Friday, October 18, 2013

FIA WEC: Second and third for Audi in Fuji first practice session


By Tarek Ramchani

Action has started at Fuji Speedway in FIA WIorld Endurance Championship. The first free practice session already done with Toyota leading ahead of the two Audi R18 e-tron quattro cars. 

Best of the Audis was the #1 R18 e-tron quattro in second place. The car shared by André Lotterer, Benoit Tréluyer and Marcel Fassler only 0.113s behind the leading Toyota. The three drivers did 39 laps with a fastest time of 1:28.438. Anthony Davidson, Sebastien Buemi and Stephane Sarrazin were the fastest driving the factory #8 Toyota TS030 Hybrid.

Bad luck hit the sister #2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro. The car driven by Allan McNish, Loic Duval and Tom Kristensen had an unfortunate contact with an Aston Martin Vantage GTE and hit a barrier. As a result the #2 Audi crew changed the damaged gearbox and the engine as a precaution as well. The car covered only five laps but managed to take third place with a fastest time of 1:28.676.


The #7 Toyota TS030 Hybrid of Kazuki Nakajima, Alexander Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre was fourth. The #12 Lola B12/60 Coupé - Toyota from Rebellion Racing was fifth driven by Mathias Beche and Andrea Belicchi.

The second free practice session is coming next, 15:30 local time.

Update: The first free practice results were amended following the conclusion of the session. The fastest time for Toyota #8 was omitted in the final classification after a pitlane speeding violation, thus dropping them to third place, behind Audi #1 and Audi #2.

Photo credit: Audi Media