ILMC, Zhuhai - Saturday Morning Free Practice

It's a final 60 minutes of free practice in Saturday morning's bright and sunny conditions before qualifying this afternoon.

All 29 runners are again out on track and after an early run from the #15 Oak Pescarolo it was the diesels to the fore again - McNish with a 1:23.364 ceding the top time to Davidson with a 1:22.397 after ten minutes.

Nicolas Prost posted the early yardstick time in the petrol powered standings - 1:25.698 for the #12 Rebellion, with Jean Karl Vernay topping the P2 twosome (1:30.634 at the same point in the session). 

It was a BMW leading a GTE Am 430 again, too, in the early running - Farfus in the #55 car's 1:35.296 though was less than four-tenths up on Tim Mullen in the CRS 430, with Mako and Fisi in the #59 and #51 458s next up.

GTC was again headed by the AMG Mercedes - Lance David Arnold aboard in the early running - his 1:37.160 three-tenths up on Carlo van Dam in the Hitotsuyama R8 LMS.

GTE was the first class to start to hot up, with Alzen grabbing second-fastest time in the #56 M3, just before Makowiecki put a Ferrari at the top of the times for the first time in the class in the #59 Luxury Racing 458 - 1:35.168 for the young Frenchman. Alzen though grabbed back the top honours with a 1:34.952 next time around, with Richard Lietz posting the top GTE Am time at the 20-minute mark moments later - 1:35.525 for the Proton Porsche.

Nicolas Prost was on a mission too - closing in on the diesels, down into the 1:24s in the Rebellion as Vernay improved again in the Signatech Oreca Nissan; the #26 car a full three seconds faster than the Oak Pescarolo.

In GTC the Mercedes looks convincingly faster than the Audis - a 1:36.442 being a full second up on the fastest of the Ingolstadt trio.  Perhaps the AMG crew don't recall what happened to the GTC cars here last year!

We'll pop down to Aston Martin post-session, but after almost half the session the #007 had posted just three laps.

Anthony Beltoise was showing signs of getting involved with the GTE leading group in the #58 Luxury Racing car, moving up the order while moving down into the 1:35s; it was Gimmi Bruni, though, that joined the top bunch with a big improvement in the #51 AF Corse car, the top four in GTE Pro separated by around four-tenths.

It was Stephane Sarrazin though that was next to make an impact - up from fourth fastest to second - 1:22.980 for the #8 908 - Peugeot 1-2 again at the halfway point in the session.

#007 returned to the track with just under half the session remaining, Mücke immediately down into the 1:25s - second fastest petrol car.

Bruni was the man in control in GTE at the same point though - the #51 car fastest in 1:34.812

James Rossiter was wringing the neck of the #65 Lotus to limited effect - he was moving up the order though, ahead of all of the R8 LMS with a 1:37.402. Further improvements brought that down to a 1:37.174, the Evora still being behind the AMG, with the improving Philip Ma also moving ahead in the #61 AF Corse GTE Am 430.

Jorg Muller meanwhile put a BMW up to the top again - 1:34.760 for #55 as Franck Mailleux made a big improvement in the LMP2 class leader; 1:28.468 for the Signatech Oreca Nissan, with a further improvement to 1:28.273 soon afterwards.

Kristensen improved in the #2 Audi, still third, but meanwhile his team manager was summoned to see the Race Director - we believe for a dangerous release after a pitstop.  

The fun and games in GTE Pro continued as we moved into the final 15 minutes - Makowiecki back to the top of the screen again  - 1:34.493 for the #59 Luxury 458.

In LMP1 meanwhile Olivier Pla was getting onto terms with the Rebellion Lola Toyota, but his 1:25.1 was more than matched by an improvement for the #12 car - Neel Jani posting a 1:24.296 - the Lola now just half a second back from the #1 Audi.

BMW looked keen to grab back an advantage in GTE, with Jorg Muller looking for track space and weaving in the #56 - was a flyer looming?  It looked as though it was - Muller posting his fastest sector times in Sectors 1 and 2 and improving the time for the #56, but staying second fastest behind Mako. That though became third fastest almost immediately as Bruni edged the BMW out by a tenth or two.

Hakkinen brought the AMG's best down to a 1:36.364, more than a second up on the best of the R8s.

The session wasbrought to a premature conclusion with four minutes on the clock, after a red flag for a shunt into the pit wall for the #90 PTRS FLM car. Driver Shang Qi Zhang was fine and damage looked minor, though a replay showed the car running wide out of the final turn, losing the rear end and making fairly substantial contact with the wall at the front end. 

Next track action is Qualifying - but before that, in an hour's time we hope to hear details of the 2012 WEC calendar.