Spa WEC: Loic Duval puts Audi on top in wet first practice
Audi driver Loic Duval jumped to the top of the timesheets in the dying moments of a wet first free practice session ahead of Saturday's Spa World Endurance Championship event
Duval set a best time of 2m15.143s aboard the #1 R18 e-tron quattro right at the end of the two-hour session on wet-weather tyres.
His time leapfrogged him ahead of Kazuki Nakajima on a 2m15.415s in the best of the Toyota TS040s by just under three tenths of a second.
Sebastien Buemi ended up third in the second Toyota with a 2m15.467s set early in the session.
The second Audi was fourth in the hands of Benoit Treluyer and the two Porsche 919 Hybrids fifth and sixth.
The #12 Rebellion-Toyota R-One ended up 10th in the times behind the best of the LMP2 cars in the ORECA-designed chassis first competitive appearance.
The second Rebellion failed to record a flying lap during the session, but did complete three in-and-out laps.
The five-car LMP2 field was led by the two Michelin-shod SMP Racing ORECA-Nissan 03s, which had a clear advantage over their rivals running Dunlop tyres in the wet conditions.
Nicolas Minassian ended up fastest on a 2m25.960s, two tenths clear of Kirill Ladygin in the team's second entry.
The GTE times were topped by the GTE Am class ProSpeed Porsche 911 GTE-RSR driven by Matthieu Vaxiviere.
The Frenchman's time of 2m34.281s set right at the end of the session eclipsed Gianmaria Bruni's best in the Pro class AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia by just under three tenths.
Follow the WEC Spa event as it happens on AUTOSPORT Race Centre Live from 1pm UK time on Saturday May 3
Pos Cl Drivers Car Time Gap 1. P1 Duval/Kristensen/di Grassi Audi 2m15.143s 2. P1 Wurz/Sarrazin/Nakajima Toyota 2m15.415s +0.272s 3. P1 Davidson/Lapierre/Buemi Toyota 2m15.467s +0.324s 4. P1 Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer Audi 2m16.720s +1.577s 5. P1 Dumas/Jani/Lieb Porsche 2m17.021s +1.878s 6. P1 Bernhard/Webber/Hartley Porsche 2m17.107s +1.964s 7. P1 Albuquerque/Bonanomi Audi 2m19.231s +4.088s 8. P2 Zlobin/Minassian/Mediani SMP ORECA-Nissan 2m25.960s +10.817s 9. P2 Ladygin/Shaitar/Ladygin SMP ORECA-Nissan 2m26.159s +11.016s 10. P1 Prost/Heidfeld/Beche Rebellion-Toyota 2m28.451s +13.308s ... 14. GTE A Perrodo/Collard/Vaxiviere Prospeed Porsche 2m34.281s +19.138s ... 15. GTE P Bruni/Vilander AF Ferrari 2m34.548s +19.405s
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