After being pipped to the best time in the opening practice by Audi teammate Tom Kristensen Andre Lotterer set the best time of the second session for the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) at Silverstone.
The German set his time – 1:43.217 – with half the session still to run but his time remained at the top of the timesheets, aided by a downpour that soaked the track with 20 minutes of the session remaining. The arrival of the rain heralded the end for competitive times which had peaked as both Lotterer and Loic Duval lapped quicker than the fastest lap of the 2012 event as the Audi squads once more finished the session first and second.
The #7 Toyota ended the session third fastest, just 0.626 off the pace, though the #8 was over two seconds adrift of the overall pace in sixth overall, with both the #12 Rebellion Racing Lola and Strakka Racing’s HPD between them and the other three works cars, Danny Watts responsible for the 1:45.287 that left Strakka as the fastest privateer in the session.
In his first sportscar outing Mike Conway was again the fastest man in LMP2 for G-Drive Racing in the car he shares with John Martin and Roman Rusinov. Tom Kimber–Smith was second fastest in Greaves Motorsport’s Nissan engine Zytek a fraction ahead of the #24 OAK Racing Morgan take to third by Olivier Pla after it started the session in the Stowe gravel at the hands of David Heinemeier–Hansson.
Toni Vilander put the #71 AF Corse Ferrari fastest again in LMGTE Pro (Photo Credit: Chris Gurton Photography)
Toni Vilander followed co-driver Kamui Kobayashi’s first session lead by putting the #71 AF Corse Ferrari fastest in LMGTE Pro in the session. The Finn went quickest in class – with a 2:01.503 – with 48 minutes of the session remaining to bump Fred Makoweicki’s time (2:02.176) in the #99 Aston Martin Racing entry down to second place, where it remained until the end of the session.
AMR finished with the top two times of the session in LMGTE Am, Jamie Campbell–Walter going fastest, to be joined – within seconds – by Christoffer Nygaard who went second in the Danish crewed #95.
With conditions more settled than the opening there were relatively few problems – with minor spins contributing the bulk of the incidents in the session.
Frankie Cheng and Gianluca Roda made contact through the Arena section and while both Cheng’s LMP1 Rebellion and Roda’s LMGTE Am Porsche continued untroubled both were called to officials following the session.
The rain brought a premature end to the battle for the best times, with more teams returning to the pits. Some, however did return to the track for some wet running. Of those that did go back out on track only KCMG Morgan hit troubles, losing wheel through the Maggotts, Becketts and Chapel complex before coming to a safe stop on the Hanger Straight.
