FIA WEC, Silverstone - Free Practice 2

We’ve had brief periods of bright sunshine and a couple of torrential rain showers but as the cars take to the track we’re again back to an ‘as you were’ greasy track.

16:30 – Green Flag for the second 90 minute Free Practice session.

16:34 – David Heinemeier Hanssen has a trip into the gravel at T15 in the #24 Oak Morgan Nissan

Early times are in the 2:00 bracket as the

16:38 – the times though are tumbling – Lotterer into the 1:56s and then McNish into the 1:55s

16:38 – Antonio Pizzonia in the #25 Delta – ADR Oreca Nissan betters the fastest time of this morning in LMP2 with a 1:57.792

16:39 – Nygaard betters this morning’s GTE-Am mark with a 2:12.987 in the #95 Vantage GTE

16:40 – The #24 is extracted from the gravel

16:40 – 1:55.250 for Anthony Davidson in the #8 Toyota puts him fastest in the session, a tenth of a second off the fastest time this morning.

16:41 – Toni Vilander tops GTE Pro – 2:12.423, faster than this morning already

16:42 – Lotterer bangs in a 1:51.286 – A dry line and sun breaking through.

The times will tumble now

16:43 – Vilander improves in Pro, Vernay tops GTE Am , then Griffin pops up with a 2:10.040

16:44 Rusinov improves the best LMP2 time with a 1:57.617.

16:44 Jani pops up second overall with a 1:52.712 but is immediately leapfrogged by :Lapierre

16:45 – Lotterer though laps in 1:49.663 to further cement his p[osition

16:46 – Fisichella goes quickest in GTE Pro – 2:06.597

16:47 – Jani back up to second fastest overall in the #12 Rebellion Toyota – 1:49.815

16:47 – Marc Lieb in the #92 Porsche now tops GTE Pro with a 2:06.039

16:48 – Jani very briefly tops the times with a 1:48.230, seconds later though Lotterer bangs in a 1:45.731.

16:49 – GTE Pro becomes a Porsche 1,2 – Bergmeister in the #91 car – 2:04.218

16:49 – Martin Powman is up to second in LMP2 with a 1:56.941 in the #35 Morgan Nissan

16:50 – Lieb back to the top in GTE Pro (2:04.218) as Matt Griffin cpontinues to improve at the head of GTE Am (2:05.283)

16:51- Kristian Poulsen has a quick and harmless spin in the #95 Aston.

16:51 – Martin Plowman goes fastest in LMP2 – 1:55.467

16:52 – All change again in GTE Pro as Bergmeister pops in a 2:03.793, Fisichella now second fastest.

16:53 – Loic Duval makes it an Audi 1,2 – 1:45.195

16:54 – Fred Makowiecki goes fastest in GTE Pro now in the #99 Aston Martin – 2:02.784 – Aguas goes second in GTE Am

16:55 – Darren Turner makes it an Aston Martin 1.2 in GTE Pro with a 2:03.189

16:55 – Duval tops the times in the #2 Audi – 1:44.115

16:56 – Matt Howson goes fastest in LMP2 in the KCMG Morgan Nissan – 1:53.948, Minassian is now up to second in class in the Pecom Oreca Nissan.

16:57 - The top four cars  all improve their times (#2 and 1 Audis, #7 Toyota and #12 Rebellion – Duval’s time now a 1:43.263.

16:58 – Minassian now tops LMP2 – 1:53.042 – Mako improves his class leading time in the #99 2:02.176

16:59 – The #7 Toyota has stopped on the run down to Club but Lapierre rejoins after a very brief delay.

17:00 – Tom  Kimber Smith is up to second in LMP2 in the Greaves Zytek Nissan – 1:53.377

17:02 – Marco Cioci improves the GTE AM best time in the #61 Ferrari in a 2:04.637 – Fisichella meanwhile is up to second in Pro in the sister #51 458.

17:04 – Neither Lotus has yet been seen in this session

17:04 – Marc Lieb goes second in GTE Pro – The top four separated by a second  - Top three in LMP1 are separated by 0.6 seconds

17:05 – Julien Canal leads GTE pro in the #50 Vette – 2:04.050, Stuart Hall pops up second in the #96 Aston and improves again next time around – 2:03.073 to lead the class – Astons lead both classes

17:06 – Plowman back into the lead in the #35 Morgan Nissan but is immediately bettered by TKS in the #41 Zytek Nissan – 1:51.202

17:10 – Vilander goes from bottom, back to the top of GTE Pro – 2:01.503

17:12 – Lotterer pops in a stealthy 1:43.217 to top the times

17:13 – Danny Watts overhauls the best times of both Rebellions with a 1:45.352 – 4th fastest overall.  That’s faster than the car went in qualifying in 2012

17:14 – Mike Conway goes fastest in LMP2 by a full second – 1:50.166 – Pizzonia in the #25 car has a quick spin but continues and improves to fourth fastest in LMP2 next time around

17:21 – Kimber Smith closes the gap to the class leading #26 Oreca Nissan by half a second.

Liuzzi has had a handful of laps so far in the #31 Lotus – no sign yet of #32

17:28 – Frankie Cheng (#13) and Gianluca Roda (#88) are asked to see the stewards post session. – Paul Dalla Lana meanwhile gets a black and white flag in the #99 Aston Martin for track limits violations.

17:34 – Improvements from both Am Astons – JCW improves the lead car (96) with a 2:02.972 whilst Nygaard posts a 2:04.131 for third fastest . JCW is still ahead of the #97 Pro car, and Nygaard does likewise moments later.

17:37 – Rain on the way immediately says Audi as Olivier Pla improves to third in LMP2 in the #24 Oak Morgan Nissan

17:38 – Rain – the whole field pits and were into a different phase of this session.

17:51 – Imperatori loses a wheel on the #47 Morgan and stops on the Hangar Straight - On-track incident or Malvern based marketing stunt?

17:54 – And right at the end of the session pout pops the #32 Lotus – Jan Charouz at the wheel.

18:00 – Session ends

A mixed weather session and one that again saw Audi top the timesheets – A good session too for the LMP1 privateers.

There’s a developing story of some real battling to come in LMP2 with several of the new boys for 2013 getting involved at the head of the field.

GTE Pro saw all three marques head the times at some point and a closely matched overall picture – Aston went well in GTE Am but there again it is looking close behind the Vantages there too.

GG