place.
#97 Aston Martin Back on the pace after Friday problems – Photo: Chris Gurton Photography
In the LMGTE Pro category the #97 Aston Martin finished fastest after spending most of the session towards the lower end of the times. The #99 Aston Martin finished second in class with the AF Corse Ferrari of Kobayashi and Vilander in third.
Impressive pace from the #95 AMR car of Nygaard, Pulsen and Simonsen – Photo: Chris Gurton Photography
An impressive performance from the LMGTE Am # 95 Aston Martin saw the car finish just behind the Pro #99 car and top the Am class times. The #50 Labre Competition Corvette finished second in class with the 8 Star Motorsports Ferrari in third.
The Lotus team continued their public testing of the new T128 LMP2 finishing the session in twenty fifth and twenty ninth, twenty seconds off the pace of the lead LMP2 cars.
