Audi fastest in wet FP3
After glorious weather all week at Silverstone, Saturday dawned cool and wet as the 29 WEC cars emerged on track for the final Free Practice session. Qualifying is, however, expected to be dry.
There were thrills aplenty as many cars had off-track excursions over the 60 minutes. Ironically one of the first to run wide at the Luffield complex was Benoit Treluyer in the #7 Audi R18 e-tron quattro, which emerged comfortably quickest.
André Lotterer set the best time of 1m52.094s as the wet conditions began to slowly dry out. This was 0.674s faster than the second placed car which was the #2 Toyota TS 040 HYBRID driven by Kazuki Nakajima. The Japanese racer set the best time of 1m52.768s on the final lap of the session when conditions were at their best.
The #18 Porsche 919 Hybrid placed third, while the similar #17 LMP 1 Porsche ended the session in fourth place.
In LMP2 Pipo Derani again topped the times in the G-Drive Racing Ligier-Nissan as he posted a 2m05.786s lap in the final moments of the session.
Earlier the Strakka Racing Dome S103 Nissan topped the timing screens but lost out on P1 in the final moments after Derani set his time. The Strakka team, which is based just metres from the track, set a 2m07.672 lap and eventually placed third, as the KCMG Oreca 05 driven by Matt Howson posted a late lap to claim second.
Many cars left the track during the session but the only one which did not re-emerge was the Signatech Alpine driven by Nelson Panciatici. The reigning ELMS champion spun off the track at Stowe Corner and was stuck in the gravel for the final ten minutes of the session.
In the LMGTE Pro the #92 Porsche Team Manthey car claimed the quickest time with Frédéric Makowiecki setting a 2m13.665. This was just 0.05s faster than the #95 Aston Martin Racing entered Vantage V8 of Christoffer Nygaard.
Emmanuel Collard, one of the six former Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy winners competing this weekend, set the best LMGTE Am time of 2m16.396s in the AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia.
The all-important qualifying sessions for the first round of the WEC is scheduled to get underway at 12.00 local time this afternoon.
