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Porsche leads Friday WEC practice at the Nurburgring

Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley, Mark Webber

Porsche 919 Hybrid, Porsche Team: Timo Bernhard, Brendon Hartley, Mark Webber

Porsche edged out Audi and Toyota to lead both practice sessions ahead of this weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship round at the Nurburgring in Germany.

In the first on-track action for the WEC teams since the 24 Hours of Le Mans last month, all three of the LMP1 manufacturers debuted their high-downforce aero kits introduced for this weekend’s race.

The Le Mans-winning no. 2 Porsche crew of Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb headed up a one-two finish for the German marque in their 919 Hybrid car, edging out the no. 1 team by 0.047 seconds.

Audi followed close behind with Marcel Fassler and Andre Lotterer - missing regular teammate Benoit Treluyer due to injury - finishing two-tenths shy of the fastest time in third place.

The three-time Le Mans winners drew closer in second practice, finishing just 0.014 seconds behind the no. 1 Porsche as Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley set the pace.

The second Audi R18 followed in third place, but with just 1.3 seconds separating the six LMP1-H cars, the battle over the rest of the weekend looks set to rage on.

“We can’t read too much into today’s lap times, as it is race conditions that count,” no. 1 Porsche driver Mark Webber said.

“But we got the maximum out of today and the most information we could. The Nürburgring is fantastic for these fast cars, and we we’re happy to see the sun all day.

“Car number 1 is in good shape and we’re looking forward to qualifying tomorrow.”

In LMP2, G-Drive’s no. 26 Oreca led both FP1 and FP2, enjoying an advantage of over one second in the evening. Manor finished second ahead of Strakka in FP1 before the two teams swapped places at the end of FP2, both running with revised line-ups since Le Mans.

GTE Pro offered a tight battle between Aston Martin Racing, AF Corse and Ford through the day. The no. 97 Vantage V8 shared by Richie Stanaway and Darren Turner posted the fastest time of the day in FP2, leading the pair of Ferrari 488 GTEs in P2 and P3.

AF Corse led FP2 in GTE Am from Larbre Competition, having trailed behind the no. 98 Aston Martin Vantage earlier in the day.

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