Porsche’s #1 crew of Mark Webber, Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley have led another Free Practice session at the 6 Hours of Nürburgring in Free Practice Three.
The Australian posted in wet-dry conditions in FP3 a 1:41.002 to cement their place among the front-runners for Qualifying later today.
Toyota Gazoo Racing’s #5 car of Sébastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima and Anthony Davidson were second, nearly three-tenths of a second behind the Porsche #1 crew despite putting four more laps in the session than the front-running Porsche.
Audi Sport Team Joest’s #8 crew of Lucas di Grassi, Loïc Duval and Oliver Jarvis were third, more than half a second behind the Porsche and Toyota with a 1:41.542. Their team-mates in the other #7 Audi R18 of Marcel Fässler and André Lotterer finished FP3 in fourth place, over four-tenths down on the #8 Audi Sport’s crew’s best time.
Meanwhile, the sister #2 Porsche crew of Marc Lieb, Romain Dumas and Neel Jani were more than 1.2 seconds behind Webber, Hartley and Bernhard in fifth place despite Dumas’ crash yesterday in FP2. While the other Toyota Gazoo Racing #6 crew of Stéphane Sarrazin, Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway were sixth.
Credit: Craig Robertson Race Photography
Rebellion Racing’s #13 and #12 crews were seventh and eighth places respectively running the Dunlop tyre, compared to the Porsche, Toyota and Audi’s running with Michelin tyres. The #4 Bykolles Racing Team of Oli Webb, Simon Trummer and Pierre Kaffer completed the LMP1 class for FP3 in ninth place.
In the LMP2 class, Alex Brundle, René Rast and Roman Rusinov in the #26 G-Drive Racing Oreca 05 – Nissan made it a clean sweep of topping the LMP2 class Free Practice timesheets at the Nürburgring in FP3.
The #26 crew’s best time of a 1:50.260 put them ahead of the Manor’s #44 crew of Antonio Pizzonia, Matt Howson and Tor Graves by more than seven-tenths of a second, cementing their dominance in the three free practice sessions.
The Chinese-run Baxi DC Racing Alpine #35 crew of David Cheng, Ho-Pin Tung and Nelson Panciatici were third, nearly a second behind Brundle, Rast and Rusinov’s time in FP3 with a 1:51.246.
In the LMGTE Pro class, both AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE’s were in the top two positions after FP3 as the #51 crew of James Calado and Gianmaria Bruni led ahead of their #71 team-mates Davide Rigon and Sam Bird by over two-tenths of a second.
While Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK’s #67 crew of Marino Franchitti, Andy Priaulx and Harry Tincknell were third, over a tenth of a second behind the #71 crew of Rigon and Bird.
Last, but not least the LMGTE Amateur class in which the #88-run Abu Dhabi Proton Racing crew of Khaled Al Quabisi, David Heinemeier Hansson and Patrick Long were ahead of the #83 AF Corse crew of Emanuel Collard, François Perrodo and Rui Aguas in second place.
The number #78 crew from the KCMG team in the Porsche 911 RSR were third after FP3.
Qualifying takes place later on today at 13.15pm GMT for the LMPGTE Professional and Amateur classes. While at 13.45pm GMT, the LMP1 and LMP2 classes will take to the Nürburgring for the best positions on the grid for Sunday’s 6 Hours of Nürburgring.
